Hands-On Learning Builds Confidence at ThriveMore's Skills Fair
Clinical workers gather around a mannequin, identifying problems, answering questions, and learning how to care for common problems.
It’s not a scene from a medical drama, it’s a recent afternoon at Brookridge during the Skills Fair. Team members came and went for three days, refreshing their knowledge of care methods and skills used in the care of residents.
This is just one way that ThriveMore shows our commitment to the continued professional development of our team.
“I wanted them to have a place for them to practice hands-on skills,” said Shannon Sears, Executive Vice President of Quality, Safety, Risk, and Compliance.
Shannon began this program to help support the ongoing growth of ThriveMore’s team members. Participants are paid for their time, receiving free continuing education that they’d have to pay for elsewhere.
The annual Skills Fair is traveling this winter to reach every clinical team member: it started at Brookridge, moved on to Ardenwoods in January and will be at Taylor Glen this month.
At the recent Skills Fair at Brookridge, 60 team members participated. In addition to the Skills Fair, team members stay up-to-date on care best practices through online HealthCare Academy courses, quarterly In Service trainings and quick-fire Fundamentals Friday trainings.
At Skills Fair, team members get to practice hands-on skills such as vital signs and manual blood pressure measurement, peri and oral care, safe resident transfers with gait belts, catheter care, blood draws and injections, PICC line care, wound and foot care, and essential CNA skills. And it’s all in a safe learning environment that lets them ask questions and try new methods.
“It gives them a space to not just read a piece of paper but practice the skills,” Shannon said.
For some, they are practicing skills that are new specializations if they’ve come from a different nursing environment. For others, they are refreshing basic skills that new technology has taken over, said Cameryn Armes, Regional Clinical Education and Development Coordinator. For example, she said in the event of a machine failure, nurses need to know how to take manual blood pressure, and for many nurses this is something they haven’t done since their initial training.
And the thrill of mastering a skill is really rewarding for team members. Cameryn said she watched one older nurse get excited about taking blood pressure manually after not doing it for years – “and she had just got off night shift,” Cameryn said. This helps everyone feel more confident as they provide quality care for ThriveMore residents.
And that extra confidence is something that helps create a positive work culture, Shannon said. The clinical team needs to be able to be able to make choices, to learn and not be afraid to implement the training they’ve had.
“To me, if we empower our staff they’re going to enjoy their job,” she said. And that enjoyment will lead to a more consistent team, providing a high quality of care for residents as team members flourish.
Finally, we want to say thank you to our partners, who provide training materials and other goodies for our team members at the Skills Fair:
• Syre Respiratory Solutions attended in person and provided gift card giveaways for our Brookridge team who attended.
• MatrixCare, Curana, Curitec, Nutrition Plus, and VIA Wound provided swag.
• Senior Oral Health Services attended Brookridge and Heather Glen in person and also provided swag.
• For Taylor Glen, WoundHT and Vohra Physicians are both planning to attend in person.