Professional Recruitment for Nursing Homes Improves When the Operation Does

Andria, a frustrated Plymouth, Michigan based social worker remarked: "If she gets one more call asking her to consider employment with what she considers to be the sloppiest nursing home chain in America she may drive to their corporate offices and vomit in the lobby."

Those remarks are a bit extreme but reflective of the thoughts of even the unemployed social worker, nurse and nursing home administrator who are thinking twice before accepting employment with nursing homes whose reputations are full of regulatory and operational blemishes.

An example of how bad some are rests with reports of patients pressing call buttons and seeking help only to wait an hour or two for someone to respond. In some of the instances we reviewed for this week's article, patient family members sat there and waited just to observe how long the response would take. In other instances training and development of staff is never innovative and limited to the bare necessities.

A review of public reports commonly finds fire safety, building hygiene and food handling violations. As a result, even the newly budding professional has to think 2 or 3 times before allowing themselves to be recruited into an organization whose approach to customer service and regulatory compliance is lackluster at best.

How can it get better? Four, (4) key operational principles can be of benefit.

A. Budget for Systems Inspector in at Least Every 2 Homes

This may not be the regional manager or regional vice-president. This can be a less expensive professional or para-professional whose sole job it is to examine and correct all non-clinical systems in operation including cleanliness, furniture safety, general maintenance, odor control and more. This could be a position for administrators in training and others with an eye for detail and who are willing and able to learn systems and protocol, while understanding they do not belong in the clinical side of the business.

B. Do Not Limit Training to Clinical Necessities

For every minute we spend teaching and reiterating important principles of protecting against blood borne pathogens, we could also be teaching staff the value and importance of how the right customer service approach affects nursing homes. We then tie it to their specific job performance and description and use innovative tools such as videos and live webinars, conference calls and other presentations available for nursing home personnel. There are even orientation presentations available, as brief as 20 minutes that nurse aide and others can sit at a computer and enjoy.

Topics include maintaining a patient's dignity, techniques for heightened care delivery safety and a host of other meaningful subjects.

C. Seek More than Credentials; Seek Maturity and Discernment

Polished personnel who may have helped a nursing home thrive for decades and helped make it a staple of care in the community in which it exists are moving on claiming their corporate employer is hiring inexperienced, cocky and excessively money focused young professionals who assign no value to the contentment of the patient being served.

D. Improve the Admissions Process

Allow your admissions process to go beyond verifying what insurance will pay. Take the time to schedule a conference with the patient's designated representative immediately upon admission, discuss discharge possibilities, ask questions about prior living arrangements, ensure they know what deadlines may apply, offer help to apply for veterans or other benefits or introduce them to private case managers.

What happens is all of this can combine to create a rather stellar operation and when packaged up will help recruit really committed professionals. The opposite side of the coin is being the laughing stock of the long-term care community and when that happens, very little else matters.

Will you follow these steps to improve your recruiting?

Thanks for allowing us to share.