Communication is an important skill for caregivers. Not only do caregivers need to communicate with their patients, they must also communicate with medical professionals and family members. It's not always easy.
The Family Care Advocate course is an advanced course for caregivers. Most of the students have already completed In Home Assistant training that's now required for any paid caregiver.
Some students in the class are family members who help care for a senior, but others are employees of a home health care agency.
The agencies, teacher Rosie Harris explained, want their employees to have the advanced training.
As home health care becomes more common, the caregivers - sometimes called paraprofessionals - are becoming part of the medical team, Harris said.
She brings medical students into class so they can learn more about the caregivers and the caregivers can learn how to communicate with professionals. Interprofessional education is becoming more common, she said, and the patients benefit.
Often it's the caregiver who ensures that the patient follows doctor's orders, Harris said, and if the caregiver doesn't understand what's necessary, the patient suffers.
"Patients are sometimes noncompliant due to a lack of understanding," she said.
"It's the paraprofessional who sees the patient every day," she said, and they should not only be a member of the medical team, they should lead the medical team.
People are used to seeing the physician as the team leaders, so the caregivers, as well as the professionals, have to change their thinking.
The class gives the paraprofessionals the confidence to be a leader, she said, and it also gives them a better grasp of medical terminology so they can talk to the professionals on their own level.
There are also tips the professionals can share about specific office procedures, she said.
For example, doctors at Mercy will answer email sent through the hospital's system, but other doctors may be more likely to respond to a call put through their answering service. Sometimes when the caregiver calls a clinic and the phone system asks them to leave a message, they can ask for the business office.
It's more likely that a real person will answer a call to the business office, she explained, and that person may be able to find a nurse who can take the call.
Some doctors may send patients to emergency room when a clinic is more appropriate, Harris said. She tells her students that it's o.k. to be persistent. Sometimes, it's necessary to be persistent. A clinic visit is always less expensive and may be less traumatic than a trip to the E.R.
Every time she teaches the class, it's a little different, Harris said, because the students are different.
Some classes may include a case manager from a nursing home learning beside the spouse of an Alzheimer's patient, each will bring knowledge as well as questions to the class.
Once a caregiver has completed the 40 hours basic care class, there's no financial incentive to move on to the Family Care Advocate class, but agencies are starting to send them anyway. Research is starting to show that a better prepared caregiver is more likely to remain with the agency and enjoy their work.
"They like being part of a team," Harris said.
Since they deal with issues that can be life or death, they deserve respect. "We need to change our attitude towards caregivers."
General News on 04/23/2014