Hiring and Training Comfort Care Staff

DAMIEN: Good afternoon and welcome to Fort Wayne Senior Care Radio. My name is Damien Allen and today joining me via the telephone are Julia Anders and Brenda Tunin, RN of Comfort Keepers of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Good afternoon ladies welcome to the program.

BRENDA: Good afternoon.

JULIA: Good afternoon.

DAMIEN: Today we are going to be discussing the hiring and training of your care givers. Let’s start with your hiring process. What does that entail, Julia?

JULIA: Well, Damien, when we put an ad in the paper, we normally get about 200 – 300 phone calls. So it’s quite overwhelming. We know there are diamonds in there somewhere so we have to find the diamonds in all those phone calls. We go through and call the people back, and we actually have a pre-phone interview that we do to make sure they meet our basic criteria which you have to be at least 21, no criminal record at all, no felonies, no misdemeanors, no criminal record at all. We actually do a nationwide criminal background check on all of our employees before they are hired. It’s not required by licensing; all that is required by licensing for us is a state background check, but people are so mobile, we just feel like a nationwide criminal background check, anything less wouldn’t work for us. We take it so seriously. We want to be sure our clients are safe. We are looking for people who have experience; that’s not a deal breaker, but we are looking for people that have some kind of experience working with seniors, and we are looking for people who have a heart for seniors too and for people who are not just looking for a job, but sincerely want to help people. That’s one of the most important things. So we weave through those. They have to have a good driving record, very limited tickets and that sort of thing. That’s our basic process and then if they pass all that then we invite them in for an interview, and they usually go through interviews in our office with 3 different people, and if they meet our standards then we hire them.

DAMIEN: Once a person is hired as a comfort keeper, what is the next step?

JULIA: Well the next step I do 99.9% of all orientations for new employees. I just feel it’s important for me to explain to them our mission and our philosophy. I started Comfort Keepers 9 years ago. We bought our franchise September. This year we’ll celebrate our 9th anniversary. I want to explain to them; tell them our story. How hard it’s been, how hard we’ve worked to build our reputation. We have an excellent reputation and it takes years to build that reputation. It takes 5 minutes to lose it. It’s really like another interview really, because I have decided not to go through with hiring people because of orientation. I see things in them in orientation you don’t necessarily see when you’re interviewing so I have changed my mind and not hired people in orientation. I explain to them our start, our beginning, our story, and what’s required of them. I feel that’s really important. It’s usually about a three hour orientation and then Brenda takes over and she does what I call basic training, Brenda calls it comfort and care, and she does that with every comfort keeper that we hire.

DAMIEN: Brenda what it is your comfort and care training?

BRENDA: What comfort and care training begins with scheduling procedures and how we get scheduled out, how I introduce new care givers to new clients, and then we move onto what their caregiver availability is. We work very hard at keeping the caregivers happy and satisfied with their jobs and by doing that they have options with what hours they want to work, when they want to work, what their availability is. I have been a nurse for a long time now, just about 30 years, and so I always have an emergency plan. What do we do if something happens while the caregiver is with a client? We have that at the same plan across the board so it doesn’t matter what client you go to everybody knows that plan. And then the next little section we talk about confidentiality. Privacy is something that we value highly here with Comfort Keepers. We are licensed by the state and we have those HIPPA laws in place, but it’s so important with our seniors. Many of them don’t want people to know that they are ill, so protecting that privacy is very important. We spend quite a long time talking about that. That takes just about an hour and once we are done with that then they go for that particular day.

DAMIEN:  Now after all of your care givers have gone through the initial comfort and care training, what other types of training do your comfort keepers go through?

BRENDA: What we do is everyone goes through a 5-6 hour class, and then they have quizzes on the material we talk about as well. We feel that it’s very important for all of our caregivers to be able to do any of the services that we at Comfort Keepers provide. So maybe they start out with companionship with their client and they can progress onto be doing personal care. We talk about everything from a lot of safety, safety issues not only for the client, but the care giver.   They go through proper techniques of lifting and moving clients, talking about body mechanics. We talk about infection control. We go over universal cautions which are all safety issues and things about infection. We talk about all the many different materials that can be used in a client’s home. Everything from walkers to depends and bed pans and all those kinds of things so they know what is available. We also go over signs and symptoms of infection control of infections and different issues that the clients may have whether they are diabetic or they have dementia or maybe they have heart issues. I feel that it’s important for these care givers, because they are the eyes there. They see that client whether it’s on a daily basis or once or twice a week so they are the eyes and ears there. They are the first to alert me if there is something they feel is abnormal for that client. So they need that information. Another thing that we really emphasis on when we are doing our training is the type of care that we do. Our care is called interactive care giving. Interactive care giving simply means that we come into the client’s home and how we approach things are the way that the client has always done them. Examples of that maybe they fold their towels in 3 pieces instead of in 2. So we find out what they like, we find out how they have been doing things, and that’s the same thing our caregiver will assist them with. It’s so important that these seniors are staying in their home that they remain as independent as they can. We spend quite a bit of time on this. Probably a good hour or two in talking about how do we promote that independence. What are those things that that client can still do, but that care giver can assist with? So that’s very important there and again we classify that as interactive care giving and then Julia also calls it heart to heart care giving, because as she said earlier, the care givers that we hire all have a heart for these seniors. What else we talk about then is the personal care issues. We talk about how to properly shave a gentleman using an electric razors, how to shave a ladies’ legs. We go through all the different types of bathing and how the care giver can help the client all the way through incontinent care. Again, we stress all the different appliances and different tools that are out there that these care givers can use. I spend some time too with how we talk to the family and how we found those things that that client particularly needs. The next section we talk about is nutrition. It’s so important. These seniors are exhausted by the time supper gets there so their idea of a good supper is a couple cookies and a glass of milk or a bag of popcorn. They just don’t have the energy to fix their meals. So we spend a lot of time on that…finding out what do they like? What have they enjoyed over the years? Finding those recipes. Our care givers can make great meals. They are good cooks so we encourage them to find the things that client likes. They can make up several meals at a time, and we will package it up and put it in the freeze so that all the client has to do is heat it up. It helps solve that problem of poor nutrition with many of our seniors.

JULIA: And, Brenda, that also goes along with what you were talking about as far as interactive care giving, because the care givers can work with the client and look at recipe books. You know get recipes that they used to make and they work on them together, do the grocery shopping together and then come back and make those recipes. If it’s something they like, they are going to eat more, but it also helps them hold on to the independence too and make choices.

BRENDA: Oh yes. Senior care is more than just coming in and either tidying up their home or helping them with their bath. It’s that whole person and that’s what we look at. Our last big section that we talk about during our training classes is safety. Not only safety for the client; we look at fall prevention. We look at the home and we look at different things and different ways that we can do to make it safe while we are not there. We have clients that we do 24 hour care for, but we also have clients that we’re just there a couple of times a week for short visits. We look for smoke detectors and we look for different safety things like do they have enough pull up bars? Do they have night lights? Are there too many rugs in the home? So the care givers are prepared when they go into the home for that first time to assess their surroundings and assist that senior in their home to make it as safe as they possibly can. We also and go over and provide opportunities throughout the whole year of different conditions in different diagnoses that seniors might have. We do trainings days on dementia and on Alzheimer’s. We talk a lot about diabetes. We talk about heart issues especially with congestive heart issues.

JULIA: All different things.

BRENDA: Right.

JULIA: And one thing I want to add too is that part of our training is teaching the care givers what they can’t do. What we are not allowed to do, because we have care givers that are CNAs LPNs even. We have had registered nurses work for us, and we are a non-medical company. So part of the training is what we can’t do also. Having Brenda do all the training is a wonderful asset for our company.

BRENDA: We find also important for all of these caregivers we train them and instruct them and we’re there 24 hours a day for them. The caregivers can call me in the middle of the night if they so need to. Our main goal is to ensure that we are comfortable with that caregiver that we would have them come in and take care of us and help us. It’s so frightening for seniors when they hire a company that provides in-home services, because can they trust that company? Can they trust that care giver? They don’t know them so I help be that liaison to be able to get the comfortable with having someone come in to help so the family can have a break.

DAMIEN: Is there also training for CPR or basic first aid?

BRENDA: We do. They go through the first aid/CPR training. We are associated with the American Heart Association. We also go over the Heimlich maneuver. We go over what to do if there is an allergy or an allergic reaction as well.

DAMIEN: It sounds like your comfort keepers are very well trained.

JULIA: Yes, we’re very fortunate to have a registered nurse of Brenda’s caliber on staff. She does all of the training for our comfort keepers, and she really supervises all aspects of client care. We found that every client is unique and their needs are unique just as every care giver is unique and each one has different strengths and challenges. It’s not unusual for Brenda to go out to a clients’ home and work with a care giver one on one at the clients’ home just to teach them a way to do something, for example, how to do a transfer. What’s the best way to get this particular client out of bed to a wheel chair or vice versa? Brenda will show the care giver the best way to do it to keep, not only the client safe, but our care giver safe. I’ve been told by several hospice companies that we partner with that they are very impressed, but not only how compassionate and kind our care givers are, but also how well trained they are, and that makes us proud.

DAMIEN: Julia, I’ve also heard you have a weekly live radio program. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

JULIA: Yes. We have actually had a radio program for about 2 ½ years. We’ve just recently switched radio stations and we’re going to be on Sunday’s at noon on WOWO and that’s 1190. So folks can listen to that if they are here in town they can listen to their radio, but they can also listen online at www.wowo.com. So we’re excited about that. This Sunday will be our first show on our new station.

DAMIEN: How can folks get in contact with you and what is the website and contact information?

BRENDA: People can call us not only here at the office which our office number is (260) 484-5858 and ask for either myself or Linda and we’ll be able to direct you to where you need to go. And also our website address is www.comfortkeepers.com/fortwayne-in.

JULIA: Now Brenda is the Fort Wayne, just for my benefit too, is it F-O-R-T or FT?

BRENDA: It is it’s FORT.

JULIA: Ok.

DAMIEN: Thank you very much for joining us today Julia and Brenda and discussing Comfort Keepers of Fort Wayne with us.

JULIA: Thank you for having us.

DAMIEN: You’ve been listening to the Fort Wayne Senior Care Radio with Julia Anders and Brenda Tunin of Comfort Keepers of Fort Wayne, Indiana. My name is Damien Allen. Everybody have a great afternoon.

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