Report: Advancing the Home Care Workforce

Apps. These types of innovations might allow home care workers to access learning on the job and to save time and transportation costs related to face-to-face training programs. Aims: The aim would be to develop and test just-in-time online training that includes gamification and rewards that can be incorporated into the workday. If the technology is used as intended, sessions are incorporated that are specific to standardize training for advanced roles in New York and Michigan. 7. Internet hotspots for home care workers Rationale: There may be areas of the two regions in Michigan and New York lacking broadband and workers and client homes with no wireless. Access to online learning is an increasingly important opportunity for home care workers (Recommendation #5) Aims: To ensure all home care workers have access to the internet, and secondarily, to develop a database of home care workers beneficiaries (see recommendation #8 to conduct a survey of PCAs below) 8. Guides for Agencies (A) Advanced Roles for PCAs Guide Rationale: Experts report a hesitancy on the part of smaller firms to experiment with advanced roles. A technical assistance guide might provide a roadmap that would give agency leaders more confidence. Aims: The aim of the guide would be to facilitate the adoption of advanced roles by home care agencies. (B) Evaluation Guide Rationale: Most training programs and the development of advanced roles are still not being evaluated at all. Aims: Consistent with recommendation #4, the aim would be to produce an evaluation guidebook that would encourage agencies to gather, report, and analyze data systematically. 9. Survey of PCAs in the two regions Rationale: There is no information on the current PCA workforce in the two regions. This data could help inform policies and programs. Aims: To design and conduct a survey of PCA that could be repeated as a panel survey every two to four years as a means to (a) better understand the needs of the workforce and (b) to track workers’ situations over time as different policies and programs evolve. Findings would be used to inform the development of future advanced role initiatives.

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