Te Whatumanawa Maoritanga o Rehua
Te Whatumanawa Maoritanga o Rehua (Rehua Marae) is a Marae Home-Based provider in Christchurch that works to provide positive alternative services for whanau, hapu and iwi through kaupapa Maori practice.
These services include health education to Whanau Ora (Taua, Poua, Kuia and Koroua) aged between 55-65yrs old with a focus on prevention and management of asthma, diabetes, cardiac-vascular and chronic obstructive respiratory disease. They provide services for wahine 40+ with focus on participation in breast and cervical screening programme, and have Daycare for 65+ twice a week.
They also provide Home Support Service for 55+, including Personal Care (showering/bathing, oral care, mirimiri, supervision, groomingand dressing) and Domestic Care (laundry, vacuuming, kitchen and bathroom hygiene making beds and food preparations).
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Rehua Marae currently has three trainees participating in Core Competencies (Level 3), all of whom successfully completed Foundation Skills (Level 2). Once Core Competencies is completed, the next step for staff on their career pathway will be the National Certificate in Diversional Therapy (Level 4).
For each trainee a strategic plan is developed which shows the time frame for trainees to complete the learning and assessment. To support the learning a two hour workshop is booked out each Thursday for group study.
Trainees also study in their own time, and at work when time is available.
According to the staff at Rehua Marae, achieving these qualifications is not only benefiting Kaumatua and Kuia, but also staff and Rehua Marae itself.
“Kaumatua and Kuia benefit as the training helps give us the skills to guide them in maximising their independence and increasing their wellbeing”.
“Achieving the Diversional Therapy qualification will allow us to provide a better service to nga kaumatua, and gain access to a wider stream of services and supports that enhance their quality of life”.
“There are severe shortages of qualified Maori Diversional Therapists in Christchurch and through training our own Diversional Therapists we hope to inspire and motivate other Maori providers to achieve these certificates as well”.
The Secret to Presbyterian Support Otago Training Success
Presbyterian Support Services Otago (PSO) place great value on ongoing education for their care and support workforce.
All care and support workers have the opportunity to undertake Careerforce’s Foundation Skills (Level 2) and Core Competencies (Level 3) national qualifications. The portability and transferability of these qualifications is ideal for PSO as their workforce is spread over aged care residential and home based services.
Training Coordinator Mary Phillips believes the training is enhancing the quality of service PSO is able to deliver to clients.
“The training is helping care and support workers understand their role, what it involves, and their boundaries. Not only is it teaching staff our policies and procedures, but it is also helping them understand why the policies and procedures exist,” says Mary Phillips.
Care and support staff working in residential aged care are able to continue their career pathway by undertaking the Residential Strand qualification (Level 3). This is a new national qualification, with the first enrollment occurring in February. Six trainees nationwide have so far completed the qualification and of these, five are employed at PSOs Ranui Home in Alexandra.
Registered Nurse Sue Webb, the trainer and onsite assessor at Ranui, believes the secret to Ranui’s success has been holding regular, fortnightly group learning sessions.
Sue works with the trainees in her capacity as an RN, so much of the assessment occurs as trainees go about their everyday work. Sue also has structured one-on-one assessments with trainees every fortnight. Sue’s familiarity with the requirements of the qualifications allows her to assess components found across more than one unit standard at a time.
“The training is offsite, informal and a lot of fun,” says Sue. “The girls love working together and are really enthusiastic about the training”.
“The enthusiasm of the first group undertaking the qualifications has definitely rubbed off on the rest of the team. I am currently supporting 4 more trainees complete Core Competencies and the Residential Stand, and will take another group of trainees through in the New Year”.
“I really enjoy the teaching side of it and am always learning things too. Often carers don’t realise how much they already know, and the great thing about the training is it helps tease this out. It works because it reinforces what people already know and uses this as a base for new learning,” says Sue.
PSO Ranui Residential Strand graduates (from left to right):Kathleen Johnsen, Deidre Musson, Lois Hall, Jennifer Handford, Deborah McStay with Assessor Sue Webb
Two weeks prior to each training session trainees are provided with the workbook to be covered. Each trainee is then expected to go through their workbook and write down questions or comments in advance of the meeting. The group then brainstorms the issues and goes through answer books together. Trainees also buddy up with each other so they can discuss the content of the workbooks prior to the fortnightly training.
“Studying is a skill you need to relearn and most of our carers haven’t studied in years. The Careerforce training provides a great opportunity to get back into the habit of learning”.
“It’s great seeing people grasping for the first time why we do things the way we do. Another benefit of the training is that trainees have increased understanding of conditions, and have the skills they need to recognise when conditions change and to know what to do,” says Sue.
PSO Ranui held a graduation ceremony in recognition of the effort and time their care and support workers put into the training. The ceremony was attended by family, friends and residents. Sue says many residents were amazed and humbled that their carers had gone to the effort of getting a national qualification so they could provide them with higher quality care and support.
Communicating with Confidence - DRCT Whakatane
A project to improve staff literacy and learning has had some unexpected benefits for the Disability Resource Centre Trust in Whakatane.
The Trust started a literacy and learning training programme in 2007 as part of the integrated Workplace Literacy Project through Careerforce, the industry training organisation for the health and disability sector.
Adult Literacy Coordinator Officer Catherine Tangiora is one of the trainers who started the pilot at the Centre and she says it has had one significant, and unexpected, bonus for the organisation.
“Not only have our communication skills improved with our clients, they have improved with each other,” she said.
“We started our literacy and learning programme by assessing all of the industry trainees and identifying the demands placed on them. We focussed on what they needed and went from there.
“We’ve had tremendous value out of the programme – not just with increasing communication skills but also confidence levels."
“Workers now come forward and say ‘I don’t understand this’ rather than muddling through and that’s made a noticeable difference here in the office,” Catherine Tangiora said.
“As a workplace we are now more aware of communication needs in everything we do. We make sure clients and co-workers know what we are on about – that we are communicating the right message in the right way.
“This project has been such a success that all coordinators in the Homecare sector are being encouraged to do their Certificates in Adult Literacy.
“In fact the end results have been so good from this particular project that we are looking at making the programme a formal part of our induction process” she said.
ITOs recognise the effect of literacy and numeracy skill development on broader skill development and are working on ways to improve this.
Overcoming the odds to make training happen
It’s a sign of how committed a Counties Manukau rest home and hospital is to training that when it faced financial difficulties earlier this year, the staff themselves fundraised so they could train!
Staff at the rest home, which wishes to remain anonymous, raised over $1,000 by selling the national cuisine of their country. The dishes sold for $10 a plate and included cuisine from several Pacific countries, the Philippines and India. All of the money raised went directly to training their care and support workforce. As a result the rest home’s 12 care and support workers are now undertaking Core Competencies, and 2 of the cooks are enrolled in the Foundation Skills qualification.
The owner says that while the rest home is now on a much surer financial footing, the fundraising was so successful that staff are keen to do it again.The owner is committed to teaching her staff and supporting them to become better at what they do.
"The great thing about Careerforce training is you know everyone is doing and learning the same things. It promotes consistency right across the sector. The training helps with their level of understanding and gives trainees skills so that they not only know what they are doing, but know why they're doing it.
“It is helping the girls lift their standard of work and making them more skilled, competent and comfortable in what they are doing.
"The training means the residents don't have the same concerns they used to, are looked after and cared for in a more confident manner, and are having their needs met."
"The workbooks are easy to understand and really user friendly. They are really well pitched for my staff, many of whom have English as their second language and have no pervious qualifications. The workbooks also make it easy for me to add in scenarios and real life examples based on what happens here."
"At our monthly staff meetings I talk about a topic and then we discuss the detail and what it means. They work together, during work time, in groups. Going through the workbooks in groups allows us to talk about the issues and discuss what it means for us”.
The owner, who is a Registered Nurse, has also developed individual folders for staff to keep information on key topics. These are made available to all staff, even those not directly supporting residents. They cover issues relevant to all employees, for instance infection control, and contain questionnaires and suggested tasks and activities for staff to do. They are designed to complement Careerforce workbooks.
SILC Ltd
Supported Individualised Lifestyle Choices (SILC Ltd) is based in the Bay of Plenty and provide support to people with disabilities and their families/whanau to achieve quality valued lifestyles within a community of their choice. SILC is contracted to provide Supported Independent Living Services to assist people to live independently in their community, and also provide 24 hour, 7 day a week support to people requiring a higher level of support under a Residential Support Services contract. SILC employ approximately 140 staff.
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| A SILC graduation: December 2009 |
SILC recognise the importance of equipping their staff with the skills and training necessary to support people with disabilities to live valued lives.
Upon commencing employment with SILC, all support staff participate in a five hour orientation programme. New staff then complete 40 hours of support work under the close supervision of a senior staff member who provides training and guidance. For the first twenty hours the new staff member learns from observation, while the second 20 hours is 'hands on' learning, still under the guidance of a senior staff member.
Over the following 6 months all new staff attend 5 compulsory modules which are directly linked to the National Certificate in Community Support Services (Foundation Skills). Once all activities are completed the staff member has met the requirements of Foundations Skills. To recognise this achievement, graduates are reimbursed the $150 Foundations Skills qualification fee.
All Team Leaders at SILC are currently undertaking the National Certificate in Community Support Services (Core Competencies) Level 3, with a view to progress on to the Human Services strand. In addition, eight support workers who have indicated they want to have a career in disability support work have recently enrolled in Core Competencies.
Training Manager Richard Coad says that SILC has always been committed to training, and it has been great being able to link its training to a National Qualification.
"It is really important to portray the support workers role as professional and having accessible level 2 and level 3 qualifications is a great step towards achieving this."
"From the first interview we make our expectations clear about the need to undertake training. Many people we employ have no previous qualifications and it is great to be able to provide training that not only lifts their skill levels, but helps them develop self confidence and belief in themselves," says Richard.
Wairarapa DHB celebrates a more qualified workforce
Wairarapa DHB Community Health Support Workers have successfully finished the Foundation Skills National Qualification.
This means that everyone in the DHB who provides short term care now has a national qualification. These support workers have now been given the chance to do the Level 3 Core Competencies National Qualification and so far 11 support workers have taken up this opportunity.
Rob Lewis, Community Nursing and Health Service Manager, is really pleased with their success. “All students showed a big improvement by the end of the course. This means a more qualified workforce in community health. Some were so motivated by their success that they want to do further study and three or four have said that they now want to do their nursing training and are working to gain entry to the UCOL course next year.”
Trainees also received literacy and numeracy support as a result of their involvement in Careerforce’s successful Integrated Workplace Learning Project.
The successful Foundation Skills graduates were presented with their certificates by Wairarapa DHB GM Community, Public and Mental Health, Maggie Morgan and Fiona Wallace from Careerforce.
Bupa
| With 45 rest homes and hospitals and more than 3,200 employees, Bupa Care Services, formerly Guardian Health Care, are one of the largest providers of aged residential care health services in New Zealand. |  |
Over the last 12 months Bupa has worked closely with Careerforce, promoting and encouraging caregiving staff to being the Level 3 Core Competencies and Residential Qualifications, as well as the Level 4 Dementia Limited Credit Programme. To be eligible, staff have to be employed for more than 6 months.
Bupa was already committed to workplace based learning with a robust internal education programme. However, taking the additional steps of ensuring each rest home or hospital had two assessors and equipping Bupa’s staff (spread across 45 locations) with the skills and knowledge has been a significant undertaking.
Mapping out the verification and assessment tasks in each unit standard against the work that staff regularly do on a daily basis was important in getting support and buy-in from individual rest homes and hospitals.
This process helped demonstrate that staff were already doing a lot of the work required, and that by making a few modifications staff could obtain National Qualifications and embark on a learning pathway.
To help ensure the successful roll out of Careerforce’s Qualifications to as many caregiving staff as possible, Bupa tries to ‘buddy up’ rest homes and hospitals at different stages of the embedding process so they can learn from each other.
The training is fully funded for staff and is linked to the 'progress steps' - a pay scale where staff participation in training is rewarded. Bupa's Learning and Development Fund was established to ensure access for all to ongoing training and development. Employees can also apply for study grants to undertake nursing degrees, nurse assistant training, or other relevant development study.
In November 2009 Parklands Hospital in Christchurch, a BUPA site, celebrated their first group of graduates in style with a graduation ceremony and afternoon tea.
Fifty-five staff completed the Dementia Limited Credit Programme (Level 4), while one staff member also completed Core Competencies (Level 3).
At the ceremony, Parklands dedicated educator Jan McRae was acknowledged by BUPA and Careerforce representatives for her hard work over the last 10 months. Jan has played a key role in ensuring that the training has been of the highest quality, and that assessment and verification processes have successfully supported the learning.
Nurse Maude
Nurse Maude has inpatient care in the Nurse Maude Hospice and Hospital based in Christchurch, provides community and acute nursing and homecare throughout Canterbury and care coordination in both Christchurch and Wellington.
Nurse Maude employs approximately 600 support workers. Their major workforce development initiative this year has been to ensure new support workers complete Careerforce’s Level 2 Foundation Skills National Certificate and the Nurse Maude Bronze Certificate in Community Support within 6 months of commencing employment.
 | Nurse Maude’s in-house training programme for support workers has been benchmarked against the Foundation Skills National Qualification by Careerforce. By adding two unit standards to the existing programme – ‘Moving people and equipment’ and ‘Pre-packaged medication’ - Nurse Maude is transitioning 120 existing support workers who have completed internal training to achieve the Foundation Skills qualification. |
Careerforce Workplace Advisor Lisa Williams works closely with Nurse Maude to support their workforce development initiatives. Lisa believes Nurse Maude has been an excellent example of the successes that can flow from embedding learning and skills development. “Nurse Maude has great focus on education excellence and has high expectations of all their trainees and workers. It is great to see that their commitment to upskilling their workforce is delivering tangible benefits to staff, the wider organisation, and perhaps most importantly, the community they are serving”.
Kapiti District Trust
Kathy Austin is clinical team manager and assessor at Kapiti District Trust KDT), where she has worked for more than 11 years. KDT has a 36 bed hospital and 11 bed dementia unit.
A number of staff employed by KDT are currently on the Careerforce training pathway.
“We have four staff doing the Level 3 qualification now and six completed Level 2 in June,” she says. “I have to admit the workbooks are so much better now than the earlier ones. They’re much easier to understand and are an extremely good resource.”
Kathy says workplace training is ideal for the staff she manages. “These staff members come out of school thinking they have not achieved and couldn’t possibly do any sort of qualification. They simply lack confidence,” she says.
But she says it’s not long before the training shows a huge transformation in them and she says KDT wanted to acknowledge this.
“We organized a special graduation ceremony for the six people who gained their Level 2 qualification in June. We made it a very special affair, giving each graduate a posy of flowers and a certificate to recognize their achievement,” she says.
“Their reaction was priceless. They all said they’d never experienced anything like it in their lives. One of them, who has learning difficulties and is quiet, got up and spoke on behalf of the graduates. She thanked the appropriate people and spoke of what the course has done for the trainees. She blew us all away.”
Kathy says the trainees had all grown personally and professionally, but most importantly now have a belief in their own ability.
“One of the graduates who has learning difficulties is now one of my leading caregivers and I always use her for the orientation of new staff. She’s excellent at it.”
The team at KDT believes the staff training is so beneficial because it gives staff a greater understanding of what they are being asked to do, rather than just performing the tasks.
Kathy has her own personal policy with regard to training and assessment.
“I won’t assess anyone if I don’t think they’re going to pass. I won’t set anyone up to fail. I would rather put in the extra time with them to help them understand what’s being asked of them,” she says.
KDT is fortunate to have a low turnover in staff. “We have a number of people who’ve been working here for eight or nine years and many of our employees have worked only for us. We are very fortunate to have the stability of staff.”
Kathy says Careerforce qualification pathways offer caregivers greater career opportunities and describes it as a huge turnaround for the industry.
“There is now a career pathway for caregivers. Some could go on to become registered nurses or they could do a certificate of nursing. It’s not for everyone, but there are definite possibilities for those who want to further their career.”
Kathy loves the “can do” attitude now evident in her employees. She says once upon a time they would never have attended a seminar, but now they’re putting up their hands to go!
“We have a wonderful bunch of people working here. They give their heart and soul to this place. If I could give them twice as much money as they currently earn, I would. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it.”
In the meantime, KDT is very supportive of training and developing staff to their potential to achieve excellence in care.
Northland Skills Partnership Working
Over the last two years Annette Robertson, the Tai Tokerau PHO Co-ordinator for Workforce Development in Northland, has worked in partnership with the Northland DHB (NDHB), Ministry of Social Development, and Multiskill to provide Careerforce’s Foundations Skills (Level 2) and Core Competencies (Level 3) Qualifications to Work and Income clients.
The focus of the programme is to work with and across providers to facilitate access for Work and Income clients to gain National Qualifications and be placed into sustainable employment with local community and disability support services workplaces. In doing so the programme is contributing to the objectives of the Northland DHB Health of Older People Strategy 2008.
Under the programme, Work and Income identify clients who are interested in completing the training and working in the health, disability, and community support sectors. An "open forum" with local providers is then held with the aim of providing information on the sector, sustainable employment opportunities and the potential for career development.
Applicants are then interviewed by a panel of three comprising of Annette and two providers to ascertain their suitability as support workers. According to Annette, the key attributes looked for in potential support workers are empathy, reliability, commitment, a nice personality, and ‘someone who you would want to be looking after your grandmother’.
Those selected embark on an eight week training course where they work with Multiskill to gain the KiwiHost Certificate (covering issues such as presentation skills, cross cultural skills, and CV development), a Certificate in Handling and Lifting, and First Aid Certificate. Participants also work with Dress for Success to ensure they are appropriately attired for the work they will be doing.
Over the eight weeks participants also complete Careerforce’s Foundations Skills Level 2 National Qualification. As part of contextualising this qualification Annette arranges for potential employers from across Home Based Support Services, Community Disability Support Services and Residential Care sectors to speak about their individual services and topics covered in Careerforce Workbooks and Unit Standards. For example the Te Poutokomanawa Service from the NDHB participates as a guest speaker on service delivery and the Treaty of Waitangi, and a physiotherapist provides training so the trainees are able to achieve a Certificate in Handling and Lifting.
Trainees undertake work experience with workplaces and while on site are assessed by Annette so they can be awarded the unit standards which make up the Foundation Skills Qualification (which directly links to workplace policies and procedures).
Annette says the eight week course is intensive and ‘there’s no mucking around’. Given the learning difficulties experienced by some participants, and the fact that most participants haven’t engaged with learning for a very long time, a deliberate decision has been made to restrict class sizes to no more than 10-12 participants.
Despite these obstacles the programme is making a big difference in Northland, with 90% of participants achieving sustainable employment. Annette believes that the intensive mentoring trainees receive both during and after their learning is a key factor is the programme’s success.
Pleasingly, participants are increasingly embarking on a pathway of learning, with several either completing or currently undertaking the Level 3 Core Competencies Qualification. Some participants, including a solo mother of six, are now working towards acceptance onto the Bachelor of Nursing Degree program at Northland Polytechnic (NorthTec).
Another key outcome of the training is that local employers are working more collaboratively with each other. For instance they are now sitting together on interview panels, assessing the most appropriate workplaces for potential trainees, and attending expos and graduations together. This has impacted positively on workforce planning and development in the Northland region.
In the future Annette believes the role of a Primary Health Care support worker will become more important as increasingly numbers of high and complex needs Clients are being cared for in the community. Annette believes that given industry specific training, her graduates with Careerforce Level 2 and Level 3 Qualifications will be ideally suited to work for PHOs under the supervision of a Registered Nurse in Northland’s more isolated and rural communities.
Lavender Blue Leads the Way
Lavender Blue is a home care and nursing agency operating in Palmerston North, Levin, Fielding and Dannevirke with embedded workplace training. They have a long established relationship with Careerforce and played an important part in the development of the Level 2 Foundation Qualification as a result of their involvement in the 2005/06 Level 1 Home Based Support Services project. Careerforce Workplace Advisor Christine Johnston has worked with Lavender Blue Director Melissa Loumachi to successfully embed Careerforce’s Level 2 (Foundations) and Level 3 (Core Competencies) Qualifications. Lavender Blue employ 160 support workers and of these, 56 are currently training towards a National Certificate. At last count, 129 have completed Careerforce National Qualifications. |  Melissa Loumachi, Lavender Blue |
According to Melissa Loumachi, Lavender Blue’s commitment to embedded workplace training has contributed to greatly reduced turnover of staff, increased job satisfaction, and ultimately, the provision of better client care. Written April 2009 | |
Disabilities Resource Centre Trust Whakatane
DRCT provides disability information, advocacy services, vocational, independent living and home based personal care, household management and childcare throughout the Eastern Bay of Plenty to over 600 clients. They currently employ 165 care and support workers, and 105 of these are in training towards either the Foundation Skills or Core Competencies National Qualifications. Forty-one employees have already completed Careerforce National Qualifications.
Location http://www.careerforce.org.nz/index.cfm/1,165,html
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