| Learning Objective #1: Describe the creative partnerships that led to the development of a successful licensed nurse assistant hiring-and-training program in the acute care setting | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Correlate the lessons learned from the author to the creation of an assistive nursing personnel program in the acute care setting |
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The author will describe how the challenge of 30 licensed nurse assistant (LNA) vacancies led to the development of an innovative model for hiring and training LNAs for the acute care setting of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). The process began with an intra-organizational collaboration between the Office of Nursing and Human Resources. This resulted in trainees being hired to a specific unit and paid full-time wages during the five weeks of comprehensive classroom and clinical training.
New partnerships were created with a NH nursing home and a Vermont vocational high school for the delivery of their training programs to DHMC trainees. Evaluation data collected from trainees, faculty, preceptors, managers and directors involved in these two programs resulted in the final product, a LNA training program at DHMC. Close collaboration with the New Hampshire Board of Nursing was essential in designing clinical training. The approved ratio of one faculty member supervising eight trainees on one unit, so successful for nursing home and small community hospital LNA training programs was not feasible. High patient acuity levels limited the number of trainees placed on each unit. All trainees who participated in this program in the past two years have successfully passed the licensing exam for nurse assistants in New Hampshire. The outcomes of this program have been high trainee and colleague satisfaction, low LNA turnover rates, and improved quality of LNA training. A significant number are now enrolled in pre-nursing electives.
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