Richland Place Health Center is a life care community with 110 skilled beds, 25 assisted living units, and 200 independent living units. The facility, part of nationwide National Health Corporation (NHC) has a long history of collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in education programing and quality improvement for Alzheimer;s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD).
The education program will be presented as part of Richland Place Health Center’s existing ADRD in-service program for care workers, adding family caregivers.
Faculty nurses will partner with Richland Place Health Center to provide education for family caregivers and direct care workers. Doctoral level nursing school faculty will develop a 4-session curriculum delivered 4 times a year providing information about ADRD course trajectory, available community resources, evidence–based communication and navigational strategies, and clinical and hands-on skills and shared decision-making strategies. Nursing faculty will also utilize simulation to produce a web-based training module yearly for direct care staff. The modules will be placed on the existing web-based NHC Reliance portal. Participant feedback about the curriculum from caregivers and staff will be used to continuously modify the curriculum and improve its relevance in helpfulness to successive trainees, thereby improving care for residents.
Doctorly prepared VUSN faculty members with expertise in geriatrics will be collaborating with Richland Place administration and nursing leadership (DON and ADON) to provide ADRD training for direct care workers and family caregivers. This will also include collaboration with Alzheimer’s Tennessee for development of curriculum and caregiver support groups. ADRD training programs will include information about ADRD course trajectory, information on available community resources, and communication and navigational strategies for both direct care workers and family caregivers. All training will incorporate evidence-based strategies, hands-on learning, and simulation.