Eli's Rehab Report

Use these 4 ingredients for staff development success by engaging staff in multiple training opportunities.

Glean tips from this four-pronged approach to staff development to create a formalized mentoring program for your staff certification standards and investment in staff education. Ensuring that your therapists, nurses and technicians keep their skills and certification updated will enable you to continue to offer high-quality services to your patients.

Here are four ways that you can prove your commitment to staff development:

1. Staff-driven education: Poll your staff members on the professional development topics and skills they need the most. Leaders can then distribute a staff needs assessment and base educational offerings based on the findings.

For instance, if a large group of people report that they want training on one topic, such as Social Security benefits issues, you can arrange for a speaker to come in and address that need. On the other hand, if a small group of people desire training on a more specified area, it would be a better idea to send them to a class. When you put in many off-site training hours, you help create a winning combination of staff skills.

2. Lunch and Learns: In addition to formal trainings, staff members can also routinely get together, often over lunch or snacks, to review fundamentals. 

3. Availability of resources: Ensure that all staffers have internet access and put information at their fingertips, including policies and procedures, minutes from meetings, and links to professional organizations.

4. Shared governance model: Employees could participate in one of several staff-driven councils that contribute to different areas of practice management, such as staff orientation and quality initiatives. The arrangement could be that the councils report to leadership and the staff have the opportunity to work on a variety of issues as they rotate among various councils.