HCK Center for Education

Heritage Community of Kalamazoo (HCK) has a strong commitment to staff development and education. We have created the HCK Center for Education to provide a dynamic educational approach to staff development. We believe that education is a cornerstone to organizational and self-improvement. The best way to expand the knowledge, skills and abilities of HCK Staff to meet our residents' wants and needs is through education.

The goal of HCK is to hire the best people to care for our residents.

Objectives

Identify required/preferred competencies, skill sets and abilities to ensure we have the right people.
Implement a recruitment/retention approach that gets and keeps the "right people on the bus" and in the right seat.
Develop meaningful career ladders within appropriate job categories.
Implement an effective and sustainable mentoring program.
Provide a dynamic staff wellness program.
Create survey tools/approaches to understand our customers needs and issues and effectively respond to those need and issues.
Create an environment and culture that taps into a person's desire to make a difference.
Staff rate HCK as a great place to work.
Create baseline measures/benchmarks by which we can track our improvement.

Signature Staff Training & Educational Training Programs

Frontline Online Training for Instruction and Performance Management

All HCK staff, from executive level to caregivers at the bedside are required to utilize e-learning (Upstairs Solutions System) to complete annual mandatory training requirements. This web based system allows staff the option of listening to their training modules in English or Spanish. Using this method, 430 staff have completed over 2,656 courses in 2008. Since implementing e-learning in 2004, we have sustained a 100% compliance rate with mandatory training.

While implementing our online training programs, HCK also introduced a companion program to ensure that what is learned online is put into practice. Bi-annually, staff members participate in an organization-wide skills fair, taught by key clinical and behavioral mentors. Approximately 150 direct care staff participate in the skills fair demonstrating competencies in areas such as, skin care, back and transfer safety, infection control, resident rights, activities of daily living, and pain management.

Building a Culture of Excellence in Dementia Care

In 2006, HCK introduced an innovative program called the Best Friends™ approach. Best Friends™ is a person-centered care model that redefines dementia care by recognizing that the person suffering from Alzheimer's disease has value, has feelings that need recognition, and a spirit that needs to be nourished. With an emphasis of improving quality of life, Best Friends™ fosters the belief that Alzheimer's disease is a continuum and each person experiences the disease in unique ways and that care should be driven, in large part, by the person's life history, attitudes, and traditions. Best Friends™ is an internationally recognized model of dementia care, with proven benefits to individuals with memory loss. Monthly workshops are held for staff and volunteers, often with a waiting list to register for the next session. To date, over 500 people at HCK, in the Kalamazoo community and throughout the state have been trained by HCK Educators on the Best Friends™ program.

HCK Leadership Institute
The role of the frontline leader is paramount to strengthening our workforce, creating a culture of retention, and promoting the highest quality of care. The HCK Leadership Institute was developed to research and adopt best practices in frontline leadership, with a focused effort in helping managers and supervisors develop problem-solving skills; enhancing their ability to think critically and communicate more effectively.

HCK has partnered with the Michigan Technical Education Center (M-Tec) at Kalamazoo Valley Community College to provide seminars for HCK leadership on Coaching vs. Bossing, Communicating Effectively, Managing Performance Problems, Performance Appraisals, and Team Building. Over fifty HCK supervisors and managers have benefited from workshops and group interaction sessions.

A Center for Community Learning and Social Accountability
HCK has become a leader in internship placements partnering with Western Michigan University Schools of Social Work, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Interdisciplinary Health Services (IHS), and Interpersonal Communications. We are also partnering with a local Community Education program for Certified Nurse Assistants by offering a clinical site and have recently established a working relationship with a Medical Technician program at Everest College. In 2008, HCK documented over 2,000 hours of community benefit to individuals interested in health services for the aging.

Our Educational Services are not only open to staff, interns, and volunteers, but families can utilize our online training program as well. Families have access to the same spectrum of courses as staff. Families may take advantage of the resource Library that has an emphases on Alzheimer's and dementia related information, Parkinson's disease, and of course the Best Friends™ material.