To ensure the safety and wellbeing of long-term care residents across the country, we have been long-time advocates for the highest level of care from staff. That means well-trained, well paid, supported nursing home staff. Burnout, low wages, and overworking are huge contributors to poor care and an increase in neglect and abuse. It is no surprise to us, then, to hear that removing nurse training standards during Covid did not improve nursing home care.
Lowered Training Requirements
During Covid, there was a medical staff crisis. Not only were there some deaths among hospital and long-term care facility staff, but illness was frequent, meaning shifts were often understaffed. This led to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issuing a waiver for some nurse aide training requirements. The intention was to get as many nurse aides job-ready as fast as possible to avoid breaks in care and make it easy to meet staffing requirements.
However, this waiver was found to be ineffective. And some even argue that both residents and staff were put in harm’s way.
The Study
To explore the effects of the waiver, researchers at the University of Iowa conducted a study using data from the Care Compare database. They looked at 15,000 nursing homes, analyzing the years 2019 through 2023.
Research found that while the waiver was used by some, there were still facilities enforcing training standards that exceeded federally mandated levels. This higher training expectation also had no effect on staffing rates.
For those facilities that implemented the waiver, researchers grouped them into three categories based on which training policies they no longer required. These ignored policies included reducing training hours for CNAs, allowing personal care attendants to act as CNAs, and waiving certain “professional/licensing requirements/renewals for the CNAs.” (mcknights.com)
Ultimately, the study found that, despite the decrease in “barriers”, staffing numbers, turnover, and more remained the same. And it was still difficult to hire new CNAs to fill in gaps.
Conclusion
Clearly, lowering training standards and requirements is not the solution the industry needs. In fact, the University of Iowa researchers suggest that the problem may be solved with wages. The suggestion is that higher wages decrease turnover and increase overall job satisfaction. They also recommend implementing better benefits for nursing home employees.
Ultimately, multiple factors need to be considered in order to solve the staffing crisis.
If you or a loved one have been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, call Gharibian Law (866-747-1389) today for a FREE consultation and the best legal representation.
