PruittHealth Leverages Relias To Ease Staffing Concerns and Develop Future Leaders

With service lines addressing a range of post-acute care settings and suppliers, PruittHealth turned to Relias for the must-haves of consistent staff education, automated assignments, and compliance tracking.

But beyond those foundations, the PruittHealth learning and development (L&D) team leveraged the Relias Platform and education modules to enhance staff development opportunities and retention rates.

THE RESULTS

• A workforce that can adapt to roles in varied PruittHealth care settings
• A home-grown leadership program with dramatically low turnover rates

Founded in 1969, PruittHealth is a family-owned healthcare organization spread across the southeastern U.S., touching 170 communities and providing care for over 24,000 patients daily. The organization’s services encompass skilled nursing, post-acute care centers, home health, hospice, therapy, pharmacy, consulting services, and a medical supplies division — allowing PruittHealth to provide truly holistic care.

Managing Training Assignments for Thousands

With more than 13,000 staff members spanning multiple states and care settings, PruittHealth needed a system that was convenient for team members and simultaneously eased the stress on leaders who assigned and tracked staff training.

To keep all its locations and settings up to par, PruittHealth needed a consistent approach to onboarding, compliance training, and professional development for staff (called “partners”). “We partner together, regardless of our job titles, to take care of our patients and residents and to support each other,” said Wendy Meinert, Vice President of Professional Services, PruittHealth.

By leveraging the Relias Platform and the thousands of online compliance and continuing education courses offered, Meinert and her L&D team have ensured PruittHealth partners have the knowledge and skills to remain competent and confident in the care they provide.

“It’s an easily centralized system for managing education and training plans for all of our service lines. And it’s so easy to build training plans and to update them based on new education that’s needed.”
— Wendy Meinert, VP of Professional Services, PruittHealth

Cross-Training Nurse Aides for Different Setting

With turnover presenting critical problems throughout health care, PruittHealth leaders wanted to encourage staff who craved a change to stay and move into other roles within the organization. A staff member might move from a temporary nurse aide role to a certified nursing assistant (CNA) role, or from CNA to medical records, for example.

Focusing on opportunities for nurse aides to move laterally or up to leadership roles has paid off for individuals and the greater organization. PruittHealth has certified medication aides (CMAs) working in assisted living and CNAs in skilled nursing and hospice settings, noted Brian Mock Sr., Regional Partner Services Manager at PruittHealth. Providing training in all those areas has allowed staff more professional mobility.

Starting in 2016, PruittHealth expanded its nurse aide training program from two to four levels, with senior CNA at the top. When nurse aides achieve senior CNA status, they earn a pay increase.

PruittHealth’s investment in training using the Relias Platform has been a win-win. The senior CNAs earn more money and gain leadership expertise while PruittHealth leaders have more flexibility when they need to schedule their nurse aides in different care settings.

CNA Leadership Training Pays Off With Low Turnover

Through its revamped CNA training program, PruittHealth has developed more competent and confident staff members who provide evidence- based care and become leaders in the organization. The CNAs who have completed all four levels of training “return to their location and become the senior leader and a kind of coach,” Mock said.

With the Relias Platform at the core, PruittHealth has invested in its CNAs’ career growth and development. The company now reports a CNA turnover rate between 6% and 13% for those who have completed the leadership program and more than 50% if they have not. The industry average is around 60% to 70%.

“Those partners recognize the energy put into developing them, and it has greatly reduced the turnover in our senior CNAs,” said Meinert. CNAs gain more confidence because of the leadership training they receive, along with the additional in-person training with senior partners. “It helps them see within themselves their capabilities to advance and move into other areas,” she said.

The leadership program has opened up opportunities for around 1,000 CNAs — current participants and program graduates — since the overhaul in 2016. “Additional leadership training is a confidence booster,” said Meinert. “It makes them feel like they’re different, they’re special, because we’ve selected them to represent us as a company. Education is powerful. Knowledge is powerful.”