Melvin,We are looking for nursing assistants in nursing homes to participate intrial research projects to prove that a unique way of scheduling them intoteam partnerships will improve the quality and efficiency patient care.It is a benefit to nursing assistants in that it will enable and empowernursing assistants to obtain higher pay levels and have more control overpatient care policies. It is a benefit to patients and families in thatthey will always know the nursing assistants who are responsible forpatient care (see our weg site article "Who Cares for Nursing HomePatient?"). It is a benefit to nursing homes in that they will be moreprofitable with higher paid nursing assitants who provide more and bettercare (a fact that can be proven with trial projects).The focus of our research is to evaluate these benefits by creating specialseven day a week team partnerships of three nursing assistants for eachteam whereby they are scheduled in a manner that two are working and one isoff everyday, whereby each team member spends an equal amount of timeworking together for maximum consistency, continuity and cohesiveness inpatient care (see our Current Initiative web site section "Trial ResearchInitiative for Nursing Homes"). Another focus of the research is toexplore team formation methods. The most popular method is to pair twoexperienced nursing assistants with a new hire to maximize training. Someother methods to be explored involve pairing two younger nursing assistantswith an older one (giving work opportunities to senior citizens), andletting nursing assistants themselves design, organize and propose theirown kind of team partnerships.If this subject matter is of interest to your members, we would like todiscuss it further with your network.George RicciQE Foundation [email protected]
