Overcommunication and taking a more hands-on approach became important to the overall clinical strength of Consulate Health Care during the pandemic, and chief nursing officer Andi Clark doesn’t expect that to change as the vaccine rollout continues.
“We were meeting people in their houses, getting them PPE and we wanted them to know that we were there with them all the time,” she explained during a one-on-one session at Skilled Nursing News’ RETHINK conference held last week.
For Clark, avoiding staff burnout starts with ensuring everyone from the aides to nurse practitioners knows that their leaders are with them and are listening.
“I’ll have calls with nurses where I would say to them, ‘have you cried about this lately,’” she said. “I think that constant reassurance from us that this is tough because I do think they are tired, or burned out, have PTSD, and they have resigned because of that.”
Sharing information efficiently, effectively and persistently has also become essential for Clark and her team as new information on COVID-19 and the vaccine continues to come out.
“We started having calls every Wednesday at first, and we couldn’t keep up with all the information so we went to seven days a week,” Clark explained. “In those first few months [of the pandemic], we had five or 600 people on those calls because people were so desperate for information and the correct information.”
She said it was important for her and the rest of the executive team to be on these calls and show that they are part of the team.
With a vaccine mandate now in effect for all nursing home staff, ensuring the information is passed down from a reliable and respected voice for the staff has also become very important.
According to self-reported data from 300 long-term care facilities from March 1 through April 4, physicians and advanced practice providers had the highest vaccination percentage among health care professionals at over 75%, while aides had the lowest at 45.6%, a Centers for Disease Control study found.
Clark uses “coaches” at Consulate facilities to work with resistant staff and answer any questions they have regarding the vaccine.
Many of Consulate’s facilities reside in the state of Florida, which according to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), has the second lowest staff vaccination rate in the country at 48.05%. The national average is currently 61.8%, according to CMS.
“One of our administrators said to me, when I talk to them I say: have you had polio, they say no, have you had measles, they say no, chicken pox? No. She looks them right in the eye and says that’s because you were vaccinated as a child,” Clark said. “It influenced a lot of people to get their shots.”
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