The provision of staff development programs in adult day care centers

• Published in: The Journal of continuing education in nursing Vol. 28; no. 4; p. 173
• Main Authors: Hensley, A D, Travis, S S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-07-1997
• Subjects: Adult; Day Care, Medical - organization & administration; Education, Nursing, Continuing - organization & administration; Humans; Staff Development - organization & administration
• ISSN: 0022-0124
• DOI: 10.3928/0022-0124-19970701-07

Little is known about staff development activities in adult day care (ADC) programs. Therefore, this descriptive study was used to compare existing center programs with research- and practice-derived "model staff development program" for orientation, inservice education, and continuing education opportunities.
A multi-step mail survey design was used to study licensed adult day care programs in Virginia (n = 38). The design produced a 92% (n = 35) response rate among eligible respondents.
Thirty-seven percent (n = 13) of the responding administrators described staff development activities that met the criteria for a model program. Despite limited financial support, Virginia centers are making an effort to provide comprehensive staff development opportunities for their staff.
Centralized or regionalized programming may be two viable solutions for addressing unmet staff training issues for these community-based agencies. Moreover, because their staff tend to be interdisciplinary in nature, educational programming for an interdisciplinary audience will be in order.