Building a Successful Team for Residential Care Managers (Residential Care Management Book 1)

What does it take to be a registered care home manager?

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This research was only offered as a pilot study and as such focused on only one residential facility. The funding for the study was limited, suggesting that while an adequate number of participants were recruited at the Swan Care Group facility in Bentley, a larger and wider study was not possible. Therefore, the limited sample size in the questionnaires could be seen as a limitation. As well, four of the senior nursing or care home manger staff at Swan Care Group, Bentley at the time of the study were male, no male staff returned questionnaires and only one male volunteered to be included in the interview group.

As such, the views expressed are dominantly those of the female senior nursing and care home staff at the facility. As two data methods were used a questionnaire and interviews the results from both of these methods are offered separately. The questionnaire respondents average length of service with Swan Care, Bentley was just under 9 years 8. However, 4 of the respondents had worked at Swan Care for less than 12 months. The gender make-up of the respondents to the questionnaire showed that no male staff responded.

This is not in keeping with the profile of men in nursing and indeed four of the senior nursing staff working at Swan Care, Bentley at the time of the study where men.

The Benefits and Costs of Nurse Aide SMWTs

They simply failed to respond to the questionnaire. This indicates that staff who responded to the questionnaire where all over the age of 41 and most were over 51, with one staff member indicating that they were 74 years of age. No respondent indicated that they had any formal leadership training and only one respondent indicated that they had received some sort of management training.

How do you know a clinical leader? Respondents were offered a list of 54 attributes or descriptive words taken from a wide range of literature describing leaders Table 1. Table two lists the top 10 characteristics indicated by respondents Table 2. Qualities I characteristics "most" identified with clinical leaders. Respondents were asked to suggest other qualities or characteristics of a clinical leader not on the list of 54 attributes. Few additional words were suggested although Trustworthy, Responsible, None-judgemental, Reliable, Enthusiastic, Experienced and Friendly were offered.

When asked to offer a reason for their response, most indicated that they " were often the only member of staff that others could come to with issues, " or that they "managed the operation on a daily basis. The difference between leadership and management: When asked for the reasons for the barriers a number of responses were offered.

These are included in Table 4. Interviews were conducted on site, in a ward office or dining area and at a time that was convenient to the staff member.

Each potential interviewee was approached either opportunistically, when the interviewer was on site or at a pre-arranged time following a phone call to make an appointment. No one was coerced into an interview and consent was sought in each case. Questions focused on a number of areas identified as significant following an analysis of the questionnaire data and as a result of a predetermined field of enquiry about clinical leadership.

Detailed demographic data was not recorded to aid in participant anonymity. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim then subjected to a thematic analysis using an Nvivo 6. This involved detailed analysis, reading and re-reading each interview and identifying categories, sub-themes and themes within the data that outlined and explained the interviewee's understanding of clinical leadership and other related issues.

Six themes were identified from the data analysed Tables 5 and 6. These themes developed as respondents discussed their role at Swan Care Group, Bentley.

In describing their role respondents suggested:. Management activities were not mentioned and in general each respondent saw themselves as central to the delivery of clinical care and the coordination of care in general. The difference between a manager and a leader: Many characteristics were used to describe clinical leaders. These fell into a number of sub-themes that supported many of the attributes identified in the questionnaire aspects of the study. These themes suggested that clinical leaders needed;.

It was also suggested that clinical leaders could be identified at any level of the clinical team. Preparation for the role: Most comments suggested that the respondents felt well prepared, by having previous experience, seminars and adequate university preparation, although a number of respondents sought further education or had had no formal preparation for their leadership role or any management functions they may have been required to undertake.

This theme resulted from questions about how they, as clinical leaders managed to encourage initiative and participation or involvement from their colleagues. Barriers to leadership potential: This theme resulted from direct questions about the barriers that clinical leaders faced in the aged care environment.

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Also identified was a lack of time to carry out certain roles. As only four participants undertook both the questionnaire and interview it can be stated that the research has covered a substantial number of the senior nursing and care home management staff and as such offers valid and detailed research data.

Leadership and management in health and social care

Between March and June there was a potential of 20 senior nurses or care home managers that could have taken part in both aspects of the study. A computing device with a browser and broadband internet access is required for this module. Any modern browser will be suitable for most computer activities. Functionality may be limited on mobile devices. Any additional software will be provided, or is generally freely available.

However, some activities may have more specific requirements. For this reason, you will need to be able to install and run additional software on a device that meets the requirements below. The screen of the device must have a resolution of at least pixels horizontally and pixels vertically. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs. Find your personal contacts including your tutor and student support team:.

Help with accessing the online library, referencing and using libraries near you:. Your feedback is important to us. Please take two minutes at the end of your visit to help us improve our information and services. Yes, take now Yes, take later No thank you. You are viewing information for England. Module details Entry requirements Module registration Study materials. What you will study Following an online learning guide, you will work with a combination of print, online resources and audio-visual materials designed to get you thinking and to build your understanding and skills.

The module is structured around key aspects of leading and managing in health and social care, with four main blocks of study: Block 1 Approaching leadership and management You will begin by exploring what it means to be a leader or a manager in health and social care today, examining how the two roles differ yet complement each other, and sometimes overlap. Block 2 Managing relationships In this block you explore two constants at the heart of any management role — change and human relationships. Block 3 Creating the caring environment In Block 3 you move from focusing on relationships between people, to relationships between people and their surrounding environments.

Block 4 Leading for ethical and quality care Having considered the practical context within which managers and leaders operate, in the final block you are encouraged to question the ethical requirements of good leadership and management in care. To ensure that your learning can be applied to real-life contexts, two key recurring devices are used throughout the module: Vocational relevance This module has been designed for people in health and social care working in frontline, administrative and leadership positions.

Outside the UK While the module draws on case studies and examples from the UK, the core ideas and theoretical approaches are relevant to any context. Teaching and assessment Support from your tutor You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material. Assessment The assessment details for this module can be found in the facts box above.

Course satisfaction survey See the satisfaction survey results for this course. Entry requirements You are not required to have done any study in this area before, but bear in mind that this is an OU level 3 module.

Study costs There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as a laptop, travel to tutorials, set books and internet access. Pay by instalments — OUSBA calculates your monthly fee and number of instalments based on the cost of the module you are studying. In some cases in the past, managers have exaggerated the decision-making authority of SMWTs in order to gain team member support.

CNA teams typically hold at least one min sit-down meeting a week. The CNAs choose a day and time to meet that they feel is best for them e. Ideally, all CNAs on duty attend the meeting and, while they are meeting, the nurses assist with the CNA duties such as answering call lights residents' requests for assistance.

These individuals are responsible for making sure that a the team meets each week, b the team meetings focus on what has to be covered, c everyone on the team has an opportunity to share their views during the meeting, and d notes are taken during the meeting and later shared with the Team Contact. The team may choose to rotate the coordinator position every 3 months or so. Typically, when it is time to rotate the team coordinator position, the backup coordinator becomes the new team coordinator and a different CNA is selected by the team to be the backup coordinator.

In some cases, the CNAs will prefer not to rotate the coordinator position. This typically occurs when the coordinator has been effective in this role and has maintained an equal status as opposed to supervisory status with the other CNAs. During the CNAs' first meeting, good interpersonal skills should be defined. This includes the importance of listening, the fact that no idea is a bad idea, the importance of not dominating discussion, and the importance of showing respect to all team members.

Teams are further informed of their new responsibilities, which may include identifying ways to improve particular work processes and providing clinical staff with weekly reports on resident health and well-being. Training is typically provided by a team facilitator.

This should be someone who is nonthreatening to the team and has the knowledge needed for the training. Experience from our pilot study suggests that interpersonal skills training is best provided as on-the-job training. That is, as the CNAs interact during their meeting, the facilitator may gently note when a lack of interpersonal skills is displayed e. Once the team has received training, the team facilitator should attend team meetings every other week and then slowly reduce visits as the team develops. This allows the teams to begin functioning independently.

In our pilot study, we found that when the facilitator attends the CNA meeting every week, the teams can become dependent on the facilitator. In contrast, if the facilitator does not attend any meetings, the CNAs will not be fully trained and will sometimes lack focus. The goal is for the team facilitator's presence at weekly meetings to be reduced over time, reflecting the team's development and maturity. CNA teams are typically organized by shift and location. This means that they typically work during the same shift and on the same floor s or wing s of the nursing home.

Or they may work on two different shifts but serve the same residents. During a sit-down meeting, the CNAs focus on issues identified by management e. For example, the team may have learned from the nursing home's DON that a number of residents and their family members have complained that when the resident is being fed breakfast the food is cold. The DON has asked the team to develop a more efficient process for passing out trays so that the residents will be fed hot food.

Perceptions Of Clinical Leadership In An Aged Care Residential Facility In Perth, Western Australia

Once a potential solution is selected by a team, it can be presented by one of the team members to the appropriate management person. This is typically the manager who presented the issue to the team or, if the issue originated from the team, the manager who is most directly associated with the issue. The manager s then reviews the team's potential solution and as soon as possible provides feedback to the team.

The manager s may choose to accept the CNA team solution as is, may suggest some changes to it, or may point out serious shortcomings of the solution. In the latter case, the CNA team is typically lacking some crucial information, such as how early food can be delivered or how much the food service staff can be expected to do.

When the CNA team is lacking information, the manager s must take responsibility for providing the CNA team members with the information they lack and then allowing the team to reassess its solution with this additional important information in hand. It is crucial that the management person s always be supportive of the team during this catch-ball process. Even poor choices by the team are likely to have some merits that can be highlighted.

Further, it is important that management not have a solution already in mind and force the team to continue reconsidering solutions until the solution matches that of management.

A comic tale: finding new ways to tell social care stories

In this situation, the team members soon recognize that it does not matter how seriously they take the problem or how hard they work to find a solution; whatever they propose will be rejected until it reflects what the manager wants. This quickly results in a team that stops problem solving. It is also valuable for managers to allow teams to try their solutions even when the solutions do not appear to be workable—as long as the solution will not harm a resident or otherwise have significant adverse effects.

Teams can grow substantially by being allowed to make mistakes, recognize them, and make corrections. The successful implementation and management of SMWTs in nursing homes will depend on having the full support from the nursing home management, providing thorough training to management and CNA teams, providing teams with the information needed to make good decisions, allowing the teams time to meet regularly, and encouraging management to routinely interact with the teams in a catch-ball feedback style.

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