Practical Applications
Practical Applications shares incubator examples of implementation and provides opportunities to reflect on how this type of communication happens in your home.
The experiences of incubator homes demonstrates that these four foundational practices give organizations their best opportunity to know and meet the individual needs of each resident. The first practice provides stability and consistency at the point of care, through consistent assignment. Then, through the use of huddles (the second practice), staff check in regularly and frequently with each other to collaboratively care for residents throughout the day and share what they know as the clinical team works to prevent adverse events and maximize well-being. Through involvement in QI huddles and care planning (the third and fourth practices), staff closest to the residents work with the rest of the organization to meet residents’ clinical needs and customary routines.
These practices are mutually reinforcing. When staff work consistently with the same residents, they get to know them intimately and can notice subtle differences that may be early indicators of acute developments that need attention. When staff have a place to share what they are seeing and talk it through with others who have the clinical expertise and insight, they are able to better care for the person, and the organization is able to better support the staff in providing individualized care.
Click on each of the links below to explore Practical Applications by practice:
For implementation guidance and how-to’s, please visit Pioneer Network’s web-based Starter Toolkit and the Engaging Staff in Individualizing Care Implementation Handbook.
Developed by Amy Elliot, PhD, Sonya Barsness, MSG and Barbara Frank. Based on B&F Consulting’s method for Engaging Staff in Individualizing Care, incubated in Pioneer Network’s National Learning Collaborative on Using the MDS as the Engine for High Quality Individualized Care. Funded by The Retirement Research Foundation
