Trump Relaxed Training Rules For Nursing Home Staff By 90%, Just As Pandemic Hit: Failed Seniors
"Trump team relaxed training rules for nursing home staff just as pandemic hit." Caregivers can obtain a license in eight hours online, after which they’re responsible for protecting vulnerable residents. By Maggie Severns, Politico, July 15, '20.
Shortly after the first coronavirus outbreak ravaged a nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., the Trump administration moved to fulfill a longstanding industry goal — waiving the requirement that nurse’s aides receive 75 hours of training and allowing people who study only eight hours online to become caregivers during the pandemic. The industry had been fighting for years to reduce training requirements, saying they make it harder to recruit staff. The day after the administration announced the change, the industry rolled out a free online training program for certifying the new role — called a "temporary nurse aide" — that has since been adopted by at least 19 states.
Now, after more than 55,000 nursing home residents and workers across the country have died from the coronavirus, advocates for older adults and families of residents say they fear the change was premature, and contributed to the spread of the disease. Nurse's aides are often the main caretakers of residents, some of whom need round-the-clock monitoring; nurse’s aides are also on the front lines in implementing the cleaning and disinfecting practices that prevent the spread of Covid-19. "Working in nursing homes is complicated,” said Jesse Martin, vice president of the SEIU in Connecticut, which represents health care workers and has been pushing back against nursing homes hiring temporary nurse’s aides in the state. “You have PPE, you have infection control procedures. Putting someone brand new into the care setting with Covid is a recipe for disaster."
Asked about the waiver for nurse’s aide training, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services downplayed the change, saying workers still will need to complete the 75-hour training to become a certified nursing assistant after the pandemic is over. "CMS still requires that aides must have the competencies to provide nursing and nursing related services,” the spokesperson said. “Facilities are required to ensure that nurse aides are able to demonstrate competency in skills and techniques necessary to care for residents' needs, as identified through resident assessments, and described in the residents’ plan of care."
But for those who want to become temporary workers, the eight-hour online certification that was introduced by the American Health Care Association, and is currently being used in states including Connecticut, Maryland and Georgia, is easy to game. There is no requirement that students watch the required videos or download the assignments during the training, and there is only one untimed assessment.
A POLITICO reporter was able to register for the eight-hour program and obtain a temporary nurse’s aide certificate, using the internet to look up test answers, in less than 40 minutes...
Read More, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/15/coronavirus-nursing-homes-361510
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- "Trump Betrayed Seniors Just As COVID Hit, Reducing Training For Nursing Home Staff By 90%," Daily Kos, July 15, '20.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/15/1960939/-Trump-betrayed-seniors-just-as-COVID-hit-reducing-training-for-nursing-home-staff-by-90
Critics of this move point out that not only is this something that nursing home industry lobbyists wanted for the purpose of union busting and higher profit margins, with almost half of COVID-19 related deaths in the U.S. connected to nursing home staff and residents, the results have not been good for anyone. Politico explains that on top of it all, the eight-hour training and test program is a joke, easily gamed by looking online for answers.
States accepting this current 8-hour training program include Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia. And according to the American Health Care Association (AHCA)—that provides the training—Alabama, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia accept the training but “Additional training or other actions may be required.” Politico reports that the “additional” requirements in many of those states do not mean much in the way of training.
A spokesperson for the AHCA tried to hide behind the very dangerous work that many people, including those taking low pay to work as ”temporary nurses” at these facilities, saying that “We owe a debt of gratitude to any individual from any occupation who is willing to step forward and put their own lives on the line to contribute to making a difference in the lives of residents.” But the fact of the matter is that the nursing home industry has relied on underpaying staffs for decades and this has meant staff working multiple jobs “to make ends meet, which exposes them to a wider range of potential infections.”...