Home Care Chronic Disease Prevention Program for Certified Nursing Assistants
Increasing CNAs' knowledge and skills to help patients manage chronic disease

A grant funded program of The Fullerton Foundation, Inc.

The demand for home-based services continues to grow as the U. S. population continues to age. CNAs provide home-delivered services relied upon by providers, patients and their families. With the escalating use of and demand for CNAs comes the opportunity to build additional skills into Certified Nurse Assistant training to prepare them for a more active role in the care of patients with chronic disease. Teaching CNAs chronic disease management skills can broaden their capacity to help patients with chronic disease.

Expanding home health care training
CNAs often work in isolation, performing basic but necessary tasks for the patient at home. Often, they are the healthcare provider with the most frequent and consistent face-to-face patient contact. CNAs possess important information about their patients' home environment and functional status. Some CNAs see their patients daily. However, with limited training confined to performing tasks related to activities of daily living (bathing, feeding, etc.,) CNAs have little opportunity to inform the health care provider and less opportunity to support the patient's chronic disease team to improve the health of their patients.

Enhanced training to prepare CNAs to provide simple chronic disease management, including basic nutrition and physical activity training to reduce the patient's burden of chronic disease, is expected to improve patients' quality of life and reduce the demand for nursing home care. Coupled with rewards for having learned new skills, the CNA is more likely to experience job satisfaction and remain in the health workforce. Some may seek further training to move into more advanced areas of health care. Thus, enhanced training will help the patient, the CNA and the patient's medical team.

CNA training goals
Duke Community Health's CNA training program is operated in conjunction with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. The CNA training program will strengthen chronic disease care by building CNAs' knowledge and skills, allowing the CNA to be able to contribute to patient care beyond performing tasks related to Activities of Daily Living. The curriculum for the CNA Home Care Chronic Disease Prevention Program consists of nine sessions, each ninety minutes in length and is designed to:

• Increase the CNA's knowledge and skills concerning chronic disease, including patient coaching skills, to decrease the patient's burden of chronic disease. Specific areas of concentration include nutrition, physical activity and smoking cessation.
• Enable CNAs to serve as integral members of the patient's healthcare team.
• Increase the knowledge and skills of CNAs to manage and improve their own health behavior, reducing the likelihood of their own chronically illness.

Each training module integrates basic physiology, clinical care guidelines, appropriate preventive care methods and motivational interviewing techniques.

The training program is delivered both through live sessions and teleconferencing, offered in the spring and fall. Duke Community Health facilitates sessions in North Carolina, and the University of South Carolina, School of Medicine, facilitates sessions in South Carolina. Course material and teaching aids for each of the nine training modules are available on-line under Resources

Partners:
University of South Carolina School of Medicine

For more information

Call (919)681-5724 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or visit our web site at http://communityhealth.mc.duke.edu

Fullerton CNA Program
Division of Community Health
Department of Community & Family Medicine
Duke University Medical Center
DUMC 2914
Durham, North Carolina 27710
Phone: (919) 681-5724
Fax: (919) 681-3371