Credentialing dementia training: the Florida experience

Florida is a leader in requiring that all direct care staff employed in assisted living, nursing homes, hospice, adult day care and home health undergo Alzheimer's disease (AD) training. Legislative requirements prescribe the curricula components and require a review of curricular content and minimum standards for the training providers.

We describe Florida's AD training program review process, and report the results of our review of 445 curricula received over four and a half years.

On initial submission, over 90% of curricula submitted did not include learning objectives, time formats or didactic approach. During a review of content we often found inaccurate information, language that was not person-centered, and missing required training components.

Form and content problems were prevalent across all curricular types. We propose the Florida credentialing program as a model to ensure that accurate and educationally sound curricula are used to train direct care workers.