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The provision of staff development programs in adult day care centers
1Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Adult Day Care Center, Blacksburg, USA.
Background:
Little is known about staff development activities in adult day care (ADC) programs. Therefore, this descriptive study was used to compare existing center programs with research- and practice-derived "model staff development program" for orientation, inservice education, and continuing education opportunities.
Method:
A multi-step mail survey design was used to study licensed adult day care programs in Virginia (n = 38). The design produced a 92% (n = 35) response rate among eligible respondents.
Results:
Thirty-seven percent (n = 13) of the responding administrators described staff development activities that met the criteria for a model program. Despite limited financial support, Virginia centers are making an effort to provide comprehensive staff development opportunities for their staff.
Conclusion:
Centralized or regionalized programming may be two viable solutions for addressing unmet staff training issues for these community-based agencies. Moreover, because their staff tend to be interdisciplinary in nature, educational programming for an interdisciplinary audience will be in order.