Home Care for Veterans: Training and Development Program

Introduction to Home Care for Veterans

Home care for veterans is a much-needed service today, as many VA hospitals no longer have the personnel to extend the kind of individualized care that so many veterans and patients require (Carter & Leach, 2011). Likewise, it is often the case that veterans cannot easily get to a hospital or doctor's office for care (Cole, 2014). Home care for veterans brings the services they need right to their homes. It provides the quality and attention necessary for facilitating health and improving personal environments (Barry, 2000). This training and development program will provide participants with a better understanding of what home care is and how it works for veterans, as well as some of the tools and knowledge that interested nurses will need to implement home care for veterans.

Needs Analysis

It became clear that the topic of home care for veterans needed to be addressed when so many hospitals began reporting an inability to meet the needs of patients due to understaffing and a lack of resources and training programs (Lutwak & Dill, 2013). Home care presents itself as an affordable, alternative means of obtaining and providing care for veterans (Connor, 2009). Indeed, home care as an alternative to traditional medical care is rapidly growing.

Training Goals and Instructional Objectives

The primary goal of this training program is to provide home caregivers with the specialized and instructive materials they will need in order to deliver first-rate home care to veterans. The aim is to direct participants to a fully licensed training program that they can attend for licensure, as well as to give insight to individuals who may be seeking information on the benefits of home care for veterans.

The secondary goal of this training and development program is to deepen home caregivers' sense of what it means to truly provide home care on a personal level. In many ways, home care is the most personal medical assistance that a provider can give, because it establishes a foundation for a support system that is built into the patient's life with as little inconvenience to the patient as possible.

The specific instructional objectives of this program are to:

1) Highlight the main goals of the teaching program — defining home care, understanding treatment modalities, and expanding support-system concepts.

2) Deepen and broaden trainees' commitment to home care for veterans.

3) Support the rationale for the need for more home care for veterans as an alternative to hospital care.

Location, Attendees, and Schedule

The location of the training program is to be in the local Ramada conference hall, which has comfortable seating for 120 attendees. The attendees are to be individuals interested in home care for veterans, whether they are already practicing nurses or simply interested in the option of receiving home care for a loved one. The program will run in the morning from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM, with a break for lunch and an afternoon session from 12:30 PM to 3:00 PM.

The training profile of this seminar is broad in the sense that this program is meant to appeal to a variety of individuals — not just nurses but also caregivers and individuals interested in receiving care. The audience is therefore expected to be diverse in terms of professionals and non-professionals. The purpose of this diversity is multifold.

First, a diverse audience brings a range of character and experience to the conference. This allows for a convergence of minds and discussion opportunities from which individuals can gain firsthand insight into the wants, needs, and capabilities of others — whether in the nursing, home caregiving field, or care-receiver category.

Second, it grants an opportunity for both sides of the home-care-for-veterans discussion to gather in one place, enabling those interested in providing home care to meet with those interested in receiving it. This facilitates contact among groups and paves the way for future growth in terms of those contracting home care and those providing it.

Third, the training population should consist of both those interested in giving and those interested in receiving care so that the two sides share the same expectations. The training and development program is therefore not geared toward elitism — the idea that only nurses should attend — but rather toward inclusivity, which is essential to building the kind of support structure so important and necessary for home care in the long run (Holmes, 2001).

Essentially, the program is geared toward highlighting what is unique and important about home care for veterans, as well as why it is a necessary, good, and important option to have available for both caregivers and care recipients.

References

Barry, C. B. (2000). Teaching the older patient in the home: Assessment and adaptation. Home Healthcare Nurse, 18(6), 374.

Carter, J., & Leach, J. (2011). Veterans, military sexual trauma and PTSD: Rehabilitation planning implications. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling, 42(2), 33–40.

Cole, R. (2014). Understanding military culture: A guide for professional school counselors. The Professional Counselor, 4(5), 497–504.

Connor, S. (2009). Hospice and palliative care. CRC Press.

Hammen, C. (2005). Stress and depression. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 293–319.

Holmes, C. (2005). The ultimate sales machine. Penguin.

Holmes, J. (2001). The search for the secure base. Brunner-Routledge.

Kirkpatrick, D. (1959). Techniques for evaluating training programs. Journal of American Society of Training Directors, 13(3), 21–26.

Lewis-Beck, M., Bryman, A., & Liao, T. (2004). The SAGE encyclopedia of social science research methods. SAGE Publishers.

Lutwak, N., & Dill, C. (2013). An innovative method to deliver treatment of military sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. Military Medicine, 178(10), 1039–1040.