In previous years, Safety-Care was always trained in-person in its entirety. Now as organizations are in different stages of open/remote/hybrid, training can take other forms. It is important for trainers to understand all the options available for certifying their staff in Safety-Care, in order to choose the best option for their organization. Even if the organization is closed or completely remote, you can still certify and recertify your staff so that their certifications do not lapse.
You can find more information on our website qbs.com and on our COVID-19 updates page: https://qbs.com/safety-care-standards-and-recommendations-regarding-coronavirus-disease/ . Remember that you do not have to wait until everyone is working in person again to conduct your trainings. Let us go over some options below:
If you are planning on conducting the entire training in-person, it will look similar to previous years. However, it’s still very important to keep everyone safe in the time of COVID-19. QBS has released a set of recommended precautions for specialist in-person training which can be found here: https://qbs.com/safety-care-infection-control-precautions-for-specialist-training/
If your organization has not transitioned to in-person instruction, or you would like to limit your staff being in the same room, you can conduct an online training. Please note that no competency (DR, DE, physical procedures) can be taught online: competencies have to be taught in-person.
However, for those staff who are staying in a remote position, it may be acceptable to go through the curriculum without teaching competencies since they will not be in-person. Whereas, for staff that are expected to use Safety-Care procedures (verbal and/or physical), you will need to schedule a time outside of the online training to check off their competencies, in order for them to still be certified to use these skills on the job.
The way you choose to conduct Safety-Care training for your organization will depend on local and state guidelines, internal policies, the comfort level of staff and trainer, and whether the agency is fully open, hybrid, or closed at the time of training. By allowing flexibility with online training, modified in-person, or hybrid, we hope that organizations will take advantage of these options so that certifications do not lapse during this pandemic. In addition, Safety-Care training will be one less thing on your plate when things get back to “normal”.
Sources:
Safety-Care compliance standards
Keywords: online training, training Safety-Care, training during COVID, modified in-person training, hybrid training