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:

In-Person Training

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/ 

Some considerations:

1. The same ratio of trainers to trainees must be followed (1:10 or 2:20).
2. You may choose to demonstrate competencies and test your staff immediately as the competencies come up during your training (as you normally would pre-pandemic), or you can choose to skip those competencies and test your staff at a later time, maybe in smaller groups or 1:1.
3. If your organization decides that staff should not be in physical contact with each other- you can also choose to abbreviate the curriculum in a way that gives your participants restrictions on all physical competencies.
   • a. Remember that if someone has a restriction they’re not allowed to use that procedure until that restriction is removed (see page 7 of Compliance Standards for more information about removing restrictions).
   • b. You can still teach Differential Reinforcement without physical contact and De-Escalation by using the Safety Stance or shadow version of Elbow Check.

Online 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.

Therefore, if you’re conducting an online training you can:

• Restrict all your participants in the competencies, or
• Skip competencies during your online training and check off your participants at a later time when you’re able to be 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.

Some additional QBS guidelines for remote training:

1. Must be a live training (not recorded)
2. Must have 2-way video and audio
3. The ratio of Trainer to Trainee still apply (1:10, 2:20)
4. You may choose to demonstrate (not test or certify) competencies or skip them altogether during your online training.
   • a. You can show the videos on trainer connect by sharing your screen
   • b. You can use another adult in your home to act as the individual
   • c. Remember no competency can be taught online
   • d. Wait until you’re in-person to pass competencies (if you need to)
     • i. You can meet 1:1 or in groups with your staff to check off competencies
     • ii. Still follow the Safety-Care Errorless Teaching procedure for all procedures (verbal and physical)
   • e. Role-plays should also be done in-person
   • f. The written test can be done in-person or sent electronically. Digital copies of the written test and training agreement can be found on Trainer Connect

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