Webinar on Nurse Delegation:
On Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 2:30 PM EST Susan Reinhard, RN, PhD, of AARP and national expert on nurse delegation, will moderate the webinar and provide an overview of nurse delegation. Bill Ditto, New Jersey Department of Human Services, will discuss a nurse delegation pilot program in NJ. Researchers from Rutgers who are evaluating the pilot will also be on the call (Jennifer Farnham and Nirvana Petlick). Connie Kalanek, PhD, RN, of the North Dakota Board of Nursing will discuss changes in ND to support nurse delegation; Linda Wurtz of ND AARP will also participate on the call.


Webinar on the Findings from DSW Demonstration Evaluation: On Monday, November 16, 2009 2:30 PM EST Sarah Hunter from the RAND Corporation and Laura Steighner from American Institutes for Research (AIR) presented the results from the evaluation of the 10 Direct Service Workforce Demonstration grants. CMS awarded the demonstration grants in 2003 and 2004 to better understand how to improve recruitment and retention of the direct service workforce.



Strategies for Improving DSW Recruitment, Retention, and Quality: What We Know about What Works, What Doesn't, and Research Gaps: This report provides examples of efforts that have demonstrated positive impacts on recruitment, retention, and quality of services by summarizing key findings from several national studies that reviewed the research on efforts to strengthen the direct service workforce.



Direct Service Workforce Core Competencies Annotated Bibliography: This resource was developed in response to requests from several states for information about developing core competencies for DSWs across sectors. Although each sector has its own sets of competencies, no state or national body has yet developed a common set of core competencies and career path for DSWs across the physical disabilities, aging, behavioral health, and intellectual/ developmental disabilities sectors. This annotated bibliography summarizes the recommendations from six state-level reports, two national studies, and a Federal bill to develop such competency-based training across sectors.



Strengthening the Direct Service Workforce in Rural Areas: Due to geographic isolation, fewer available services, transportation limitations, demographic trends reducing the supply of informal caregivers and less ability to recruit an adequate supply of direct service workers, many rural areas struggle with providing quality home-based supports. This issue brief contains a summary of the challenges of the direct service workforce in rural areas and strategies that rural stakeholders can use to provide high-quality long-term care services and supports.