The Ohio Council for Homecare & Hospice is excited to announce our participation in a study funded by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) through a Workforce Safety Innovation Center grant to The Ohio State University. This post will introduce the project, and give you details on how to get involved!
The Study
The study will develop an interactive web-based health and safety training program for home health-care workers, to improve engagement and learning transfer, enabling workers to detect and manage hazards in client homes effectively. The project includes assessing implementation barriers and focusing on enhancing safety knowledge and training outcomes in the field of home health care.
Dr. Sarah Anderson and her research team at OSU, including Co-Investigators Dr. Steve Lavender, Dr. Carolyn Sommerich, and Ms. Marilly Palettas, will be working alongside the Council’s Katie Gallenstein, Development and Policy Director, and Lisa Von Lehmden, Executive Director, to recruit and work with member agencies to assist in this game changing project. The collective goal, quite simply, is to create technology that will enhance the lives of in-home care workers by ensuring their own safety is at the forefront of importance.
“It is an honor to partner with The Ohio State University’s passionate and dedicated researchers, led by Dr. Anderson,” said Lisa Von Lehmden. “At the Council, our home care agencies are embracing technology in all areas of care. Developing this new, advanced resource to address the safety of caregivers themselves is a huge win, and will be a powerful tool in creating, augmenting, and protecting our workforce.”
You can read the full BWC press release via this link, which includes information about other exciting projects in our state to protect Ohioans at work through this $9.4 million initiative.
How to Participate
You are invited to participate in a small group interview session to talk with researchers about ideas for improving computer-based occupational health and safety training for home healthcare worker.
The overall goal for this research project is to develop an enhanced version of an existing software program that is designed to be an engaging and effective means of training home healthcare workers about hazards in client homes that pose a health and safety risk to home healthcare workers and how to address those hazards. The purpose of this particular part of this research project is to gather ideas from you and other home healthcare workers about the best ways to enhance the training software program.
Participants must be at least 18 years old and have at least 3 months experience working in home healthcare. We invite participation from home health aides, caregivers, OT, PT, nurses, and others who work with clients in their homes, as well as agency trainers and managers/owners.
If you are interested, please send an email to: sommerich.1@osu.edu or call phone: 614-292-9965. We will determine if you are eligible to participate and will let you know the dates and times of upcoming small group interview sessions.
This study is conducted by researchers at The Ohio State University and has been approved by the OSU Institutional Review Board.
There are two informational handouts available for download via these links (pdf):
• Home Healthcare Worker flyer-home healthcare virtual simulation
• Home Healthcare Manager flyer-home healthcare virtual simulation
Depending on your browser settings, the links above may open in a new tab, new window, or save directly to your downloads or documents folder.
