Improving Patient Experiences and Outcomes Through Personal Care Aide Training

The rapidly aging US population is resulting in major challenges including delivering quality care at lower costs in the face of a critical health-care workforce shortage. The movement toward home care has dramatically increased the need for qualified, paid personal care aides (PCAs). Adequate PCA training that focuses on skills for person-centered, at home support is an imperative. This study provides evidence that clients of PCAs who have completed a comprehensive, evidence-based PCA training program, titled Building Training…Building Quality (BTBQ), report higher satisfaction and better health outcomes, compared to clients of PCAs with lesser or other training. A mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design was used to compare self-reported survey responses from clients of BTBQ-trained PCAs (treatment group) with responses from clients of non-BTBQ-trained PCAs (control group). Clients of BTBQ-trained PCAs had significantly fewer falls and emergency department visits compared to clients whose PCAs had no BTBQ training (P < .05). Conclusion: BTBQ-like PCA training reduces costly adverse events