The demands of caring for an elderly person can be physically as well as emotionally overwhelming. As a care home manager, it’s important to take care of your staff and help them manage caregiver stress before it snowballs into a bigger problem. The quality of care provided in any care home depends on the efficiency of its staff. While the well-being of the residents is your responsibility, you should also take care of your staff who may be overwhelmed by challenges that come along with caring for ill and ageing residents. Here are a few ways you can help your care home staff deal with caregiver stress:
- Look for signs of burnout: It’s common for care home staff to feel physically and mentally exhausted when they are doing the same job day in and day out. They may take frequent breaks, have low productivity at work and get upset or irritated at the slightest thing. These signs show that the caregiver is stressed out. The best way to deal with this issue is to identify these signs in the initial stage and address them properly.
- Have an SOP in place: You can improve the overall operational efficiency of the care home by ensuring that there is a standard operating procedure (SOP) in place for every task. For instance, an SOP will ensure that the care home staff isn’t interrupted during the medication round. As it can not only increase the care giver’s workload but also compromise on the safety of the residents. To improve staff effectiveness and productivity, conduct regular training sessions. These sessions also improve the confidence of the care staff and help them handle everyday issues.
- Manage vacation requests in advance: Within any work setting, it’s not uncommon for employees to request time off – and care homes are no exception. As we all know that stressed-out employees are not the most efficient employees. Make sure all the caregivers get a break on regular intervals so that they don’t overwork themselves. This time-off will give the caregivers an opportunity to do things other than caregiving. Once they are back from the break, they will be relaxed and rejuvenated and work efficiently.
- Switch to eMAR: Integrating technology can help you lighten the workload of caregivers. A lot of caregivers at care homes spend time using conventional MAR charts for documenting medication administration. Conventional MAR charts require the staff to fill in all the details manually. One has to skim through piles of papers to pull out a single piece of information. This manual documentation process is time-consuming and leads to medication errors.
How eMAR can help your care home?
By switching to eMAR, you can lower the caregivers’ workload and improve efficiency. With eMAR, caregivers can keep track of the patient’s medical records without having to go through piles of paper. The information will be accessible in a few minutes. eMAR sends alerts to care, workers, when the medicines are due, which ensures that residents are getting their medicines at the right time.
To know how eMAR can help your care home streamline medication administration, book a demo today.
