Cross-training pairs therapists with mentors
A volunteer mentor program is the key to DeKalb Medical Center’s success in cross-training its therapists to work in several areas.Staff have three months to complete the cross-training competencies established by the clinical development committee, says Gayle Lindsay, OTR/L, clinical development manager at the hospital, located in Atlanta.
Therapists must review the skills needed to work efficiently in the other area and demonstrate them for their mentors.
"The therapists learn to work with any piece of equipment in that new area, to problem solve with every family, and to be familiar with what is going on in that environment," Lindsay says.
Therapists are expected to complete their cross-training within a three-month period; they are relieved of their regular duties during their cross-training but are responsible for making sure their shift is covered.
After they complete the program, they must work for at least 12 hours a year in the area in which they are cross-trained in order to keep up their skills.
All therapists are required to go through the cross-training, but being a mentor is strictly volunteer. Within a year of the program’s start in October 1996, each therapist is required to be cross-trained in at least one other area.
Therapists are exempt if they have worked in another area of DeKalb. For instance, a number of occupational therapists started out in acute care and transferred to the outpatient unit.
New staff may not be cross-trained until they have worked at DeKalb for a year. "We want to give them a chance to be familiar with their own area before learning about other areas," says Rachele Branson, OTR/L, rehab specialist and co-chairwoman of the committee that developed the competencies.
To pick the first group for the program, the committee looked at areas that historically needed extra coverage and started with people selecting those areas.
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