Pathway to the Future: How Workforce Development and Quality Jobs Can Promote Quality Care, May 23-25, 2004

摘要

The U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services jointly sponsored an invitational symposium on long-term care workforce issues on May 24-25, 2004 at the Wyndham Washington Hotel, D.C. The first joint effort of its kind between the two departments, the symposium was attended by nearly 140 thought-leaders across the nation representing the long-term care provider community, worker groups, long-term care and workforce development policy officials at the federal, state and local level, long-term care and economic development researchers, and federal and philanthropic funders. The symposium focused on what can be learned from research and practice to develop the long-term care paraprofessional workforce, enhance its performance and increase its retention. It consisted of a series of plenary sessions, each followed by facilitated, small group discussions. This framework allowed invitees with different perspectives and experiences related to the long-term care paraprofessional workforce and the workforce development sectors to reflect on what had been learned, share ideas, build relationships so that evolving interests in information sharing and research and demonstration ideas can be followed up and nurtured. Three themes were highlighted during the plenary and small group sessions: (1) the relationship between the performance of the paraprofessional long-term care workforce and the quality of care and quality of life of long-term care recipients$ (2) the potential of workforce development policies and practices to reduce vacancy and turnover rates among direct care workers and improve job performance$ and (3) the value of building alliances and stakeholder collaboration to solve workforce shortages.