Management training in long-term care.
The education of health care administrators faces its most dramatic change since the inception of the field. Recent discussions at the national level call for major overhaul of curricula and teaching modalities, including moving education to position students for evidence-based practice. This paper presents recommendations for incorporating training about chronic and long-term care into health care management curricula. It asserts that all health care management students should have a basic knowledge of the fundamental policy, operating, and financing principles of long-term care. The majority of people using the health care delivery system today, and increasingly in the future, suffer from chronic conditions. Long-term care services, although less expansive in structure, far outnumber acute care services and health plans. They will grow in the future to meet the portending demand. To maximize job opportunities and to optimize performance in any job, health care administrators need to know about the long-term care delivery system. This paper delineates critical topics pertaining to long-term care, organized according to 11 fundamental management areas in which the field is developing core competencies. The contents were derived from a year-long process of asking stakeholders in the various facets of long-term care what topics they thought were essential for administrators to know. The topics delineated in this document represent the consensus about essential knowledge that all health care administrators should have about long-term care, whether specializing in long-term care or following a more general management career. The education of health care administrators faces its most dramatic change since the inception ofthe field. Recent discussions at the national level call for major overhaul of curricula and teaching modalities, including moving education to position students to perform according to evidence-based practice. It is thus timely to consider content, as well as educational format. This paper presents recommendations for incorporating training about chronic and long-term care into health care administration curricula. It asserts that all health care administration students should have a basic knowledge of the fundamental policy, operating, and financing principles of long-term care.
Center for Health Care Innovation, Long Beach, CA 90815, USA. cevashwk@csulb.edu
Connie
C
Evashwick
D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D003479:Curriculum; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004500:Education, Graduate / Q000592:standards*; D006270:Health Facility Administrators / Q000193:education*; D006285:Health Planning; D006298:Health Services Administration / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities