For maximum flexibility, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) now offers three online, self-paced options for COVID-19 infection control training for nursing homes. While completion of any of these trainings is no longer tied to Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding, they will help your nursing home partners continue to respond to the demands of COVID-19 in their care settings. Read on to learn which COVID-19 trainings will work best for your nursing home partners:
- CMS Targeted COVID-19 Training for Frontline Nursing Home Staff & Management is available now, with five specific modules designed for front line clinical staff and 10 designed for nursing home management. The training is now available to nursing homes through the CMS Quality, Safety & Education Portal.
- The CMS-CDC Fundamentals of COVID-19 Prevention for Nursing Home Management training series includes 13 topics that nursing home partners must know to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Each one-hour training will be housed on QIOProgram.org, with new topics released every Thursday through September 2020. Live Q&A sessions with CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be held twice a month through January 2021 to help nursing home teams stay on-track with the self-paced trainings. Certificates of Participation are now available to those who complete Fundamentals trainings and those who have participated in the past live trainings. Nursing homes can quickly identify the Fundamentals trainings that will meet their needs with this handy self-assessment.
- Nursing homes in COVID-19 hot spots can fast-track their training with Comprehensive National Nursing Home Training. This one-hour training offers intensive, fast-track instruction on infection prevention and control tailored to nursing homes located in areas with increasing COVID-19 infection rates. Please note: there are five individual Comprehensive National Nursing Home Trainings on the webpage that are all the same, we recommend viewing the July 21, 2020 recording as it was the last one.