CNAs - Focus on the Frontline

Over the last few years, the work of CNAs has become increasingly difficult, demanding and challenging, both physically and emotionally. They are providing life-sustaining care to residents who need them more desperately now than they ever have. In addition, the demography of our society indicates these numbers will only continue to increase, accelerating the complexity of the work they do. To handle this challenge, they must commit to learning everything they can about their specific residents as well as the aging and disabled population in general, so that they can provide the best care possible. Wow, that is a huge challenge! Our goal is to take on that challenge with them and give them some proven tools to help insure that their patients become, or remain, more independent by becoming more functionally fit.

We want to emphasize that we are not suggesting that this program will train CNAs to be restorative aides, or that this program will replace restorative nursing programs (but it is possible to utilize Functionally Fit™ to be counted as a restorative program to increase the case mix of a facility). We simply see a piece missing from the daily care of the chronic patient that restorative programs are not designed to address. That “missing piece” is functional fitness.

Functionally Fit™ is NOT an exercise program. Instead, it is a “one on one” functional training program that is designed to be implemented by CNAs as part of their patient’s daily care plan. And rightly so, functional fitness is as necessary as daily hygiene to keep a resident healthy! This is really the culture change that needs to take place… functional fitness training is not exercise… it is simply something that must be done, just like taking a bath, to stay healthy.

We believe that we have designed a unique program that can ultimately change the way we care for our institutionalized elderly. But this program won’t work unless the CNA is empowered with the knowledge, given the time, held accountable, and rewarded when they succeed.

Overall, it’s important to remember that any program like Functionally Fit™ will require the commitment of the total facility staff, from top to bottom. If you believe the Functionally Fit™ program could benefit your facility, please contact us for a personal consultation.