NOTE: the grant supporting this initiative has been extended to June 30, 2022. Please register today!
Under a grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, the Home Care Association of New York State Education & Research (HCA E&R), Iroquois Healthcare Alliance (IHA) and clinical faculty at the Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) are delivering web-based training for home health RNs and other personnel on COVID-19 testing procedures that can be conducted at home.
This complimentary training is open to all home care personnel in New York State whose scope of practice permits testing (i.e., nurses and respiratory therapists).
As the current medical emergency has shown, the risk of COVID-19 infection is greatest in the community, where home and community-based organizations serve the medical, social and assistive needs of nearly 900,000 patients throughout New York State. These include individuals with COVID-19 as well as New Yorkers at greatest risk: the elderly and persons with disabilities or suffering from a range of underlying, chronic health conditions.
To get tested for COVID-19, most individuals must leave their homes. For homebound patients and others in home care, this structure is not only inconducive but it’s also a potential danger to a patient’s health, especially if the only available testing option is to go to a congregate setting.
This initiative offers a path to testing-in-place for the safety of patients. It also promises more timely results for the protection of home care personnel taking every precaution against exposure through protocols specific to confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The course is hosted by the IHA Healthstream learning platform. First you need an account by completing the “Letter of Participation” form below to indicate your organization’s interest in participation. From there, we will follow up with instructions for logging into Healthstream with individualized user accounts. This platform that gives you the ability to:
- Take the COVID-19 Test training course.
- Print a certificate of completion for the course.
- Use any device to access the training (laptop, tablet, etc.)
- Enroll in other COVID-19 courses available through Healthstream at no cost.
Need Further Assistance?
If you have any further questions after reading our Q&As — or if you haven't gotten a reply to your enrollment request (within one business day) — please contact us at covid19@hcanys.org.
Complete the Letter of Participation To Get Started
- Complete and submit the “Letter of Participation” form below to indicate your organization’s interest in participation. Participation is available on a first-come, first served basis. By completing the submission form, you are reserving your organization’s place in the HCA E&R COVID-19 test training course and identifying the number of employees to initially be trained through the program.
- After you submit the online form below, HCA E&R will send you an Employee Enrollment Roster (Excel spreadsheet) that should be returned to HCA E&R. Instructions are included in the Template. Additional Student Rosters may be submitted after the initial submission. The course will be made accessible once the Student Roster Import Template has been completed and imported into the Healthstream platform. Once import is completed, you will receive a list of user names and passwords for all your employees on the submitted roster and a set of instructions on how to access the course.