The National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) is pleased to announce the signing of a national contract with Minnesota State College and University System to provide internet based training for home care professional and para-professionals in the U.S. and around the world. The contract establishes a joint venture facilitated by Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, Rochester Community and Technical College which is located in Rochester Minnesota, home of the world famous Mayo Clinic.
The program, (RCTCLEARN.NET), has been in development since 2001, and is the leader in Internet based training for the Home Health Care and Hospice Industry. RCTCLEARN.NET currently offers 54 home care and hospice courses constituting 156 contact hours. These courses have been designed specifically for both professional and para-professional care providers, addressing their training and continuing education needs. Specific examples of course titles include; Basic Infection Control, Abuse and Neglect for Health Care Professionals, and Diabetic Care for Health Care Para-Professionals.
"This agreement will allow NAHC, to build the nations first integrated technology based, home care provider training system," said Dr. Ruth Constant, Chairman of the Board of NAHC. "We, at NAHC, are dedicated to making home care and hospice provider's lives easier, and strongly believe in advancing the use of technology as a means to that end. This agreement will become the cornerstone of a dynamic, technology based, training and education system, not only for our members, but for the entire home and community based provider industry," Dr. Constant continued.
According to Don Supalla, Rochester Community and Technical College's President, "RCTCLEARN.NET is an academic based learning system specializing in cutting edge training solutions for home care and hospice providers. Unlike others who have simply moved their existing courses to the internet, our programs and courses have been designed, developed and written specifically for internet based delivery."
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, The Nation's 5th largest university system, is comprised of 32 campuses; 7, 4 year campuses, and 25 * 2 year campuses, serving about 340,000 students. "Minnesota State Colleges and Universities strategy over the past 5 years has been to develop the nation's premier online public university," Linda Baer, Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities said. "Our vision has been to become a nationally recognized provider of internet based learning in critical areas of industry need like home care. This agreement is a huge step toward achieving that vision."
This new Internet based training system will be marketed to all home and community based providers through a National network of State home care and hospice associations, reaching approximately 30,000 homecare and hospice provider agencies and over 250,000 individual nurses, aides, and other care givers. "There are several providers of good web based training programs out there, but we were looking for something extraordinary," said Mr. Steve Lund, the Senior Director of State Relations at NAHC. "We were looking for a training and education system that; had an established curriculum to fit our industries specific needs, has the ability to add curriculum as needed, uses recognized university level curriculum development standards, has world wide delivery potential, and is still very affordable. RCTCLEARN.NET meets or exceeds all of those requirements, and I am very excited to be able to present this opportunity to home and community based care providers," Mr. Lund continued.
For additional Information contact Steve Lund, Senior Director of State Relations and Administrative Services, National Association for Home Care and Hospice: Phone; 1-202/547-7424, or E-mail at slund@nahc.org.