Editorial
OMNI demonstrates continued commitment to education
March, 2007
OMNI employees are set to sharpen their pencils again in preparation for training to extend their scope of practice.

This time around it’s the non-registered staff members who can take advantage of upcoming sessions that will equip them with new skills and more authority to better serve OMNI’s 1,300 residents. Between April and May, there will be two-day training sessions offered at six sites in the province. Some of the basic nursing skills to be taught include checking for vital signs, applying prescription creams, monitoring blood sugar levels and continence assessment.

It’s a sign OMNI remains committed to education and passionate about creating a work environment that allows employees to achieve their potential.

The fact the upcoming training is open to front-line workers in housekeeping, life enrichment and nutritional care, provides these employees with the chance to propel themselves in new directions.

“We really wanted to empower these people because they are the first set of eyes on the residents,” Candace Chartier, OMNI’s corporate project director, says. “We are encouraging them to work with the nursing teams in the homes to use their enhanced skills, as well as to participate on our best practice teams.”

Chartier says she hopes the training sessions will result in non-registered staff being better prepared and more knowledgeable.

With its commitment to supportive measures training for all staff underway, OMNI’s also awarding the opportunity for employees to make a contribution broader than their regular duties. Whether a person works in the laundry room or in the kitchen, they’ll learn the ways and be given the tools to better support and improve quality of life for residents who have dementia.

Becoming a supportive measures trainer has given one OMNI office manager a new perspective. Rosebridge Manor’s Margaret Earl told the OMNIway she expects this will help her better interact with residents when they approach her in the office of the Jasper long-term care home. “I never had participated in something like this before. It really gave me a chance to go above and beyond the call of office duty.”

When people go beyond the call of duty, it’s the residents who benefit. And, at the end of the day, as one administrator puts it, they leave with a sense of increased value and contribution.

In OMNI’s material for attracting new employees the company states an investment in people of an “unprecedented fashion.” These two recent initiatives are continuing proof that the company’s philosophies aren’t just written on paper. They are part of the core of how it does business.