Raising the rehab practice ceiling
September 27, 2021 | General
The Nexion Health and Reliant Rehabilitation partnership strives to raise the ceiling on our therapists “practicing at the top of their license”. To understand this further we asked Nexion Health’s VP of Quality, Tara Roberts why this is an important concept in this key partnership. “We don’t want to just settle for current practices and current skill levels. We want, well, we need to be in constant pursuit of clinician leadership, mentorship and practice skills growth to stay innovative and competitive while exceeding our stakeholders’ expectations.” Peggy Gourgues, Reliant’s COO also elaborated that, “Reliant’s Clinical Advancement Ladder was created to recognize therapists who have a high level of expertise in an area of clinical practice”.
The Clinical Advancement Ladder program allows therapists to specialize in one of many tracks including cardiopulmonary, dementia, dysphagia, geriatrics, neurology, orthopedics, or wound care. The three-level clinical advancement ladder concludes with an important emphasis on mentorship and education to fellow therapists. Roberts further explained, “Therapists in skilled nursing and long-term care settings teach their patients every day how to improve function, manage their chronic conditions and pursue independence. Therapists mentoring and educating therapists is just another way to ensure our residents benefit fully from these clinical advancement programs.”
The co-initiative became a focus and high priority during the pandemic for both organizations. In just a short time, 92 therapists who work in Nexion Health affiliates have achieved at least Champion Level 1 Therapist distinction with 16 more about to reach completion.
Both Roberts and Gourgues summed up their impression of the program with anticipation of the impacts this program will have on the experiences and outcomes of our residents in their rehabilitation journeys and in the increased job satisfaction of our therapists!