Local Company Named Training Partner in Federal Training Grant Award

Oregon City, OR, October 23, 2010 --(PR.com)-- aQuire Training Solutions, an Oregon City company owned by Sharon Brothers and Roger Jorgensen of West Linn, has been named the training partner for a three year federal training grant awarded to Southwest Oregon Community College.

aQuire Training Solutions will be responsible for creating online courses to train more nursing assistants and home health aides, vital to meet the growing needs of an aging population. Also partnering in this grant will be a consortium of eight Oregon community colleges and the Oregon Health Care Association. Together, they will develop a model program to increase caregiver training capacity, reduce caregiver turnover, and improve mentoring and ongoing training for direct care workers. This model program will create a state-wide network of training partners, providing online training in conjunction with classroom skills training and facility-based clinical experience.

The federal grant, awarded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, will go to fund the Oregon Online Nursing Assistant Home Health Aide (NAHHA) Training Initiative. This training initiative will develop, implement, evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of a statewide model by utilizing a combination of telehealth, web-based training with face-to-face lab and clinical instruction to train direct-care workers. Because of distance and accessibility, rural areas will be a particular focus of this web-based approach to increasing education capacity and the direct care workforce. With the aging of Oregonians, creating a robust, well-trained workforce is crucial to meeting the coming needs of aging adults.

aQuire Training Solutions is well experienced in creating and providing online training for caregivers and health care workers. Their team collaborated with Oregon Health Care Association over two years ago to create the first online Nursing Assistant Training program, currently utilized in partnership with community colleges, hospitals, career schools and nursing facilities throughout the state. The OHCA/aQuire course continues to be the only approved online nursing assistant course in the state, setting a standard for excellence in web-based education of direct care workers.

Oregon is facing major healthcare challenges as the number of older Oregonians with very complex healthcare needs is outpacing the supply of healthcare providers equipped with the knowledge and skills to adequately care for them. Between 2005 and 2030, the number of adults aged 65 and older in Oregon is expected to double. Thirteen percent of the population is over the age of 65 in the counties served by the partner community colleges (US Census Bureau State Rankings).

The participants in the grant will be creating a program that can be replicated in any state in the country, and will resent their findings at conferences throughout the country.

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Granter statement: $249,816 from a grant awarded under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration grants will be used in support of year one project activities. This project is 100% federally grant-funded.