integratedliving

We piloted a new Care Mentor role in the Ballina (NSW) area. The Care Mentor was to be an experienced frontline team member, who would provide peer-based, practical support. This included:

• Support to onboard new team members
• On-the-job coaching, and ‘shift shadowing’ 
• Support to navigate systems and processes 
• Real-time problem solving in the field
• Informal debriefing and peer support

The role was designed to operate alongside the existing management structure and to reduce the volume of operational escalations – rather than replacing management. 

We used a range of methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the Care Mentor role. This included internal workforce surveys, operational data captured by the Care Mentor, self-reported shift observations from the existing managers, and pre-post surveys of staff, clients and family members, conducted by ARIIA and Subject Matter Experts from Griffith University. 

The Care Mentor role appeared to drive improvements in a range of domains, as described below.

Care Mentor as a connector

The Care Mentor role served as a connector – linking team members, managers, clinical teams and clients. This, in turn, appeared to improve communication flows and coordination. In our internal survey, 67% of team members (n=24) reported improved communication, reduced duplication of queries, and faster resolution of issues, during the Care Mentor trial.

Care Mentor as a ‘friend in the field’

Another strong theme to come through was that of the Care Mentor as a ‘friend in the field.’

• Support - In qualitative discussions throughout the pilot, team members said they felt less isolated when working independently, and more supported through access to real-time peer guidance, coaching and debriefing.
• Role conflict - The creation of the Care Mentor role also significantly reduced role conflict – for instance, the experience of receiving competing demands, or incompatible requests from different people. In the ARIIA-administered survey, role conflict dropped by 1.07 points on a 7-point scale, from 4.18 before the Care Mentor pilot (n=9), to 3.11 afterwards (n=23), with p<0.05. 
• Emotional fatigue – Finally, the Care Mentor role may have reduced emotional fatigue for frontline staff. The result wasn’t significant, but the line of logic holds – that if people have more clarity about their role, and they feel more supported, then they will experience less emotional exhaustion.

Creating strategic space for more senior leaders

During the trial, managers appeared to receive a smaller volume of routine escalations and day-to-day operational queries. This finding was noted in manager interviews and in observational data – most likely because the Care Mentor absorbed a significant proportion of low-risk problem solving. This, in turn, should have enabled managers to focus more on leadership, oversight, and complex care issues.

Indications of improved service quality and client experience 

As the Care Mentor lifts the confidence and capability of frontline staff, we would expect to see an uplift in client care outcomes. The ARIIA-administered client survey showed small improvements in physical care and quality of care, but very small reductions in overall client satisfaction. We need to wait for the Care Mentor role to embed, to more accurately measure the impact of the change on clients. 

We will continue to scale the Care Mentor Model across our aged care business, and into other service areas with similar workforce needs. 

We are also developing a Frontline Mentoring Program, to build capability amongst staff who would like to become Care Mentors. The program will help to foster the key capabilities that we saw were needed in a Care Mentor, during the pilot. In conjunction, we will develop an organisation-wide training and resource library, to support consistent implementation of mentoring practice.

Key insights included:

 Workforce isolation is a key risk in community care.

• Team members really value real-time peer support. 
• Informal coaching and debriefing can help to build confidence and capability. 
• Small structural changes can significantly improve the staff experience.
• Connector roles are critical in dispersed care environments.