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Improving transparency for Department Coordinators in long term care facilities

In 1980s and 1990s “long-term care” was primarily a range of services that were offered to frail older adults living in institutes that provided health care, personal care, and rehabilitation services, usually for extended periods of time. Quality management practices allow long-term care facilities to respond to environmental and industry changes. In the last few years, terms such as “total quality management” (TQM) and “continuous quality improvement” (CQI) represent the main innovation of the sector. In order to better sustain changes the training of key professional figures has became extremely important. Department coordinators are professionals involved the management of facilities and in the coordination of technical staff. They should be considered of primarily importance in change management process but, in many qualification systems, “department coordinator” is a qualification not precisely outlined. For this reason, vocational pathways to become department coordinator are not easily identifiable. As an effect, the acknowledgment and the exploitation of experiences and know-how learn in other Countries or other sectors is problematic. This affect in particular non-formal and informal training as for instance voluntary work which should be considered perfectly focused for the profession. Moreover, the changes in quality management approach in long term care institutes make the definition of “department coordinator” more difficult. In Germany, department coordinator professional profile is clearly defined and the training pathways disciplined by law. IDECO project aimed at making the German training model transferable in other contexts thanks to the application of the ECVET system. Preparatory context studies contributed to the adaptation of the model to target territories. The testing of the adapted model brought to the validation of a fully transferable model which could be replicated also in other contexts. The incorporation of the model into regional policy was the goal of mainstreaming activities carried out with policy makers. The consortium is composed by training agencies with specific know how in long term care facilities and European projects management. Partnership involves also social partners as employer associations and a trade union. The dialogue between these different categories helped to obtain transparency and recognition of learning outcomes and qualifications for department coordinator profile. Department coordinators often have the same responsibility of a manager but the remuneration of a common employers. The project demonstrated that an appropriate training for department coordinators guarantees better performances to the organization and contributes to the increase of services quality.

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