Holdrege VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic staff receive refresher training

Conducted at the Cobblestone Inn’s conference center, the Holdrege VA CBOC staff received eight hours of instruction on a variety of subjects that focused on promoting efforts that result in outstanding care for Veterans while also building a highly trained and highly functioning team.

“(The training) is truly about empowering teams and improving patient care; making sure that our Veterans are receiving the highest care possible,” said Jennifer Gregalunas, RN, a VA health promotion disease prevention nurse who was one of four VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System staff members who served as instructors during the class. “(It’s also about) helping our teams by helping them learn more about the resources that are available to them.”

The VA’s PACT model is designed around a multidisciplinary team of staff members who work collaboratively to provide “patient-driven, proactive, team-based care focused on wellness and disease prevention resulting in improvements in Veteran satisfaction, improved healthcare outcomes and costs.” 

According to Lora Waechter, RN, a VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System care manager, the training is being conducted for PACT staff members at each VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System clinic. VA staff members at the Grand Island VA Medical Center and North Platte VA CBOC received the training a few days earlier.

Waechter said the training course is part of VA NWIHCS’ continuing “journey” toward becoming a high reliability organization focused on patient safety and care. The goal of the program is simple, yet extremely important, Waechter added. 

“What we are doing is helping ensure that all of our PACT teams are working to the highest capacity and that our Veterans are seeing the right provider at the right time,” she said. “It’s about empowering the teams that are already working so hard to provide care to our Veterans by helping them better understand all of the resources and tools that are available to them.”

The instructors said that most, if not all, of the participating Holdrege staff members had received their initial PACT 101 training several years ago. However, due to the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, that training was conducted in a virtual environment.

“Instead of having them learn in that virtual, computer-based environment, we’re going old school by conducting this training in a face-to-face setting in an offsite location,” said Rafiah Meekins, VA NWIHCS health education coordinator.  “By taking a day away from the clinic and allowing the staff members to focus on building their team, and learning together how to find answers to questions they have, and by conducting teambuilding and project exercises, we’re able to help them create that high-functioning team that we need to be able to provide Veterans with the high level of care they need.”

“That’s probably one of the most important aspects of this training,” Meekins added.

Angie Schilmoeller, a PACT social worker who works at the Omaha VA Medical Center, agreed.

“This allows (the staff) to come together and really focus on the training and learning how to more effectively work together,” she said. “In a normal day’s setting, that’s not something our PACT teams are able to do very often. So, hopefully the tools and skills they are learning here today will be taken back to the clinic and put into action. That, in turn, will have a significant impact on providing outstanding care for those Veterans they serve.”