AHCA/NCAL Leadership Training

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The Shift Coach Training​ teaches nursing home leadership how to achieve widespread consistent use of infection prevention and control practices. The training includes how to engage all long term care facility staff in infection control practices. The training builds on the body of evidence supporting how leadership can implement a safety of culture resulting in high reliability in health care, leading to consistent use of infection prevention and control practices by long term care staff through engaging in a just-in-time peer coaching process. The curriculum provides short modules to breakdown a large topic into manageable pieces. The training is appropriate for facility leadership, infection preventionists, unit supervisors, and department leads. 

After attending this training, participants will be able to:

• Describe what a shift coach is and their relationship to the infection preventionist and infection prevention and control improvement process.
• Identify characteristics in a shift coach.
• Implement shift coaches and huddles into everyday practice.
• Discuss how to sustain a shift coach program for infection prevention and control improvement efforts.

 
Registration Fee – None 
CEs: 2 contact hours nurse credits through the Iowa Board of Nursing are available upon course completion.

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Nursing Home Administration: Beyond the Essentials is a multi-faceted training and resource program for nursing facility administrators, Administrators in Training (AITs), Directors of Nursing (DONs), clinical and operations. This comprehensive package dives into the major components required for successful nursing facility management through training videos, action briefs, guides, and checklists.  Two of the programs cover leadership development.
 

• The Path to Performance Improvement: Leadership Development and Team Building Learners will gain a high level understanding of how leading through a Performance Excellence Framework can be effective, recognize techniques for leadership development and identify team building models.

• Leading Across Generations

 
Registration Fee – $450 for members and $650 for non-members

CEs – The full course is approved for 21.50 NAB CEs for administrators and 21.50 contact hours for nurses through the Iowa Board of Nursing upon reviewing all the videos and completing a final exam. However, any of the 110+ resources in this program can be used a-la-carte without CEs allowing users to choose any training component as needed making the program a powerful “go to" reference resource.  ​

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Leadership Academy​ teaches practical skills to help facility leaders build trust with their staff. Trust is at the heart of many challenges long term care leaders face.  Trust impacts staff well-being, recruitment and retention, patient safety, infection control, and vaccine rates. This virtual 15-week interactive program includes easy-to-use tools and resources to help build trust at all levels of the organization.

The Leadership Academy is for long term care leaders and managers, both clinical and non-clinical in nursing homes or assisted living. This includes administrators, DONs, senior leaders, department heads, infection preventionists, quality improvement leaders, unit leaders, and beyond. The program includes two 90-minute kickoff orientation webinars, bi-weekly calls, pre-work and weekly assignments to apply skills learned within the participant's organization.

Registration Fee – None for 2025 (Final Year of CDC Grant)

CEs – None

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The NCAL State Leader program​ is an assisted living leadership and governance program for assisted living providers involved with their state affiliate. NCAL State Leaders are vital members of NCAL's leadership and represent assisted living nationally and at the state level. The program focuses on advocacy and governance. Participants set personal and professional goals that further their career and work in the senior living profession.  NCAL State Leaders are familiar with their state affiliate and AHCA/NCAL and preferably hold a leadership role such as assisted living state affiliate board/committee chair or vice chair. NCAL State Leaders are chosen by the State Affiliate association and submitted to NCAL.

NCAL State Leaders serve two-year terms.  They participate on two annual conference calls, attend the annual NCAL State Leader business meeting held in conjunction with AHCA/NCAL's Congressional Briefing and read one leadership-focused book a year.  NCAL State Leaders vote on the NCAL Board of Directors and on amendments to the NCAL By-Laws.

Registration Fee: There is not a registration fee for the NCAL State Leaders Program. AHCA/NCAL covers most travels costs to attend the in-person meeting at Congressional Briefing.

CEs – None

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Assisted Living organizations faced numerous challenges over the past decade.  Long term care has shifted to providing care and services to more acutely ill residents.  Assisted Living administrators and nurses have the task of knowing and understanding state specific regulations, standards of practice, and how to implement them effectively.  Leaders must balance the technical skills of running an assisted living community with the essential soft skills of being a team leader.  Technical skills and leadership skills are necessary to effectively run a successful organization.

This course helps you adopt the right mindset and communication practices.  You will learn the critical role you play in the mission, vision, and values for your team and your organization.  Learners will build their knowledge about emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, relationships navigation, and the power of data.

After viewing this course, learners will be able to:

• Discuss how mindset plays a role in leadership style.
• Describe the essentials to leadership development.
• Discuss how mission, vision, and values are conducted by the organizational leadership team through their actions.
• Explain how emotional intelligence plays a role in leading and understanding team dynamics.
• Identify strategies for conflict resolution and relationship navigation with employees and other leaders.
• Describe the importance of data in leading successful organizations.

This course is appropriate for administrators, nurses, and department managers working in assisted living. 

Registration Fee: $199 NCAL Member/$249 Non-member
CEs: 4.50 NAB approved CEs are available upon completion and 4.0 contact hours for nurses through the Iowa Board of Nursing.​

​​Advancing Assisted Living Leadership​​​​​

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Working in post-acute and long term care is rewarding and stressful due to the demands and pressures. The workforce crisis and COVID-19 have exacerbated this stress, creating even more challenges for those who work in long term care. This course is aimed at reinvigorating your passion for long term care by providing you with tools and resources you can immediately use to decrease your perceived stress levels and help your team members do the same to aid with staff retention. Mindfulness-based stress reduction learned in this training can help put self-care back into your daily routine and support you in doing what you do best. 
 
Course Objectives:

• Identify what stress is.
• Identify why we fail at self-care.
• Examine the importance of self-care.
• Describe the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program.
• Discuss how to use the MBSR program to improve staff retention, resiliency, and job satisfaction.
• Describe how to establish an MBSR program peer support group.
• Discuss the sustainability of MBSR programs.
• Identify which MBSR program strategy you can implement today to decrease your stress.
  

Registration Fee: $199 for AHCA/NCAL members/$249 for non-members.  Additional discounts are available for groups of 26+.

​Long term care facilities are incredibly stressful environments.  Working with people can be stressful. The staffing crisis and COVID-19 have exacerbated the stress, creating even more challenges for those who work in long term care.  This session is aimed at reinvigorating your passion for long term care by providing you with tools and resources you can immediately use to decrease your perceived stress levels and help your team members do the same.  Self-care is essential and the secret to surviving stressful situations.
 
After completing this course, learners will be able to:  

Staff trust leaders when they believe that they care about them (empathy), have faith in their judgment and competence (logic), and think they are acting with the real person (authenticity). When trust is absent between leaders and staff in long term care facilities, vaccination uptake, patient safety, quality of care, and staff well-being are all negatively impacted.   Based on the science of trust building, this 4-lesson virtual program is full of tools and resources to help leaders build trust with staff.    

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After completing this course, learners will be able to:  

• Assess the presence of trust in your facility  
• Identify the impact of experienced inequities on building trust  
• Ask open-ended honest questions and listen for understanding in conversations with staff  
• Use a one-to-one meeting to build trust and secure commitments   
• Address misinformation in a culturally sensitive manner  
• Facilitate psychologically safe conversations among teams  
• Elicit and connect to people's shared values to motivate commitment to vaccinations  
• Design and implement a strategy to build trust across the organization  

This course is designed for formal and informal leaders within long term care in both clinical and non-clinical roles.  This includes administrators, Directors of Nursing, medical directors, senior leaders, department heads, as well as infection preventionists, quality improvement coordinators and influential staff. Learners in a wide range of roles and across diverse cultural contexts and geographies will find value in the course. Learners are encouraged (but not required) to enroll with a colleague with whom they can practice the skills and offer one another feedback. 

Participation in the course requires 2-3 hours per session for four sessions, including video lectures, readings and time applying the new knowledge and skills. Time commitments vary per session.  At the end of this course, learners will receive a certificate of completion. To receive this certificate, learners must: