In this episode, we talk with Robin VanHyning, Founder and CEO of Cornerstone Healthcare Training, about the sacrifice and selflessness it takes to be a caregiver, how to personalize the online learning experience for your students, the future of the caregiving industry, and much more.
In this episode, we talk with Robin VanHyning, Founder and CEO of Cornerstone Healthcare Training, about the sacrifice and selflessness it takes to be a caregiver, how to personalize the online learning experience for your students, the future of the caregiving industry, and much more.
Key Quotes:
“When a customer interacts with us, we hope they’ll experience a moment of kindness and compassion. You're never going to be a number with us. You'll know our names, we'll know yours. And our goal is to help you be successful because we know that we don't have any success without your success.”
“I was worried that in online learning, I wouldn't have a connection with students. But we know a lot of our students by name because we have video interaction.”
Sponsor:
Incredible Learning Experiences is brought to you by your friends at ProctorFree, an on-demand, convenient, and cost-effective online proctoring solution for education and corporate environments. Elevate your credibility and reputation while providing convenient learning opportunities for your target audience. Learn more at proctorfree.com
Links:
Cornerstone Healthcare Training
Mike Murphy: [00:00:00] this is Mike Murphy, the host of incredible learning experiences. And I'm joined today by Robin, from cornerstone healthcare training. Hi Robin,
Robin Vanhyning: [00:00:17] hi, Mike.
Mike Murphy: [00:00:17] can you tell us a little bit about your organization and the scope of your current role?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:00:22] Sure cornerstone healthcare training company is a licensed private vocational school and we offer long-term care workers, certifications. Those are caregivers that work in long-term care settings in Washington state. And then in addition, we offer continuing education for all caregivers everywhere. And as far as my role?
within the company, I am the founder And the CEO.
Mike Murphy: [00:00:47] And what is your, why? Why are you in this industry and doing what you're doing?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:00:51] We have a passion for serving those who serve others. When you, as a customer interact with us, we hope you'll [00:01:00] experience a moment of kindness and compassion because we believe that we need to take care of the caregiver and the providers that provide caregiving services. So you're never going to be a number with us.
You'll know our names we'll know yours. And our goal is to help you be successful in, in some way, make your job easier today because we know that we don't have any success without your success.
Mike Murphy: [00:01:25] Okay. And before I dig into some of the terminology, can you tell me about your community and what makes it unique?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:01:33] Yeah. I live in the San Juan islands, which is an archipelago of islands located in Washington state, but we're in the ocean in between Washington state and Vancouver island, British Columbia, and there's um, approximately 72 islands of which four. Are serviced by ferry. So the only way to get to us is by a boat or by a plane.
And it's about an hour ferry ride out to the islands, [00:02:00] very small communities, 3000 to 4,000 people on each of the larger islands. And, uh, it's very remote. We love it. Beautiful.
Mike Murphy: [00:02:09] So if someone were to live there and grow up there, do you just become familiar with water, travel and riding a ferry? Is it kind of like second nature?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:02:18] It is not convenient, um, because we are a tourist location. So there's always a juggle for who gets the space on the ferry. So you often have long waits, sometimes two to four hours for your next ferry, but we learn to just carry an overnight bag in our car and a good book.
Mike Murphy: [00:02:36] Wow. So there is, so have you had to stay overnight sometimes when you just weren't planning to do so. Is that that's just a Rite of passage. If you've lived there and you've taken the ferries, you've definitely had to have an overnight bag or you regretted not having one.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:02:49] definitely.
Mike Murphy: [00:02:50] That that's interesting. Um, I love that.
So thank you.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:02:54] You live a different pace of life. You're much slower and you go with the rhythms.
Mike Murphy: [00:02:59] I imagine [00:03:00] that that's interesting. Um, and then you, you mentioned the term caregiver or provider and a customer, um, are those three separate things. Can you walk me through what, what is a caregiver to you? What is a provider and what is a customer.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:03:13] Sure we have two customers. The caregiver who is taking our training from us. And the other customer.
is often in employer because training is often paid for by an employer. So the employer chooses which training company to use, and some students pay privately and have their choice, but we may. You know, we catered to two different types of customers.
And so when I say provider I'm meaning the employer, because they're a provider of caregiving service, it's either they own a home health care agency. They operate in assisted living Or they own and operate an adult family home.
Mike Murphy: [00:03:53] Or long-term care. Um, is there a typical age population and a period in someone's life at a [00:04:00] timeline?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:04:01] the, um, long-term care has, um, it, it serves what is considered a vulnerable population either by age or by disability of some sort, it may be a developmental disability. So there are residential care facilities for. Folks, living with a disability who may be younger. There's a, a great home in the Leavenworth Washington area that services young men with downs syndrome.
So that is a residential care facility. It's, it's a, a group living situation that is a residence, not a hospital or a nursing home. It's designed to be more home-like.
Mike Murphy: [00:04:42] And is there a transition or a segue to being a caregiver? Is there, um, something in common that caregivers have?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:04:49] Caregivers have big hearts. Um, they have, uh, they have a passion for service because you don't go into caregiving because you need a job. You [00:05:00] go into caregiving because you, you care about people and you want to serve others. The pay is not great. The work is difficult, both emotionally and physically. And it's definitely a calling if you're a great caregiver.
Mike Murphy: [00:05:13] And have you been a caregiver in the past? Um,
Robin Vanhyning: [00:05:16] Yeah. I am a registered nurse and I have 35 years of experience. Most of it in long-term care.
Mike Murphy: [00:05:22] wow. Did, and was there something in your life or the, you think the switch flipped for you where you said that this is what makes me happy or makes me feel fulfilled.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:05:30] Um, yeah, I'm going to go way back to the little five-year-old girl who had her tonsils out in the hospital and was scared. Because you couldn't have your parents there. And I was separated from my twin brother and I was, um, hurting and the only person who paid attention to me was the red haired night nurse.
And she made me feel so much better. And I decided at five years old, I wanted to be a nurse because I wanted to help others like she did, and I was singularly focused and [00:06:00] I'm headed towards that goal. And, and I still love it today.
Mike Murphy: [00:06:04] That's great. Thank you for sharing that. So that was just some opening questions. We're going to transition to the roadmap. And we want to talk more about the individuals interact with your training business. So can you give us an example of a person who would be going through your learning experience or your training?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:06:21] The, um, person who would come to us for training, as I mentioned before, is either sent to us by their employer or they have decided they would like to go and caregiving in Washington. Um, Washington tends to be one of the. More leading long-term care states, meaning that it's more regulated and there's a greater emphasis on training?
So to work in the three settings, I mentioned earlier, assisted living adult, family homes, or home care. You have to have either a certification as a nursing assistant or a home care aid. And so they come to us to get those certifications so that they can work in those different settings.
[00:07:00] Mike Murphy: [00:06:59] Okay. And then, um, I assume that for a period of time, this was done in person in the past.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:07:05] it was when we first began, it was all in person training and the state agency, the department of social and health services, which is in charge of the training programs was not in favor of online training, but there was a situation in 2010 where a new regulation was coming into effect in a very short.
Time period that they were not going to be able to meet the training needs for this requirement by in-person training. There just weren't enough trainers to get it out there. And so I had submitted a proposal for online training and they allowed us to go forward with it at that point.
Mike Murphy: [00:07:48] interesting. And then how do you think about creating the content for this training? Where does it come from? And then what are the differences between how you would think about it when you did it in person versus [00:08:00] online?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:08:00] some of our content is content that is created by the department of social health services. It's a curriculum that is preset, and then we create it into an online?
version. Other content we create ourselves. And when I first began doing the courses, it was video video lecture. And through time we learned that video lecture, wasn't the greatest, greatest teaching.
And so our courses were quickly becoming dinosaurs. And I became aware of a position called an instructional designer and they take it. This content, this curriculum and created into this amazing product that engages learners and assesses learners. And, and so I, um, in looking at content creation, realized that we needed someone with.
Much greater skills than my skillset. And so I went onto indeed.com and I searched for an [00:09:00] instructional designer and we were really lucky to find that incredibly talented young woman who rewrote our primary course and the state was so impressed with it, that they are actually rewriting theirs in, and we're using her as a kind of a support person for their instructional designer.
And so. That's how we look at content is, you know, what is the outcome? What kind of caregiver do we want to create? What is the curriculum we have to work with and how are we going to get those two things together?
Mike Murphy: [00:09:29] I'm really happy to hear you reference the term instructional designer. I did not know what that was 15 years ago, but they are unsung heroes. Um, in many ways, if you need to deliver something online, it's, um, it's a really unique skillset. They're they're good at what they do. Interesting. And then when a caregiver interacts with, um, your courses and your training materials, what is the typical timeline?
Um, are they with you for one day online, three days a month? How does that work?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:09:57] Well, it depends on which of our programs [00:10:00] or certifications they need. They could take a one hour continuing education course, and that may be it. Our core course would be called the home care aid certification training. And that's a 75 hour course. So they're going to be with us for awhile. They have by regulation, 120 days to complete it.
We find it usually takes most folks about. Two months, and they're trying to fit it in between one or two or three other jobs that they're doing and we have on-demand learning. So it's at their pace. But, uh, what we also hope is once they have either done that one hour class or, uh, completed a certification with us that they'll keep coming back to us.
Cause every year the home care aides are required to have 12 hours of continuing education. So we want them to come back and get their continuing education from us.
Mike Murphy: [00:10:48] Yeah. So you might have someone spend a substantial part of the year with you and then, um, interact with you over multiple years. So have you gotten to know some of your, some of the caregivers that have gone through your training?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:10:59] very much. [00:11:00] So it's been one of the great things. I was worried that in online learning, I wouldn't have a connection with the students, but we know a lot of our students by name by face because they do have to do some video interaction and their skills with us. And I have, uh, Folks who have been with us for 10 years coming back every year for their training.
Mike Murphy: [00:11:20] That's great. And then when someone goes through and completes their training, what do they do? And what do you do? Is there like a reporting. I'm with the state.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:11:31] process is really complex. And that's part of the service we provide is helping walk our students and are the employers of the students through that process. And so there's the. When they start their training, they have to file an application with the department of health. And then once they complete their training, they have to send a copy of that certification to the department of health, which then triggers them to take, receive an email from a company that has been [00:12:00] contracted to do the state exam, because there is a state exam when they're done with our training and they pass that exam, then they will receive their certifications.
So.
Mike Murphy: [00:12:09] Interesting. Um, so it's almost like you're an educator and a counselor and you kind of. Add them through the process sometimes. Okay. Robin, how do you think about proctoring?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:12:19] So, um, When we started doing our courses, they didn't require competency testing, but as the state gathered confidence in our company, they started letting us present curriculum that required competency testing. So that then required proctoring. And I didn't know anything about proctoring. And so I went online and found a bunch of names on proctoring?
and came up with one and that's we went with them.
It didn't work for us because of the service was fine, but the, the proctors were live proctors and they had such thick accents that our staff, our students couldn't understand how [00:13:00] to get to their exam. And so that's when we learned of Proctor free through digital chalk and went with Proctor free and.
That has been a great customer service experience because not only is it a simple process for our students, but whenever they have difficulties, they get very quick resolution to that. So we have had not anywhere near the customer complaints that we had previously.
Mike Murphy: [00:13:27] can you tell us about, uh, a recent triumph or something that sticks out to you about a, a learner experience that you've stayed in touch with?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:13:34] yes, we had, um, we get to have those experiences frequently, but one I can think of recently is as part of this 75 hour training, a student is required to do 16 hours of skills demonstration. And we used to do that in person prior to COVID-19 in the pandemic. And, um, All of the other programs in the state had to stop training at that point.
But the state allowed us to pilot [00:14:00] a virtual skills lab, where we have students. Uh, we demonstrate the skill by video. Then they stick their cell phone up on their nightstand and film themselves, performing the skill and send it to us. And. As you can imagine that can be a frustrating experience because some students have better technical skills than others and learning to upload a video and doing the video correctly.
And often there's a language barrier. So we've had students who, you know, are very frustrated at that point, but we offer live instructors available 12 hours a day by text, email phone. And we actually have a live lab where they can sign on. Like we are in your typical type of a zoom type setting where they can see the instructor and the instructor can see them.
So one great triumph and it's been repeated is a student who is just so frustrated. They may be almost [00:15:00] in tears or they may be angry. And when we reach out to them and we take their hand, so to speak and walk with?
them through this virtual lab process. And at the end, when they have completed all of these skills and.
They are so proud of themselves and feeling so successful. And I think That's what really brings joy to our team, our instructors, when we can help someone who's really been challenged and struggling and, and have them come back out feeling really great like that.
Mike Murphy: [00:15:31] That's great. And then why does this learning experience matter?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:15:35] Well, Mike, do you have parents? Are they getting older or are you going to care for them when they need care? As they get older?
Mike Murphy: [00:15:44] I think about their wellbeing and I don't know how I would even provide the care.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:15:49] Yeah. So, so we have 7.8 million open caregiver positions by 2026 because of the aging baby boomers of which I [00:16:00] am one, I could be your parent and we're going to need care and there's not enough caregivers out there. So this learning experience matters. Developing caregivers, finding caregivers, recruiting caregivers is incredibly important for the people of my generation because we know our kids are busy.
They have their careers, and we actually don't want to burden our children with caregiving for us. In most cases, so caregiving can be very satisfying work. And one thing is that the income is guaranteed. You don't have ups and downs it, you still have caregiving during pandemics. And so, uh, we need more options for training in classical in-person training programs are not going to be able to meet this kind of demand.
So the online training let's care workers prepare for another career. I mean, if there, I shouldn't say care workers. The online training allows people working in other jobs that may want to [00:17:00] try caregiving to actually take training and prepare for caregiving while they can maintain their current income and caregiving.
Even if it's not their full-time job can also be a supplemental job to their income. So there's, there's lots of positives about caregiving. So not only is there a huge demand that we need people to. Take up caregiving and have this training. Um, but it's also very fulfilling.
Mike Murphy: [00:17:26] So is there something you would recommend someone thinking about that's unfamiliar with caregiving? And has aging family members, um, or where, where could someone even go to learn about caregiving or find that like, you know, my, my parents don't need that today, but suppose down the road they do. Where, where would I even start?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:17:46] Well, the Internet's a great place. There are, there are, um, many of the home care agencies have developed websites that provide resources. They have podcasts such as this one, uh, [00:18:00] maybe YouTube videos, but there are. Also websites that are developed for long-term caregivers and for folks who have those needs, I have a, one of my parents is, has been in care for almost 20 years.
And, you know, I was fortunate. I'm a registered nurse. I basically knew the care that was necessary, but it's a specialty and. Most folks don't so going to, uh, one of these resources on the internet can be really helpful. There are also in all communities, there are senior centers and the senior centers are great resources.
They have social workers who can tell you who the support people are in the community. And, uh, it doesn't seem such an unknown, a huge, scary thing. When you've got someone to help guide you through it.
Mike Murphy: [00:18:53] And if I was looking for a caregiver, suppose I was just on my own. Is there certain titles or [00:19:00] designations that I would want to recognize? Like how would I know that someone may have the relevant background and skillset?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:19:07] That's a really good question because I see folks all the time, just hiring someone who says they're a caregiver and. They may be a kind and loving person, but there is definitely a skill and training necessary to provide the best care. So I would ask someone what type of training they've had and, um, the nationally known, uh, Credential is usually an NAC or sometimes it's called a CNA, a certified nursing assistant or nursing assistant certified that is known in every state in the U S and is recognized by Medicare a as a credential.
So I would ask them if they have that or a similar credential without that. Um, you know, if they say, well, I've been a caregiver for 10 years, I would still encourage them to get the training. I find [00:20:00] long. Term caregivers who have been working private duty, uh, still have much to learn through a credentialing program.
Mike Murphy: [00:20:08] we're going to transition to a segment called learner success and it's okay to reference a virtual skills lab. If you want, what is one thing you have discovered or implemented in the last 24 months that has made. Improved learner outcomes.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:20:24] Well, the last 24 months does include the pandemic. So that has definitely changed things in general. I would say without considering the pandemic that we have shortened our learning modules, and we need to shorten them further because today's learners need quick engagement studies are showing you have about 24 minutes out of every 40 hour work week that you can spend on training.
So there's a whole. Process to microlearning and things like that. So that in general, I would say that in the last 24 months, we've been focusing on that, but then there came the [00:21:00] pandemic, which created, um, we were already well positioned in that we provided mostly on online learning. It was either through self-paced courses or it was through virtual life classes, but.
There was that piece of the virtual skills lab. How do you teach someone to do a skill when you're not there in person? And so, uh, we're still trying to decide whether we want to, um, We're in the pilot process. So whether we continue it or not, we will not know till the end of summer. So far has been very successful.
We've been measuring our, our state exam pass rate. We wanted to make sure that ours didn't drop with it and we've actually improved with it. It seems like having the students spend more time actually producing their skill versus going to two full days of just having kind of an information dump. Given to them, they're actually doing better.
Our [00:22:00] current, uh, the average pass rate on the state exam is about 76%. And our most recent pass rates are averaging 92% using the virtual labs.
Mike Murphy: [00:22:11] Interesting. And then as we look ahead that it's, you know, picked us a year arbitrary year 2030, which probably isn't that far off.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:22:20] Okay.
Mike Murphy: [00:22:20] So as we look ahead to 20, 30 and beyond, how do you think it will be different? Will it be more kind of like micro learning sessions? Would that be an ideal blend, like learn for a short period of time and then do something hands-on.
Robin Vanhyning: [00:22:32] You know, technology's moving so fast. It's really hard to predict what it's going to look like, but I think it's got to be fun. It's got to be easily accessible and it's gotta be convenient. If it's not, it's not going to engage at, you know, my generation. We were taught to sit there and listen to a lecture and learn from that.
And that's not the way learning happens anymore. And so we need to be able to move, you know, virtual simulators. It would [00:23:00] is something I would love to explore as part of skills training.
Mike Murphy: [00:23:03] I even think about how I learned and, um, the desire that I have to just sit down and read and I, I just don't have enough time to even do that. So, um, there's times of the day when I want to close the computer and not learn on a computer so that that's now that I imagine many people are dealing with. So I'm going to ask a couple random questions.
Who is your favorite teacher?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:23:24] My favorite teacher was Mrs. Beckwith. She was my third grade teacher?
and she was the one that taught me cursive writing, and I thought it was so beautiful. But I think what made her so special to me was that she also connected with me as a person. I remember her giving me an angel wing begonia plant to take home.
And I nurtured that plant for years. She was very firm, but she was kind and I always felt safe with her. So she was my favorite teacher
Mike Murphy: [00:23:51] How often do you write in cursive?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:23:53] every day. I loved personally writing. I Do
Mike Murphy: [00:23:56] I think it's beautiful, but I, I CA I probably couldn't write the [00:24:00] full alphabet in cursive. Um, consistently right now, I, I do remember learning. I used to love those, those pages that had the, the, the large spacing between the lines. And you would like trace and, um, yeah, my signature is, um, also evolved to just be my initials over time.
Cause it was chicken scratch. Um, great. And what is the first thing you remember learning about?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:24:20] Oh be be Mrs. Roth. And the first grade she taught me to read reading was so amazing. Um, I Camaro first book was. Run Jane run. And it was about Dick Jane and their dogs spot. And, um, I couldn't wait to get through each of those books and I'm still an avid reader. I love the way reading, transports you to other places and times.
And just, that was the first thing I remember learning was how to read.
Mike Murphy: [00:24:47] okay. What is something that you've learned recently in the last week or the last month?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:24:55] I was fortunate enough to receive, [00:25:00] um, a spot. Our, our, our state, uh, department of commerce was doing a grant for small business owners on scaling up your business. And it's an intensive eight week course, and I'm right in the middle of it. And I, um, it's. Been fascinating. It is refining things I knew, but didn't necessarily focus on.
And I think probably like this last week was on market research and I had no idea, you know, there was this one reference source that you could get through your library card on the online to find and sort through all of the potential customers in your market, in the areas. So, so I think just learning how to.
We're a small business, but we want to diversify and we want to grow. And so I think that's, that's scaling up. My business is what I'm
Mike Murphy: [00:25:52] Sounds like a relevant course and you've got some interesting, some are learning to do
Robin Vanhyning: [00:25:56] yeah, it's intense.
[00:26:00] Mike Murphy: [00:25:59] great. And if someone wanted to, um, learn more about you and your business, where would they find you?
Robin Vanhyning: [00:26:05] um, our website is cornerstone health care training.com.
Mike Murphy: [00:26:11] Mike Murphy with incredible learning experiences. And we've had Robin van hunting with cornerstone healthcare training with us today.