SBIR-STTR Award

Market potential exists for on-site job training in long-term care (TLC) to help non-English-speaking indirect care dietary, housekeeping, and maintenance staff learn English for the work setting. Creative Action Inc, plans to develop and market the "Care Environment English (CEE) Program for non-English-Speaking Staff" in indirect care positions. Targeted to the LTC industry, the CEE Program will immediately improve the indirect care worker's communication with supervisors, other workers, and residents and will later enable advancement to better-paying positions within the facility. The CEE Program will consist of innovative learning materials with a learning station for self-paced practice, easy-to-use portable materials with phonetic transliteration in Spanish of English words for on-the-spot speaking and a curriculum for weekly training classes in "Care Environment English," and cultural competency. Phase I research and development will create prototypes and test the feasibility of the program curriculum, materials and components for use with Spanish-speaking workers. A counter-balanced control group design will be used. Guided by Phase I results, Phase II research will develop refined prototypes, expand use for other foreign languages, and extend technology to PDA-based language software and DVD multi-media materials. During Phase II, CEE curriculum, materials, and components will be finalized for commercialization in Phase III.

Thesaurus Terms:
computer assisted instruction, computer program /software, educational resource design /development, extended care, health care personnel education, multilingualism, nonEnglish language, vocabulary Hispanic American, communication, curriculum, interactive multimedia, phonology, speech clinical research, human subject

Market potential exists for on-site job training in long-term care (LTC) to help non-English-speaking indirect care staff (dietary, maintenance and housekeeping) learn English for the work setting. Creative Action plans to develop and market the Care Environment English (GEE) Program for Non-English-Speaking Staff in indirect care positions. Targeted to the LTC industry, the CEE Program will immediately improve the indirect care workers' communication with supervisors, other workers, and residents and later enable advancement to better-paying positions within the facility. The CEE program will consist of innovative learning materials with a learning station for self-paced practice, easy-to-use portable materials with phonetic transliteration in Spanish of English words for on-the-spot speaking, and a curriculum for weekly training classes in Care Environment English and cultural competency. Phase I research successfully demonstrated technical feasibility of the program curriculum, materials and components for use with Spanish-speaking workers. Guided by Phase I results and the growing importance of such training for Spanish-speakers, Phase II research will develop refined prototypes and extend technology to DVD multi-media materials, and PDA- based language software. Additional components will involve facility management and other relevant staff. During Phase II, CEE curriculum, materials and components will be finalized for commercialization in Phase

Thesaurus Terms:
DVD /CD ROM, communication, computer program /software, computer system design /evaluation, educational resource design /development, extended care, hospital personnel, nonEnglish language, patient care personnel relations, training communication behavior, comprehension, job performance, job satisfaction, language translation, memory clinical research, focus group, health services research tag, human subject, interview, questionnaire, telecommunication