CARES Observational Tool

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CARES® Observational Tool

Description

The CARES® Observational Tool (or COT™) is an easy-to-administer observational tool for assessing staff behavior. It was designed around person-centered care concepts taught in the CARES® Dementia Basics & Advanced Care™ Online Training Program.

Recommended uses include:

Staff training to teach key concepts of person-centered care
Staff observations to evaluate level of person-centered care
Peer observations for "hands-on" practice sessions
Documentation for staff files
Documentation for family meetings
Documentation for inspectors and surveyors

Benefits:

Easy to use
Easy to score
Full set of definitions/examples on pages 2-3 for your reference
Great for staff training, evaluation, and documentation

The 16 COT observation areas/key points in person-centered care include:

Greet the Person
Introduce Yourself
Use Their Name
Smile/Make Eye Contact
Physical Contact
Your Approach
Your Eye Level
Calm Approach
Ask/Discuss/Assess
15 Seconds
Explain Care
Involve Person in Care/Activity
Mention Resident's Life
Provide Comfort
Share with Others
Write and Document

Scoring and Definitions

The COT's streamlined "1" or "0" scoring makes it easy to administer for any level of supervisory staff. In fact, it is even appropriate for peer-administered observations and can be used by any staff member, regardless of age or experience level.

When you purchase a COT license, you will also receive a full set of "definitions" and examples of what qualifies as an acceptable observable behavior. For example, if the staff member says, "Do you need to go to the bathroom," it would be scored as a "1" in category 9. Ask/Discuss/Assess.

Technical Research Summary of the COT

The COT was developed as part of a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

After the development of an initial version of the tool, face validity was established through multiple revisions of the COT by a study investigator and clinically-trained research assistant. Afterwards, content validity of the COT was established by piloting the tool on 12 observations across 4 nursing homes and additional review by a panel of scientific experts across the country. The final 16-item version of the COT was then tested for inter-rater reliability by 5 reviewers across 5 videos of actual caregivers and nursing home residents depicting various dementia care scenarios. An intra-class coefficient (ICC) of all possible Kappa coefficients resulted in an ICC of .77, which is considered substantial agreement. These results, based on the development, establishment of face and content validity, and inter-rater reliability of the brief and easy-to-use COT emphasize its potential to assess important care interactions between caregivers and residents with dementia.

Formal publication is pending.

Pricing and Copyright

The COT is a copyrighted, proprietary tool owned by HealthCare Interactive®. It may only be legally used by purchasing one of the licenses below. When you purchase a license, you are authorized to print and use the tool as many times as the license allows, but no more.

1-Year Single Site License (any one individual location)
You may legally print and use the COT an unlimited number of times at one site location. You may not share this license between locations. $199.95

2-Year Single Site License (any one individual location)
Save 25% by purchasing a 2-year site license.
You may legally print and use the COT an unlimited number of times at one site location. You may not share this license between locations. $299.95

Questions

If you have any questions about the COT, pricing plans, or implementation, please contact us.