Currently, there are a couple of questions on the RCFE Certification test about epidemics and pandemics. There are also questions testing your knowledge about MRSA, and various safety protocols for the influenza virus. There aren’t any questions, at least not yet, about the CoronaVirus or how to prevent its spread within a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly. However, this knowledge will be mandatory soon if you are to receive your RCFE Certification.
Residential Care Facilities and Nursing Homes were amongst the hardest hit during the CoronaVirus crisis. This of course is due to the fact that our most vulnerable, the elderly, reside there. As folks reach old age and have health issues and they are unable to care for themselves – many end up in residential care facilities for the elderly. That makes sense because if they could care for themselves, they’d be doing that already. Those with underlying health challenges made up the lion’s share of the CoronaVrius deaths, which is not surprising, but it is very serious.
This is why you can expect that, very soon, the RCFE Certification test and the required education will include much about dealing with epidemics and pandemics, like the CoronaVirus. You can bet your bottom dollar that the State of California will see to it that no one becomes RCFE Certified without first understanding how viruses spread, how to prevent their spread, and how to not become the human-vector spreading the virus from room to room in a residential care facility.
There is probably not a more serious or more important thing to learn to get the RCFE Certification. It’s literally a matter of life and death. And, it should be, right? RCFE Certified staff and facilities will have to prove they are following all the proper procedures to prevent the spread of a pandemic virus. It cannot be allowed to enter the facility and must be kept at bay if it does.
How soon will the CoronaVirus crisis change the way RCFE’s run? Well, things are already changing. Industry professionals are creatively coming up with new ways to get through these challenges and sharing their best management practices online with other facilities. The RCFE Certification will soon change too, and there is already talk about it.
The State of California will put into place temporary measures now, and many of those practical procedures will become required regulatory mandates, ones which every RCFE nurse and every staff member will know and follow each day so that this kind of thing never happens again.