Training direct support professionals between shifts

Direct support professionals do not have a quiet training week built into the schedule. They have a shift, a commute, and a handoff. Any orientation or refresher that assumes a free afternoon will sit unfinished. Plan the assignment around the time they actually have.

Make the first assignment shorter than you want

Supervisors often start with everything a new hire might someday need. The DSP opens it after a double and closes it. A shorter first path — the routines of the job, dignity and choice, and how to ask for help — is more likely to be finished before the next solo shift.

Put the rest on a second pass. Communication and boundaries can follow once the person has been on the schedule for a few weeks and has real conversations to connect to the lesson. That second pass is still orientation, not a refresher.

See the DSP training course: https://courses.trainingandetrackingsolutions.com/catalog/topyx-course-dsp-training?utm_source=maineidd.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=maine-microsite&utm_content=blog-dsp-course

Tell them when it is supposed to be done

A link without a date is optional. Name the supervisor, the due date, and whether the lesson is expected before a solo shift or during the first month. If the only open time is after a night shift, say that the lessons are built to be paused. Do not schedule a three-hour block they cannot attend.

• Due before the first solo shift, or due inside the first month.
• A named supervisor who will check, not a shared mailbox.
• A backup plan when the person picks up extra shifts that week.

Tell us about the program: https://maineidd.com/contact

Do not make the record the lesson

It is reasonable to want a completion record. It is a poor lesson if the only goal is the checkmark. Ask, in the walkthrough, how a supervisor can see that a DSP finished and still talk with them about what they will do differently on the next shift. The form on this page does not enable that record.

Open the course catalog: https://courses.trainingandetrackingsolutions.com/catalog?utm_source=maineidd.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=maine-microsite&utm_content=blog-catalog

If your team trains in a conference room once a quarter, you can still use a short online path for the people who were working that day. The point is coverage of the topic, not a single calendar event that half the roster misses.