“Our caregivers are trained” is not a complete answer. It does not tell you what was taught, who completed it, whether anyone checked the caregiver’s work, or whether the preparation covers the job in your house.
Compare providers against the same written shift. Do not ask which provider has the best training program. Ask whether the caregiver assigned to your house has been prepared for the work you are hiring someone to do.
1. Write the shift before you ask about training
Use observable tasks. Do not write “help Dad in the morning.” Write what the caregiver would actually be expected to do.
Shift: ____________________
Start and end time: ____________________
Tasks the caregiver must complete:
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
Places where Dad may refuse, hesitate, or need a second explanation: ____________________
Equipment the caregiver may encounter: ____________________
House rules that affect the work: ____________________
If you have not reduced the request to a specific shift, use the sequence in Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring before making provider calls.
2. Read the same list to every provider
Do not let one provider answer a detailed task list while another answers a general description. Read the list word for word, then ask:
“For each task, what preparation must the assigned caregiver complete before working alone?”
Write the answer beside each task:
Task: ____________________
Required preparation: ____________________
Who provides it: ____________________
How completion is recorded: ____________________
Listen for a task-by-task answer. “Everyone completes orientation” does not establish that orientation covers the work on your list. “We hire experienced people” does not identify what this caregiver knows or how the provider checked.
3. Separate instruction from a completed check
Ask what the caregiver receives and what the caregiver must demonstrate.
Questions to ask:
1. Is this preparation a document, video, class, supervised practice, or observed demonstration?
2. Does the caregiver have to show that the task can be completed, or only confirm that material was reviewed?
3. Who decides that the caregiver is ready to work alone?
4. What record shows that decision?
5. Is the record attached to the individual caregiver or only to the provider’s general program?
Write down the provider’s exact distinction:
Material reviewed: ____________________
Skill or procedure observed: ____________________
Observer’s role: ____________________
Record created: ____________________
A provider may use different preparation for different duties. Your comparison should preserve those differences instead of reducing every answer to yes or no.
4. Ask about the assigned caregiver, not the average caregiver
Once a provider proposes a person, return to the task list.
Ask:
“Has this caregiver completed the preparation you identified for every task on this sheet?”
For each task, record:
Completed: yes / no / provider will confirm
Evidence the provider will check: ____________________
Person responsible for confirming it: ____________________
Confirmation due before: ____________________
Do not turn a provider’s promise to check into your own assumption that the check is finished. Leave the item open until the provider gives the promised confirmation.
5. Find out what happens when the match is incomplete
A useful comparison includes the provider’s response when a caregiver has not completed the required preparation.
Ask:
1. Will you prepare this caregiver before the first solo shift?
2. Will another caregiver be assigned?
3. Will a supervisor attend part of the shift?
4. Who decides which response applies?
5. How will the family know that the requirement has been completed?
Write the answer as a sequence:
Missing preparation: ____________________
Provider’s next action: ____________________
Person who owns the action: ____________________
Record the family receives: ____________________
Condition that must be met before solo work: ____________________
6. Test whether the answer survives a caregiver change
The provider may send a different caregiver later. Ask:
“If the assigned caregiver changes, do you repeat this task-by-task check before the replacement enters the house?”
Then ask how the replacement learns the house-specific parts of the job. A general training record and instructions for your house are separate records.
Record:
Who checks the replacement’s preparation: ____________________
Who gives the replacement the house instructions: ____________________
How the family is notified: ____________________
What happens if the replacement does not meet a listed requirement: ____________________
7. Compare the records, not the adjectives
Put the providers side by side. Use the same columns for each one:
Provider: ____________________
Tasks matched to preparation: ____________________
Individual completion confirmed: ____________________
Readiness decision made by: ____________________
Record available: ____________________
Plan for a missing requirement: ____________________
Replacement checked by the same process: ____________________
Open questions: ____________________
This site separates the agency route from the direct-hire route because responsibility may sit with different people. Use Hire a Caregiver in St. Louis: Agency or Direct to identify who should be able to answer each question. If you are hiring directly, replace “provider” with the family member or paid professional responsible for defining, checking, and documenting preparation.
8. Mark the answers that require another call
Do not treat every incomplete answer as a rejection. Mark whether it is a missing fact, an unassigned responsibility, or a refusal to provide an answer.
Call back when:
1. The representative says someone else maintains the records.
2. The provider needs the final task list before identifying preparation.
3. The proposed caregiver has not yet been selected.
4. A supervisor must decide whether a task falls within the service offered.
Write the promised follow-up:
Question: ____________________
Person answering: ____________________
How the answer will be delivered: ____________________
Answer received: ____________________
9. Know when to stop the comparison
Walk away from the call, or pause the hire, when the provider will not connect its training claim to your written tasks, will not identify who decides that a caregiver is ready, or expects the first solo shift to reveal whether the caregiver can do the work.
Also stop when the answer changes each time you ask, or when a promised record becomes unavailable after you identify the assigned caregiver. Write the contradiction down before making another call:
First answer: ____________________
Later answer: ____________________
Person who can resolve it: ____________________
10. Keep one finished comparison sheet
Your finished sheet should show what the shift requires, what preparation applies, whether the assigned caregiver completed it, who checked, and what happens if the assignment changes. File the provider’s written answers with the task list.
For the public-source method behind these hiring sheets, see How We Write the Sheets. The site’s public reference trail is collected on Sources.