A trial shift with no stated end turns into a hire by default. The family assumes the arrangement can be undone, and the provider assumes the placement is settled once the first invoice is paid. Put both expectations on paper before the first shift, then pick the day you will judge the placement and the terms for ending it.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Step 1: Name the review day

1. Pick the day you will sit down and judge the placement, counted from the first shift. Write it here: ______

2. Name who sits in the room with you. Write it here: ______

3. Decide what you will bring to that room. Bring the written duty list, the house log, and any notes the caregiver left. If the house log is empty, that is a finding too.

Step 2: Ask the provider these questions

1. How many shifts or days does the trial run, and is that number in writing?

2. Is the trial billed at the normal rate, at a reduced rate, or not at all? Get the answer in writing.

3. Can either side end the trial, and how much notice does each side owe?

4. Who is the named contact if the caregiver is sick or late during the trial?

5. What happens to the caregiver's schedule after the trial ends, whichever way it goes?

Listen for a number of days, a named contact, and a notice period stated in plain terms. Walk away if the answer is that they do not do trials, if the trial converts to a full term without your signature, or if the answer changes when you ask it a second time.

Step 3: Write the stop terms

Write the stop terms in one place and keep a copy with the duty list. Fill each line before the first shift.

Notice the family owes: ______

Notice the provider owes: ______

Last paid shift rule: ______

Where the house log and records go when the trial ends: ______

Who signs the stop notice for each side: ______

Step 4: Set what counts as passing

1. Pull three tasks from the written duty list and write them below. Choose tasks you can check by looking, such as the house log entry, the arrival time, and the emergency sheet being in its posted place.

Task 1: ______ Met / Partly / Not met

Task 2: ______ Met / Partly / Not met

Task 3: ______ Met / Partly / Not met

2. If the caregiver gives medication reminders, check only that the reminder happened. The family, the doctor, and the pharmacist keep the medicine itself. Write any gap in the house log, not only in the review.

Step 5: Decide at the review

Pick one outcome and write it down before you leave the room.

Continue under the signed agreement: ______

Extend the trial once, with a new review day written in: ______

End under the stop terms, with the last paid shift and records return confirmed: ______

Do not extend by phone or text alone. An extension that is not written is the same as no trial.

When the trial is not working

Move to the stop terms early, without waiting for the review day, if any of these happen. The caregiver misses shifts and no replacement is named. The provider changes the trial length or rate by phone. The provider refuses to put the stop terms in writing. The family cannot reach the named contact during the trial. Each of these is a finding you can state plainly, and none of them requires a rating or a comparison with another company.

For where this step sits in the full sequence, see Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring. For how the written terms on this site are checked against public pages, see How We Write the Sheets.