Clinton Veterans Center best in state

The Clinton Veterans Center has been recognized by the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs for having the most highly trained staff out of the state’s seven veterans centers. A representative from the ODVA central office was in Clinton to present the award to Administrator Brenda Jarrell and In-Service Coordinator Robby Keeton. 
Each center was judged in four categories, and Clinton took first place in every one: Most Highly Trained Facility, Most Highly Trained Nursing Staff, Most Highly Trained Support Staff, and Most Consistently Trained Facility. 
Jarrell explained that nursing and support staff are required to take continuing education, similar to many other professions, in order to keep current with best practices. The trainings are done monthly and performed online, and each employee at all seven centers is tracked at the ODVA central office in Oklahoma City. 
Jarrell was pleased that Clinton Veterans Center was recognized for its highly trained staff, but she handed most of the credit to Keeton, whose job it was to motivate the staff to keep up-to-date on their training all year. 
The “Most Consistently Trained Facility” meant that staff at the Clinton center performed their monthly trainings on time each month instead of waiting until the end of the year to get caught up, as was the case at the other facilities. 
“At the central office they have access to all of our records and they keep statistics on the number of employees that are trained,” Jarrell said. “They electronically track that at every center for every employee, and every month we were more consistently trained than any of the other centers in the state. 
“This is the first year that they’ve done awards. We’ve always taken pride in the amount of training we do here and we’ve always monitored that, but this is the first year they’ve actually monitored it from the central office.”
Jarrell didn’t have access to a complete list of how the other centers ranked, but she did receive information that the Sulphur Veterans Center came in second for Most Highly Trained Facility and Talahina placed second for Most Highly Trained Nursing Staff. 
“Now I’ve been challenged by the other administrators and they’re closing in fast on us,” she laughed. 
There was a fifth category in the awards that were handed out, but Clinton Veterans Center wasn’t even qualified to compete for it — 2018 End of Year Module Rush. 
“They did a ‘rush’ at the end of the year because they had a lot of people who needed to do catch-up, so they had a whole lot of training to do in December,” Jarrell said. “Claremore exceeded at that, but we already had ours done so we didn’t have to participate in that one.”
There were only three centers that completed all their training, she said. 
“We make sure that training is done monthly. That’s why we have the best trained facility in Oklahoma.”