Lisa

A new activity has been posted by a Golden Carers member: What Would You Do, Part 2

Hi Susan. We haven't had the vaccines offered in our area yet. We are all in waiting mode. We are surrounded by four other nursing homes/assisted living facilities who are waiting as well.
Thank you for the attachments. I will be looking at them today. I know that time heals...but the response from you and Solange helped as well. Thank you!

It is nice to see that life goes on for different parts of the world and in the United States. Our holidays have been heartbreaking. COVID hit our building around Thanksgiving time and made its rounds to every floor. Today I typed a list of residents who have passed away. We are at 23. I cry everyday and wonder how much longer I can do this. I know I am not the only one who has faced this. I pray for the day when life is more normal, residents can come out of their rooms, and I hear laughter in the building. I believe that we have to have a big heart to work in activities. I also think that is why the hurt is so deep.
Not trying to depress anyone...just got sad reading all of the plans and activities people have been able to do. Don't get me wrong, I am happy for all of you. I pray that day comes for my residents. God bless you all.

We got a new karaoke machine and so staff likes to sing in the hallway to residents. I can't wait to sing this version up and down the halls! Thank you Gwyneth!

Glad you all are enjoying this activity. Some of the answers I have gotten just crack me up because as we all know, residents say it like it is. What I have found is the older residents would do the more morally right thing. Some of my residents in their 40's wouldn't. Just interesting.
I love to make up things, and I have about twenty more of these scenarios I will share again in a few months if you all would like more.
Thanks for the feedback.

Thank you Susan. Your ideas helped. No, I won't receive help. It is one of those suggestions that the "activity committee" (composed of Administrator, DON, social work, unit manager nurses and me) came up with. It has been frustrating because they are all so eager to throw out ideas, but then the time comes to step up and help and they are all too busy. Oh well.

My administrator told me this morning she wants me to make up "fall baskets" for each of our 107 residents. Wow! I have a few ideas. Do any of you have ideas you can add?
Thank you!

A new activity has been posted by a Golden Carers member: What Would You Do? (These are original scenarios I made up)

I started an Adopt a Resident program several years back and it has just grown! Around Thanksgiving, I put a large Christmas tree up in the lobby with paper ornaments that have a number written on it, the hall the resident is on, and the sex. When someone picks an ornament off of the tree, they bring the paper ornament to me and I am able to tell them who they have by matching the number against my Master List. I have never writen the resident's names on the ornaments because I don't want staff playing favorites and I don't want the residents to go up front and see their name is one of the last ones picked. (Every year I use a different code that staff try to figure out, with zero success!) Once staff knows who they have, they purchase a gift and bring it and the paper ornament to me. I like to wrap the gifts myself because occasionally I may need to throw in a little something extra. I try to make sure that the residents gifts are pretty much equal. During their Christmas parties, Santa comes in and delivers the presents to each of the residents. They are floored that someone bought something specifically for them. This is hands down my favorite activity of the year. We have never had a resident left on the tree!

Hi Nina. I am facing some of the difficulties you are. We have been in total lock down since the end of March. Our residents have not left their rooms for any reason. (We can hold 125 but have 102 currently.) Our facility has been very strict in a lot of areas, but this has helped us stay COVID free. I was wondering, since you are wearing full PPE, do you have COVID positive residents in your building? While our PPE is being saved for the possibility we may one day have a resident get COVID, we do have to wear the KN95 masks from the time we hit the door to do our shifts to the time we walk out the door at the end of our shifts. I know your frustration of having your staff pulled for different reasons. I was really struggling with my activity assistants being pulled to do 1:1's with a certain resident, or pulled into the kitchen. I have a great staff and they faithfully come to work every shift. Because other departments have call ins frequently, they pull from my department. The frustration from this, had gotten me to the point where I thought I needed to move on, after 14 years at this facility. (I work for a large company that has over 55 nursing homes/skilled nursing facilities.) About three months ago, all of the activity directors, and our leader at corporate, created a support group of sorts via emails. We also have had zoom conferences. This has helped me realize that I am not the only one in this situation and all I can do is what I can do. You can't do something with nothing. Once I was able to accept this, I started feeling renewed and ready to tackle each day. I think probably each of us, at some point, have felt just complete frustration with the situation and spent numerous hours trying to figure out how to make things better. We have been doing the activity cart twice weekly, loaded with materials for independent activities. But then came the visits. Like many of you, our department is responsible for coordinating and carrying out Window Visits, FaceTime, Skype, emails, etc. That takes the majority of our time anymore. We average 10-15 visits of one type or another each day. If I am lucky, I have one person helping me with that. All I can do is what I can do.
Hang in there. You are not alone or forgotten.