Pre School Programs and Nursing Homes

I saw a wonderful video today about a nursing home that had a pre school program in the facility. The video showed the interaction between the children and the residents. One of the scenes involved a resident and child that was trying to put on her coat to go home.They were both having trouble and the resident told the child "I can't even do it". They touched, held hands and helped each other. It was absolutely heart warming. This is something I think all nursing homes should look into. Intergenerational programs are so wonderful. When my children were growing up they spent a lot of time in nursing homes. They did their trick or treating in nursing homes as well as Easter and Christmas programs. So many children do not get to have grandparents in their lives and the residents miss their children and grand children. Providing this type of program could only be a win win situation.

Responsivness

I am writing this post to honor some amazing people I have had the honor to work with. In any service field including health care, the key to success is being responsive. The following are a few incidents that exhibit what being responsive means:

A confused resident comes to the front lobby frequently in their wheelchair. The resident is always asking the same thing (I want to go home and see my mother). Usually the staff get the resident a cup of coffee and take them back to their room. One day I heard the residents familiar voice asking the question of the day (I want to go home to see my mother). I heard an employee say can you hold the door and I will take her for a wheelchair ride outside. This employee did not have to do that. They could have done the usual thing coffee and return them to the unit.

My facility had been going through the process of changing our facility focus which resulted in a sudden drastic reduction in residents. I was faced with the challenge of reducing staff. An employee came to me and told me the they would reduce their hours so their co-worker did not have to. The employee said that their co-worker did not have any other financial support and they did.

My last responsive story is about a maintenance man that is the best one I have ever known. He covers all maintenance duties for a large  building that is 35 years old. One day I made rounds and discovered some potential infection control issues. I gave him a list that included replacing a sink and toilet, adding a sink to a utility room, a wall mounted cabinet to a utility room and putting new paper towel holders up in another utility room. I didn't give him the list till lunch time and he got all of it done in a couple of hours. This included going to the store to purchase sinks and cabinets. He also put all new mulch out and planted flowers in the courtyard without being asked.

I have seen many more incidents but these 3 really stood out for me.

Running An Effective Meeting

Overall effective meeting management can be accomplished when the project manager understands and is capable of effectively executing the following steps:

1. Properly Prepare for the Meeting
2. Select an Appropriate Location
3. Provide Food and Drink
4. Provide Necessary Materials
5. Establish Working Knowledge of Meeting Topic, Objectives, and Content
6. Keep the Meeting Less than an Hour
7. Ensure Everyone Gets and Completes Any Pre-Meeting Task
8. Help the Group Establish Ground Rules
9. Conduct Individual Introductions at Start of Meeting
10. Generate and Disseminate an Agenda Prior to the Meeting
11. Guide the Discussion without Forcing the Direction
12. Close the Meeting with a call for any Remaining Topics that need to be Addressed
13. Follow-Up the Meeting with Meeting Minutes that Include Action Items with Agreed Upon Deadlines

Borrowed From Effective Meeting Management by Mr. Stacey King MBA

Surprise

I went to the Activity Directors office to talk to her one afternoon. Her office is in the activity room and is an opened space. I sat with my back to the room talking to her. She got up and walked out and I picked up an Avon book to look at. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man come up and get something out of the coat on the back of my chair. I thought it was my maintenance man who I have known for a long time and like to tease. I said "are you trying to touch me" and when he said "no" I knew I was busted. The voice was not who I thought it was. I turned around and it was someone else. The Activity Director was standing there laughing and I quickly said I'm sorry I thought you were someone else and hurried out of the room.