hayesmsthing

Especially during the summer months when school is out, a lot of staff bring their children to work and expect them to "help out" with activity. I look at it as a free babysitting service. Last year I posted a notice on each nurses station that youth volunteers must be at least 16 years old and they must attend orientation before starting. They also must have updated PPD shots and the TB shot in order to volunteer. This seemed to stop the free babay sitting service dead in it's tracks. But it makes me wonder how do other facilities handle youth volunteers?

We have some residents that are alert and oriented X3 and need something to do other than activities. I want to start a resident orientation program. Looking for some suggestions. What type of things do your residents volunteers do at your facilities? Did they fill out volunteer applications? Did you do orientation with them?

During our resident council meeting, some of the male residents suggested that we go to a strip bar for the annual men outing in June. I was shocked! Is that appropiate? I have heard of other activity directors taking their residents to Hooter's but at least they have some clothes on. What will be an appropiate outing for a female activity director to take senior males?

Hi, I am an activity director located in Alexandria Va. I work at a 111 bed facility with one assistant on weekdays and one weekend assistant. I love seniors which makes this job so great for me. I love the fact that I could put a smile on their faces. We have a wide range of residents starting as young a 20years old to 104years old. I am always ooking for new ideas for my calendar. Currently we do not have a activity bus of our own so we rent. That is a bummer. I don't mind the paperwork and the meetings but I hate to budget. I want to be able to get them whatever they want! I plan on staying in this field for a long time because it is where my heart is. I love going to work and almost always stay late in the evening. I know I might sound crazy but once you find a job that you like to do....keep it!

One day one of my activity assistants came to me crying. She said that a nurse said mentioned to her that she doesn't do anything all day but "play with residents" and that we has the eaiseist paid job in the world. I mentioned it to the Administrator and he suggested a role revisersal. So we set it up so that particular nurse could be the activity assistant for a day(the original activity assistant worked as the Activity Director for the day). I made sure it was a day when admissions had three neww residents coming, social services had two residents discharging, it was the end of the month so old calendars and decorations had to come down and new had to go up around the facility on top of transporting residents and conducting activities a smile. Not to mention conducting room visits with some our our most challenging residents. It was quite hilariuos watching her attempt to call bingo numbers with one of our alzheimers patients calling completely different numbers at the same time. By the end of the day, nurse apolgized to the activity assistant and said she had found a new respect for our profession.

We have an 111 bed facility. During the evenings, when the nurse assistant have some down time usually around 8pm they will do activities for me. I would leave out a plastic bin on each unit filled with small crafts, crossword puzzles, writing tablets and pens, small gardening project, videos/sing a longs. Whatever the scheduled activity is for the evening(usually Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays), the cna would get their residents together and do small group activities with them. They say it helps the evenings go by faster and they look forward to it. Try it with your cna's!

I have put ads in the paper, posted in house facility ads on job board and sent letters to churches and neighboring college counselors. It has been 3 months now and still no response. My facility hold an annual job fair in May during National Nursing Home Week. Any suggestions?