ldecker

Another activity we do to include staff and residents is a game we call who done it. I go around and ask residents for funny things they done that no one would think was them. I then print them out and post them throughout the facility and allow people to try to guess who done it. I give out candy to anyone who tries to guess weather they get right or wrong and then at the end of the day I post the correct answers. I have had our facility Dr's ambulance, and hospice companies all join in with this activity. We have had some really funny facts come out. You do have to watch that the facts are appropriate to commonly know at work and not secrets. You could also have families and friends help with residents that can’t answer. The facts don’t have to just be funny they can just be interesting. Facts about families, travels, education, jobs, dreams, anything that is something most people don't know.

We have a program we hold once a month called Travel around the world. Every month we travel somewhere new. All our activities that day are surrounded by the location theme. We will contact travel agents and get old pamphlets and information that they have about our location of choice. Then in the afternoon we do a potluck and have the employees make dishes from where ever we traveled to that day. We usually do a cooking club in the morning and make something from the residents for the potluck. We have this party after lunch and then people just taste everything rather than use in place of a meal. We also encourage our staff and residents share family traditions memories and stories. It is a really fun day. Use the internet in has a wonderful sites of different places with games and puzzles, facts, and ideals. You could also hang a world map in the lobby and mark the places you have traveled to. I would also encourage family and friends to bring vacation pictures and share stories of personal travels.

July Is National Ice Cream Month. We each year build a 10 foot long ice cream sundae. We use a plastic gutter from a hardware store and cap both ends. We wash the gutter or run it through the dishwasher in the kitchen. We place it on a long table and line the residents up. We put hair nets and gloves on every resident that is sitting at the table even if they aren't helping. I do this so that if they decide to join in they will be ready. I then give the residents ice cream scoops and let them put the ice cream in the gutter. It usually takes four gallons of ice cream. Then I give the residents toppings in squeeze bottles and let them add the syrups. Then the get cans of whip cream and cover the top. Then we use sprinkles and add cherries to the top of that. It looks so good when it is finished make sure to take lots of pictures. We also invite local news and newspapers to come share in the fun. We have been on channel 10 news and in the local paper twice. That is always fun for the residents to be able to share with families and friends.

In our building we have done staff Olympic events. In the staff Olympics’ the residents are the cheerleaders. We give them pom-poms and have them all sit on one side of the hall. Some of the events for employees include wheelchair races, obstacle course, and food contests. Wheelchair race - we took the persons main side and tried their hand and leg down of that side and then two employees would race. It was really funny when you had a left handed and right handed person race because they would run into each other. Obstacle course - we sat up chairs and bedside tables and nurses carts and lifts in the hallway and gave the employees glasses with Vaseline rubbed over them and then they had to try to make it through with the quickest time. Food Contests - we had the employees drink thicken liquids and whoever could drink it the quickest and we also did this with pureed foods whomever could finish eating the quickest. All of these activities were a ton of fun but it also served as a way to let our staff see what our residents go through day to day in a nursing home.

I have tried to do talent shows in the past and have found that we have a handful of very talented staff and residents and otherwise people resist joining in. We came up with the ideal to do a talent no talent show. This has been a hugh success. We encourage people who are truly talented to share their talent and people like myself who are not to join in as well. The no talent part of the show is where people pick a favorite artist or song and dresses up like that person and lip sings the song and dance and act silly. This is so much fun we had a resident dress up like dolly parton and sing 9 to 5 with ballons in her shirt. Staff members have done group performaces for example last year we did "It's raining men" and we had rain coats and did a group dance it was a ton of fun. When we do big events like this we invite our family members and visitors as well as our residents and staff.

For Father's Day every year we have a Cruise-In. Our parking is limited but we do it on a Saturday morning at around 11:00AM so that there are less employees in the parking lot. A Crusie-In is just wear you invite people from the community to bring there cars for the residenst to see. We usually have a DJ and give out trophies a and plaques. I relize activity budgets are limited so you could do some fund raisers to help with the cost. It usually cost us around $350.00 for this event which includes the DJ and prizes. This is a great marketing opportunity and at my facility they allow me to split the cost between the two departments. I make flyers and have local businesses hand them out. I have found that companies are willing to help. I usually take the flyers to auto zone and stores of that nature. You can also advertise for it on craigslist which is free and a very easy site to use. Our residenst really enjoy going our and seeing the cars. you will hear a lot of that is just like my first car or my friend had that same car. It is a really neat experince and the people bring the cars love to share memories and talk with the residents. Also if you have no budget and have trouble raising money you could get music from 1950's and do the music yourself and that would save you money. We have done for the past 3 years now and as long as the weather is good we have been very successful.