sposu08

I love to have the children in the facility. The residents love it and it is nice for them to be able to interact with someone other than the staff. We have a place called the great room within our facility and we will set it up so that the kids can watch movies down there with the residents. They also can play games with the residents and then we have an area right outside there where they can do sidewalk chalk. The staff knows up front that I am not a babysitter and they check in on their kids at their breaks and if there are any issues they take care of them. I have not had any problems. Stephanie

That is a great idea Kori. We are having a little luncheon with cookies, coffee, tea, juice, and cold meat sandwiches. We are inviting the daughters and granddaughters of the residents in to celebrate the day. We are also having a local musician come in and play music for us. Then afterwards we are going to let them do a craft together. Hopefully this goes well. Good luck with your Mother's Day festivities. Stephanie

We have 3 people from within our community that come in and volunteer. The big activity that they help out with is Bingo. We have Bingo 2-3 times a week because that is the activity that our residents like the most. The volunteers will come in and help people that have vision or hearing trouble and one of the volunteers calls Bingo for us. They also come in and visit with the residents a couple times a week. They go around and will read to the residents (books, newspapers,etc.) and just converse and reminisce with them. They have also came in and helped when we have had holiday parties for the residents and family members. Recently we had two volunteers come in and help with the community Easter egg hunt. They helped hide the eggs and helped out with refreshments. The easiest thing that they can do if there is just one person that comes in to volunteer is to go around and talk or read to them. Our residents love that. Plus they love the outside interaction with other people than just the people that work here at the facility. Best of Luck, Stephanie

I hope this helps out. We had to do some cuts with the STNA's but so far we have been safe in the Activity Department. Hope everything goes well for you, your facility and your staff. How many bed facility: 50 beds How many open beds: 22 open beds How many hours a week in activities (not including director):26 hours How long does last activity person stay: 7:30 pm on tuesdays and wednesdays Weekends: Sat and Sunday 10:30-6:30 Activity director status: full time (40 hours a week) Best of Luck, Stephanie

We have the exact same problem at our facility. It is very hard to get the residents down to the activities unless there is food or prizes of some sort involved. With the economy the way it is right now and with our census down there have been quite a few changes around the facility. Our DON implemented that the aides have to assist in getting the residents down to the activities. The activitiy is announced 30 minutes ahead of time and then again 15 minutes ahead of time and then again at 5 minutes. We are going to start an Aide of the Month reward program and the aide that gets the most residents down to the activities and also does a great job in other aspects of their job will be rewarded. This is still in the works we have not came up with a set way of doing this yet but we are thinking of offering them gas cards, gift cards to local restuarants, etc. I do not know of any regulations of any sort but our administrator and DON feel it is the job of the aides to help. I'm hoping this new program we implement will help because even though it is a small facility it takes a long time to get all the residents down to an activity with just one person doing it. Best of luck, Stephanie