Ashbash31

At our facility we are having problems with our pet days. Can anyone tell me how you do your pet therapy days? The residents love the pets, especially the dogs...but it's getting to the point where the administrator wants to get rid of pet day. Can you please help, we need some ideas! Thanks!

For one of my 1:1's I usually go and paint her nails and she loves it. Everyone else says this lady is so mean and grumpy, but she is the sweetest little lady. She is always in a lot of pain and by painting her nails, it brightens her day and magicially the pain goes away from the short time I visit. I guess it's how you approach the residents, but this lady loves me because I take time out of my day to visit. She always can't wait for me to come back again. I have also let her try different cents of lotions and she liked that too.

At our facility, we only have one activity assistant that works from 1-5 on saturday and sundays. Our weekend activities include; beauty cart, crafts, snack shack, bingo and different church services. We try to keep it easy because there is only one of us, unless it's a holiday, two of us will work the weekend. In that 1-5 time, there is usually two activities and if we have extra time during the day we will do computer work or 1:1's. Hope that helps!

We also have a wii at our facility. I have only been there for a little over a month and I actually got to do the activity with the residents last week. The residents loved it, but only a few handle full of residents came to the activity. We played wii bowling and baseball. I found that baseball was much easier for them to play because you didnt really have to press many buttons. I felt with bowling there were too many buttons to press and I found that the residents needed help and seemed confused. But it might have been confusing because it was my first time doing the Wii Gaming with them.

I just recently got a job in a nursing home working as an Activity Assistant but am taking classes to be certified as an Activity Director. But at our facility we have a few resident volunteers and they love it. We have one that helps out daily. He loves to help with pushing back the food trays to the kitchen. He will help others with activities and will push people in wheel chairs that need assistance to their room or other places. He has a badge from our facility with his name on it and states that he is a volunteer. Also, we have other volunteers that help with our Snack Shack. They add up the total amount of what the other residents own at the snack shack and the volunteers handle the money.