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I would check with your boss first and explain to him/her about the finacial situation and if there is money that they could help out with for the celebration. Another idea is I would check with the local school band director and see if they could come and play. The other thing I would do is check with the staff at your facility and see if anyone has any CD's that are patriotic and play those during the day (if you do not have any). I know my residents enjoy singing to the music we play. You may have some staff that will come in and sing with the residents to the songs on the CD's.

Hi, my name is Cynthia Page and I am from Dickinson, Texas. I work in a rehabilitation and healthcare center in Webster, Texas. I have been working as an activity assistant at this facility since August 2008. I went from working in a high school for 18 years and wish I had been doing this instead. I love my job and everyone I work with (residents and staff). I feel this is a very rewarding job. I am looking vary forward in becoming an Activity Director. I wish everyone good luck.

I agree with you. It is impossible to spend that much time with time each day. I do 1:1's with residents that are bed ridden or do not come out of their rooms to do group activities. I have some of the ones that prefer to stay in their rooms that have families come several times a week or call them. We have these residents that are listed as Leisure visits 1x weekly. My facility does everything in their power to make sure our residents get up and out. We only have approximatly 10 that are bed ridden and of those 4 have visitors 4x's weekly. I do go in and check on them atleast 3x's a week to make sure they do not need anything. The others I go in a read to them or just have a conversation. We also have a therapy dog that comes in every Friday.

We took our memory Care residents on a light tour at Christmas time. They really did enjoy it a lot. They seem to relate to the lights and yard decorations. It was a delight to see them so happy.

As the others have said, our business manager sorts the mail and puts only ours and the residents' mail in our box. We sort the residents mail and takes it to them. For some of our residents we read their mail for them is they ask us to. For bills we put these in the top bedstand drawer and their families get it when they come. I do not see why the business office does this to you. You have enough to do without extra duties added to you.

We do snack time and below are some names we use: Movie and Popcorn Coffee and chat music appreciation

This is such a great idea for my residents to do during our craft day. I am so excited about this and am looking forward to doing this with my residents to honor our nursing staff for the holiday's. Thanks for the idea.

I am amazed at what I saw. I understand more about what these people are going through. I wish I had seen this while my mother-in-law as still alive. I understood what she was kind of going through but I never knew about the noise factor. I have several residents that have this and I now know why they do the things they do. I know I will be more understanding of them and anyothers that come in my facility. Wow what an eye opener. Thanks

These are all great ideas for the winter time. I have a Christmas CD and it has a fireplace CD with it. I am going to do the apple cider and tea cookies with the above CD's. Thanks for a new activity

See if you can get the sound track from the Music Man. You might be able to get it through Amazon. Those are some great songs and they will know them.

1. The thing I believe people should look for in a nursing facility is Cleanliness, smell, are the residents happy and active and how the latest state review was. 2. That although it is a hard decision to do that it is best for the resident and they will adjust. 3. Does the facility have activities for the residents that they enjoy. 4. Do not feel guilty for placing their loved one in a facility especially if they are not capible of taking care of themselves. They need to visit them on a regular basis to let them know they are not forgotten of not being just thrown away.

We post a list and take the first 4 who sign up for the wheelchair spots and the 3 walk-ons. However, we do monitor and if you went on the last trip, you can not go on this one. The only exception is if their is an open spot and no one fills it you can go. We do have alternate spots in-case someone can not go for some reason (illness). We try to take different people to give everyone a chance.