DarcySchroeder

A co-worker of mine occasionally plays Bingo without physical prizes. Instead, she gives away imaginary prizes such as: Trips around the world, a million dillars, a yacht, a sportscar, a personal jet, a tropical island, etc. The residents really love to play for these prizes, and even find themselves trading prizes with one another after the Bingo game is over. Sometimes, the imaginary prize is large sums of money which the residents have to give to their favorite charity. Again, the residents love to hear what each other's favorite charity is.

Take two pennies from the pot if you have ever held your breath while driving past a cemetary. Give one penny to the person on your left if you ever sang songs with your family on long car rides. Take four pennies from the pot if you can sing one of the songs that you used to sing on those long car rides. Give two pennies to the person on the right if you ever marched in a parade. Give everyone a penny if you ever sneaked out of the house at night while your parents thought you were sleeping. Take a penny from the pot if you've ever made a snow angel

I was just discussing this topic with someone from another nursing home. She told me that her facility schedules a Social Hour once each week in which residents who have a doctor's order are served alcohol if they want. She said that because they have Doctor's orders, a nurse must serve the alcohol.

I organized a trip for our residents to go to a local park which has beautiful grounds and a duck pond. We went there and brought bread to feed the ducks. The residents had a great time!

A favorite destination for our residents is to go out for ice cream. About a 15 minute drive from our facility is a farm which sells ice cream and also has farm animals to see and pet. We sit outside under a nice shade tree and enjoy the fresh air while eating our ice cream and then visit the animals.

You could ask the resident to "work" by going room to room with the "Hospitality Cart" offering things for residents to borrow such as: magazines, daily newspaper, crossword puzzle or word search books, books to read, CD's, CD player or DVD's, playing cards, cribbage boards, etc.