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Sub-acute Patients


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Guest Guest_Tbranch

Hello everyone....just found this site. It is great. I work in a Sub-acute/SNF. We are having a difficult time coming up with activities that would interest our short term residents. After they attend therapies (sometimes all three disciplines), recieve their ADL care, eat 3 meals a day and then visit with their guests, they do not wish to attend programs nor have the Activity staff provide them with any in room leisure. However, the powers to be above us would like to see more "involvement" with our short term residents. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank!

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Guest Pat8231

Hello, What I did was just room visits. 1:1, bring a book, magazine, just a short hello did it. Keep it short and simple so the residents to not get upset or shoo you away (we all know what shoo you away means lol) That is involvment by activities. Hope that helps, Pat 8-)

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Guest Guest_MARE

I work in a same kind of place.

 

I do bingo, coffee hour, music programs, baking. There is such a push to get them to eat in the "dining room" though after therapy they are pooped.

 

I love our unit though, always new people to see and meet.

 

Email me anytime and we can brainstorm.

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We have a large Sub-Acute unit. Very rarely do the residents get invovled in activities. There is plenty for them to do in their room. The "powers to be" need to understand that there focus isn't to attend group activities. The "powers to be" feel everyone should be invovled becuase it looks good, but what is the need of the resident? They need to rest so that they can continue to go to therapy. The best thing, in my experiences, is to encourage the resient's independence. We can bring them in room activities, just because they are not in group sessions, doesn't mean they are just sitting around. I don't know how many times when interviewing the resident, it is said to me "I am not here for activities." You know what, they're right. There are groups for them to attend if they want, but they are going to choose, they are going to choose to relax.

 

But, if you have to come up with a plan, have you tried holding group activities at different hours? Have you tried activities after dinner, or activities right before dinner? Sometimes that will bring intrest from a different group of people.

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Guest Guest_MARE

I am glad to know there are people out there who work on units like mine.

 

 

How do you guys do attendance? I hate it. Our population turnover is so high that is it hard to keep up. I usually write notes a few times a week to explain what the person ois doing.

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HELLO, I THINK WE ALL HIT OUR HEAD AGAINST THE WALL A FEW TIMES A WEEK.I THINK I OWN STOCK IN TYLENOL. ANYONE WHO WANTS TO SHARE IDEADS EMAIL ME AT MBLESH@SHF.ORG.

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There is plenty for them to do in their room. They need to rest so that they can continue to go to therapy. The best thing, in my experiences, is to encourage the resient's independence. We can bring them in room activities, just because they are not in group sessions, doesn't mean they are just sitting around. I don't know how many times when interviewing the resident, it is said to me "I am not here for activities." You know what, they're right. There are groups for them to attend if they want, but they are going to choose, they are going to choose to relax.

I love what that person wrote!

When I took my AD course, we realized that our goal was to "provide Opportunities" not force attendance or participation, especially when therapy tires them out! Let them realize that the calendar is for their convenience and purposes a well as for long term residents.

I have a dear lady who is on our SNF unit who says that she won't even accept visitors on MWF's (even therapists) due to her dialysis schedule, and on TR's she is in therapy, both of which exaust her energy and she only has time and energy to visit with family. That doesn't mean that she is active "little time awake," it means she is active when she is awake and not in therapy, dialysis etc. The "powers that be" need to get a grip and realize the resident's needs come above all else!

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Guest Tiff

When you document a 1:1, make it sound good...you know the volabulary to make even a short chat theapudic. Document it so that the "powers to be" see that even that short chat is important and has a therapudic value.

 

Tiff

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I just relocated closer to family and started working in a new building where I also have high resident turnover. So far most of my activities have been in-room visits or chatting in the hallway while walking with a resident...usually to the therapy room, but those short visits let the resident know that I'm available, and I always remind them of what I can offer them for independent use as well as any activity for that day or the next that they may be interested in.

 

I also find that telling them what we did earlier that day or the previous day can strike up their interest in coming to a group. Most of all these residents are so alert and oriented that they self-direct their activity choices. Family visits, occasionally they go out with family for meals, they watch t.v., read books and the newspaper or magazines.

 

Today we showed a movie on that unit before dinner time and I popped popcorn, residents who hadn't given activities a single thought saw me in the dining room at the end of the movie/beginning of dinner and I was able to offer them some popcorn and chat briefly, as well as a resident asked me to have the movie available for their use tonight. Although that probably will be something he does on his own it was nice to see them speak up about their activity preferences.

 

My next goal is to keep attendance records, the last time their was an activity director at this building was over 2 months ago, so their is a lot to do. Best of luck to everyone. Keep sharing the ideas.

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