Staff

[act4life 0]

I've tryed everything from food to asking each staff member to please help out I've even offered gifts to the one with the most fun money for the month for everytime they got a resident that was on the one-to-one list out of room and they attended a activity they would get $5.00 in fun money for every resident that was'nt on the list but got them to come to the activity they would get $2.00 in fun mone. All I got was it's not my job, when I tryed to let them know it was part of there job under the new guidelines for activities that we all work as a team to make sure we meet the needs of all the residents. I was able to get two what can I do to get the staff to understand. I don't want to get a F248 or F249 Tag can someone help me on this one.

[KateAA 0]

It is a dilemma that has been going on since activities started in Nursing Homes. Yes, there are facilities that "get it", but many more that saddly do not. The best thing that has worked for us is education of the staff, set up some inservices to teach the staff the guidelines, do some role playing games that might get the point across. Then look at your 1-1 residents and start to plan activities in their rooms, schedule smaller groups on the units so that staff will see how activities enhances the residents lives.

Maybe a Bingo game on each unit where staff can play as well. You can have one game that doesn't take too long, or post Bingo cards in the resident's rooms and announce two numbers a day, the winning resident and the resident's aide can both be winners.

We also have guest books in the rooms of those resident's who do not leave their rooms, after the educational sessions, we encouraged staff (including housekeeping) to sign the resident's guest books. This let us keep track of who visited and interacted with the resident. It has helped us keep track of who visited with the residents. Families also were encouraged to sign the books.

It takes a long time to educate folks about the guidelines, but worth the time and effort. Take one day at a time. Be patient and hang in there.