Not enough hours in a day.....

[bonniesnyder 0]

I have an eight hour day at work and plus hours at home doing homework.. I read alot of calendars from other facilities and they all seem to be the same some have three activities a day and others have six how do you do it ? I am an activitity director for an Alzheimers wing and a personal care wing. I do not have any help I'm It. I really go home some times feeling I let the residents down because I can not reach all of them. Is there any other acitivities directors out there that are on their I really love working with the elderly and I really am not complaining about my job. Our facility is small about 40 people and there is no way they will hire any extra people in the activity department. My real question is how do you find the time to do activities with the people all stages of alzheimers plus the personal care which are higher funtioning and making the calendar doing the volunteer program and touching base with family members finding ansewers to the administrator on how to run the next healthfair or fundraiser and the just doing all the daily paperwork. In other words how do you as one person fit the role of six people ?

[quilterbcathy 0]

Hi Bonnie,

I am new too, and somedays are better than others. The last couple of days have been a bit of a reprieve. I do have a helper, only part time (2 mornings paid), and she herself needs supervision. The only time I leave her alone is when I must attend Care Plan mtgs or Medicare mtgs. Then at those times a simple exercise program is scheduled, one day of which a volunteer runs it. My facility is about 44 beds, so we are similar in that. On Monday, Weds and Friday afternoons a bingo is scheduled, which lasts about an hour. For now I am keeping it that simple. Monday & Weds I end it at 3 and spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on paperwork and room visits. At 3 I will sometimes put a classic movie on in the dining room. If they have popcorn I bring my charting in to work on. Fri. afternoon's I have an ice cream social after bingo, and serve Ice Cream until about 3:30. I work each day until 4:30 so try to use those afternoons to the fullest. I try and spread out room rounds in the mornings in between activities and meetings. I am fortunate in that staff is good about helping (I think that being on the Eden alternative has made a difference, they seem to have done a pretty good job of embracing that), so we have sometimes 20-25 residents out to exercise and even more out to music events. During those I try and make time for the lower functioning people who are attending to get them as actively involved as possible. I hope that helps make it count as an activity for lower functioning residents as well, because I really put forth a specific effort and try to chart it and am trying to figure out a catchy phrase to calendar it to show that. We are having a therapy dog coming to live with us and he will be a regular in my room rounds.

All that said, the last two days were better but somedays I have felt totally overwhelmed. I need to really get into the charts and make sure I am doing them right, and I need to read the Policy and Procedures manual, again. I wasn't taking volunteers through any kind of applications or policy and procedures, so now is one more thing... I hope my calendar is up to snuff, and hope my charting is too. I was at a 135 bed facility so this seems serene in comparison. It sure is a learning process. I'm glad this forum is here to to help us hang in together and offer ideas and support. Good luck to you.

Cathy

[bigchris 1]

Bonnie,

 

I would suggest that you read the book "Time Management for the Creative person" I had the same issues that you were going through when I started the job. I was also hindered in the fact that my former facility wanted me in umpteen meetings each day that drained my soul from me!

 

Anyway, it has a ton of good tips that helped me immensely, I hoe it will you too...

 

 

BigCHris

[Pennie 26]

hello bonnie

cathy seems to have it down pretty good. You do not have to visit your res. 1:1 daily, make a calendar where you visit Ms Smith on Tues & Thur @ 1 pm Mr Smith Mon & Wed @ 1 pm etc. Start your activity program @ 9 am & end @ 3 pm everyday. You get to work @ 8 am use that hour for charting & meetings. Stop activities @ 10:30 & start them back up at 2 or 2:30 pm use that time for paperwork, 1:1' etc. Again same thing from 3 pm til 5 pm (or whenever you go home) If you know that every moning you have a meeting @ 8:30, CP's on tues plan you calendar & 1:1's around these. I also chart during the movie time & other activities that I only need to over see. There will be those days however no planning in the world will work stuff happens. One of the companies I worked for had us do monthly time anaylsis, it helped to see where I was losing so much of my time but I hated doing these as I felt it was time I could be using doing something else. I never read the book Big Chris is speaking of but I do know he had several facilities & over 400 res to deal with daily. So if he could make it work mine should have been a breeze with only 250!

Don't take the work home with you. Because in the end you will get really burned out. Occ. you may have to but avoid it as much as poss. you need to spend time with your family or friends taking care of yourself in order to be all you can be for your res. trust me I speak from 1st hand expreniece.

Take care

pennie

[bluebird 0]

hello bonnie

cathy seems to have it down pretty good. You do not have to visit your res. 1:1 daily, make a calendar where you visit Ms Smith on Tues & Thur @ 1 pm Mr Smith Mon & Wed @ 1 pm etc. Start your activity program @ 9 am & end @ 3 pm everyday. You get to work @ 8 am use that hour for charting & meetings. Stop activities @ 10:30 & start them back up at 2 or 2:30 pm use that time for paperwork, 1:1' etc. Again same thing from 3 pm til 5 pm (or whenever you go home) If you know that every moning you have a meeting @ 8:30, CP's on tues plan you calendar & 1:1's around these. I also chart during the movie time & other activities that I only need to over see. There will be those days however no planning in the world will work stuff happens. One of the companies I worked for had us do monthly time anaylsis, it helped to see where I was losing so much of my time but I hated doing these as I felt it was time I could be using doing something else. I never read the book Big Chris is speaking of but I do know he had several facilities & over 400 res to deal with daily. So if he could make it work mine should have been a breeze with only 250!

Don't take the work home with you. Because in the end you will get really burned out. Occ. you may have to but avoid it as much as poss. you need to spend time with your family or friends taking care of yourself in order to be all you can be for your res. trust me I speak from 1st hand expreniece.

Take care

pennie

[bluebird 0]

Hello to all, I just wanted to add that not only do I do all the paper work for the Directors job and do all the activities I also have to do restoritive. I was just wondering if anyone eles has to do that. After so many restoritive programs I talked to the administrator and she said I would have to talk to the DNS. Now I just got a restoritive program for a man that is a half an hour. I really wonder if the administration realize how much work we really have to do. It seems like activities dont mean much to some staff. Activities is very important but I really dont think the staff realizes how important it is. They see me sitting in a group activity reading or exerciseing and think thats all we do. Just wondering if anyone eles has to do that?

[nkssad 0]

It has been awhile since I went to school for Social Services and Activity Director, but I have always helped in Activities since I went to school. I never had to do the charting for Social Services and Activity the Director at the time Could someone please help me with this on what to chart on and how often.