Respecting the activity department

[hayesmsthing 0]

One day one of my activity assistants came to me crying. She said that a nurse said mentioned to her that she doesn't do anything all day but "play with residents" and that we has the eaiseist paid job in the world. I mentioned it to the Administrator and he suggested a role revisersal. So we set it up so that particular nurse could be the activity assistant for a day(the original activity assistant worked as the Activity Director for the day). I made sure it was a day when admissions had three neww residents coming, social services had two residents discharging, it was the end of the month so old calendars and decorations had to come down and new had to go up around the facility on top of transporting residents and conducting activities a smile. Not to mention conducting room visits with some our our most challenging residents. It was quite hilariuos watching her attempt to call bingo numbers with one of our alzheimers patients calling completely different numbers at the same time. By the end of the day, nurse apolgized to the activity assistant and said she had found a new respect for our profession.

[rose 0]

I know the feeling, I sometimes feel I don't get proper credit from my fellow peers. I once had a physical therapist mention that it was more important for one of the residents to go to his therapy than do activities with me,I mentioned to him that it was just as important to give the resident therapy for his mind.I think that PT felt foolish making that comment once I put it that way.No matter what it doesn't deter me from doing my job.

[rose 0]

I know the feeling , I sometimes feel i don't get proper credit from my peers. A physical therapist once mentioned to me that it was more important for the resident to attend therapy with him than play bingo with me. I mentioned it was just as important for the resident to get therapy for her mind.He felt foolish once I put it that way.

[sams 0]

One day one of my activity assistants came to me crying. She said that a nurse said mentioned to her that she doesn't do anything all day but "play with residents" and that we has the eaiseist paid job in the world. I mentioned it to the Administrator and he suggested a role revisersal. So we set it up so that particular nurse could be the activity assistant for a day(the original activity assistant worked as the Activity Director for the day). I made sure it was a day when admissions had three neww residents coming, social services had two residents discharging, it was the end of the month so old calendars and decorations had to come down and new had to go up around the facility on top of transporting residents and conducting activities a smile. Not to mention conducting room visits with some our our most challenging residents. It was quite hilariuos watching her attempt to call bingo numbers with one of our alzheimers patients calling completely different numbers at the same time. By the end of the day, nurse apolgized to the activity assistant and said she had found a new respect for our profession.

 

My co-workers tease me about this from time to time, and if they see me without a patient they sometimes ask me to do things that are not in my job decription but I always help anyway, and in a way I feel like my co-workers think the same way, so I provide the patients with all of their needs, because they are the reason im there not their opinions.

[jeffreykirchofer 0]

I ran into this problem when I first started working there, but after seeing my progress with the residents, which make their job abit easier, and involving them in the planning, coordinating, execution and clean-up for one single activity, they realized that it was not all the fun playing around with the residents, they thought it was. Designate some tasks for them to get involved with just once and they will realize the difficulty of your job. Thus the respect will given and rightfully earned. Furthermore, the residents are your priority and concern, not whether someone on the staff respects you. If the residents appreciate you, then you are doing your job successfully.

[yunakitty 2]

Another thing that other staff members constantly "don't get" is going on meal outings. I have had so many snide, jealous remarks about my lunch outings. When it gets really bad I offer to take that smart mouthed staff member with me. After their meal has gone cold because they have to escort someone to the bathroom; after they break up the bitter disagreement between two residents ("I ordered that!" "No, it's MY food!"); after they have to do the desperate corralling of ten slightly to severely confused people (who are all different speeds with walking) in one direction, etc, etc; they never make comments about "you get to eat for free, wah wah," any more. Ha!

 

Definitely a taste of what it's like will get people to understand better.