Problem With My Assistants

[QTPitootyFL 0]

I don't even know how to begin to post this. I am in a bind.

 

I have been the AD in a facility for 9 months now. I have 3 Assistants- 2 FT and 1 PT for 145 beds. Unfortunately, due to the endless flow of meetings and assessments, MDS, etc, I cannot be counted on in the mix to do as many activities as I would like.

 

Anyway- my 2 FT have been in the building 22 (as a CNA 1st) and 15 years respectively. Both are really tight with the HR manager who has been there for almost 30 years.

 

Here is my frustration- the AD before me was really clueless as to regs and calendar variety and she skated by for the 10 years she was there until a new Administrator came and called her on her incompetancies and terminated her. When I came I started scheduling things like "word game" rather than "word pull" which was the AD's only word game she knew. My Asst ( I will never forget) asked me what a word game was. As far as sensory stim, it wasn;t happening. I have repeatedly tried to tell and show them what I am after and what to do, but it is NOT happening. I also tell them if it is on the schedule IT HAS TO GET DONE. (with an occasional exception, of course) I have inserviced, trained, taught until I am blue in the face. My administrator praises them all the time, and says show them, they like you they are eager to learn. I am so SO frustrated by this. They are clueless... not internet savvy- so when I have a reminiscing or a biography about the war or an actor etc etc... I have to do all the on-line research. They refuse to go to the library on their own time and borrow books. ( I did as an assistant, I did work at home, often)

 

There is so much more! I know this is long, but I guess I just really need to vent. Any imput would help greatly. Please don't think I am nuts altogether, LOL. E-mail me QTPitootyFL@bellsouth.net if you need to... thanks all.

 

Stacey

[StacieO 0]

Have been there, done that & completely understand! I went through that also w/ my staff when I started here, because they had all been here 5 - 15 years by then. Keep up w/ what you are doing & if you aren't already doing this, make them be part of the planning process. Have a "Planning/Brainstorming" meeting & let them know what you expect from the program & give them some ownership. Let them see the regs/requirements so they understand why you are making the changes you are making. Also - it's going to take time. First & foremost, whether they'll admitt it or not, they are out of their "comfort zone". I went through the very same situation, previous DOA was terminated for same reason & even tho the staff were glad to see her go, they had been in controll & expected to be the only ones accountable, that it took a long time for them to trust & respect me, just because I was new. It's not an excuse, but after about 9 months to a year, they were all pretty much on board & I still have the occassional assisst. who doesn't see my vision & we just have to work through that. Hang in there, it will get better.

 

Stacie

[Stacy 0]

Unfortunately, there is no other way around it. You do have to continue with training, and documenting that you continue to train. Run groups with them showing them how you want it done. I would go back also go back to that administrator and tell him, that you do not feel you are getting accomplished what you were hired for. If they continue to not follow what you want accomplished tell him that you need to start writing them up. Nine months is a long enough time for them to adjust.

 

I know it's hard to plan, but you can't make them do outside work. It's something that they are going to want to do. You can always tell the people who really want to take the activity department to the next level. Those who are willing to go outside their job. Do you have internet access at work? I finally got it about a year ago, and it has made things a lot easier. My admin couldn't understand why I needed it. She does now.

 

Don't give up. Some things just take longer.

 

Stacy

[Pennie 26]

Hey,

I guess alot of us have been in your shoes before & it is not plesant :-?

I did as StacyO did.

Every month I allowed time for, prior to me doing the calendar & newsletter, for us to go over & plan the following months calendar. Be sure to allow time on the calendar for you & you're staff to hold this monthly meeting.

 

Also have you had a In-Service with your staff? This should also be done bring the Regs. with you & discuss them as well as the things you observe that they are doing wrong. You should also discuss this w/ your boss, the Administrator.

 

The last thing to do, which I did do, it is you're dept. you are responsibe for it & all that goes on in it. So you should/probably have the responsiblity of hiring & firing. This means that you also have the responsiblity of determining their salary raisers & how much.

Usually before you can fire someone you write them up & these are filed in their employee records:

the first warning is verbal- This written on the apprioate form & sigend by both of you as are all of these write ups, if this fails then you go to

Step 2 of the write up.

If they get get written up 3 times then they get fired!

Check with the Administrator or look in the companies policy & procedures manual for these forms & how they handle these problems.

 

You hate to go to these measures but either State will come in & you get have to accept the responsibility or you just get to the point that you are just tired of fighting them & want them out! I reached the later first :cry:

 

P

[Guest Pat8231]

Ever consider they just might NOT want to do what you are teaching them? They are making up the excuse "I don't know what that is" type conversations? I was an AA and listened to the newer AA's tell the AD OH I don't know how to do that, just to get out of work!!. Just my thoughts. Pat

[Susan 0]

The bottom line is YOU are the Director and when state comes in and your program takes a hit, guess who takes the heat? You! I had the exact same problem - I had a person who was in the department for many years and extremely resistant to change. Our population was declining and she was still doing high functioning programs which only about 5 could participate in. I had a few others who were just as resistant to what I was trying to do. I had a meeting with all of them and told them finally the program was going to run a certain way and if they didn't like it they were free to go elsewhere. I had to start writing people up for not doing what they were supposed to (yes, they were inserviced ad nauseum). The one person went as far as to try to sabotage everything we were trying to change. She had all of the high functioning residents complaining and turned some of our volunteers against the department. She eventually resigned. Unfortunately when trying to motivate people positively doesn't work you have to take a stand. It's the activity director's neck that goes on the chopping the block when the department isn't doing what it should be doing. Good luck to you - it's not easy.

[Guest Janette]

If a staff member is not doing thier job, you have to follow the right disciplinary avenues that may end in termination. Once a staff member gets an official written warning about a behavior, it usually helps them shape up and lets them know you mean business. It is difficult to be the change agent in a department that has been skating by untill you come in the change things. But, obviously the administator knew things weren't going right and brought you in to do the changing, so that may require staff replacements as well. Sometimes that is the only way to really get to the heart of the problem.

[Guest Guest_Kathy]

We have all been there and sometimes we return there even if we have had the same staff for 100 years. So here's what has worked thus far. First, I get another activity director who will do an inservice at my facility for all the local activity assistants. We take turns doing this twice a year. The trick is to teach and demonstrate activities that work, that meet your goals and that the residents want to do. Then we all send our staff for an afternoon. They are thrilled to get away, I stay back and do a program and everyone benefits. Upon their return, we talk about what was taught and then we talk about how to adapt it to our facility. Then we all incorperate it into the activities schedule. ONLY if they think that it will work. Once a year we have all the assistants meet in an afternoon and each one has 10 minutes to present an activity that they do with their residents. That too is successful.

Sometimes, I assume that my staff doesn't want to do any of the new Zoomy activities that I think that they should do, so I wait until the time arises and encourage them to try something new. I also empower them to do their own planning with the residents. I empower the residents to do their own calendars (hence why we only have Bingo 2 x a month). I sometimes think that we spend way too much time trying to "balance" things and not enough time listening to the residents and what they want to do and what they did.

It is extremely rare to see 20 old people, who don't know each other, in a park throwing a beach ball at each other 3 x a week. Or I have never been priveleged to see 30 old people, who don't know each other, sitting around smelling extracts and telling each other what they smelled. So sometimes we need to listen and incorperate what the residents want to to and if the calendar isn't balanced...oh well.