Category: Implementing Culture Change

New Directions to Dining in Long-Term Care

In long-term care, institution-directed dining is the old route. Steer your community in a new direction with self-directed dining. This infographic gives you examples of how to pivot from the old dining route to the new one. Download Read the book! The Inside Scoop on Informed Choice A Step-by-Step Guide for Personalizing Diets in Long-Term Care By Diane Hall, NHA, RDLDN Copyright © 2018 by Balanced Senior Nutrition Support a person’s right to make personal food choices (while also meeting regulatory guidelines and reducing your liability) with this guide to creating person-centered meal plans in long-term…

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5 Keys to Good Hiring

When it comes to retaining staff in long-term care, taking the time to hire the right people is paramount. Use the carpenter’s framework: “measure twice—cut once.”

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Hiring the Right People in Long-Term Care

Working in long-term care is not for everyone. I am sure I am not the only person who has experienced the “Oh” reaction when you meet someone for the first time and are asked what you do for a living.

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“I Hate My Body Alarm:” Maintaining Safety and Dignity in Long-Term Care

Created by an administrator struggling to jump-start culture change in her care community, Through the Looking Glass is a unique program that changes staff attitudes and teaches the importance of person-centered care practices by placing staff directly in the shoes of residents—with remarkable results. Here, program creator Leslie Pedtke tells the story of her employee, Leah, who participated in the program, living as a resident with body alarms, and the weight of the lessons that experience taught her. This post was excerpted from What Living as a Resident Can Teach Long-Term Care Staff: The…

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A New Dialogue on Dementia

In this excerpt from his book, Dementia Beyond Drugs: Changing the Culture of Care, Second Edition, Dr. Al Power re-frames the barriers and stigma of dementia-as-tragedy into a new dialogue.  Diabetes versus Dementia Imagine for a few moments that you have been diagnosed with diabetes. I am choosing this disease because it is a common condition about which most of us have a fair degree of awareness. It is incurable, but treatments are available. Many people live many years without serious problems, but many people may experience progression…

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Growing a Person-Centered Community

Download this handy infographic on shifting your thinking away from the institutional model of care, and growing your organization into a person-centered one.   Read the book! Lessons in Leadership for Person-Centered Elder Care By Nancy Fox Copyright © 2017 by Health Professions Press, Inc. Lead your organization to success in person-centered care, using these expert leadership and management lessons! Learn more…

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Leadership: Institutional vs. Person-Centered

What is person-centered leadership? Author Nancy Fox argues that it is the exact opposite of the outdated and harmful institutional leadership model. Here’s why. This post was adapted from Lessons in Leadership for Person-Centered Elder Care by Nancy Fox. Copyright © 2017 by Health Professions Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Have you ever been at a party and had someone leave the table to “toilet” themselves? Have you ever heard someone refer to their grandmother as “the feeder?” These are examples of horrendous language the institutional model in long-term care has given us. Indeed, there is much…

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A Lesson in Leadership in Person-Centered Elder Care

Author and Nursing Home Administrator, Nancy Fox, shares the moment she realized the reason many older adults fear nursing homes, and the two elders who showed her why. Nancy Fox is a Nursing Home Administrator, former executive director of The Eden Alternative, and Chief Innovation Officer for Vivage Senior Living. She is also the author of Lessons in Leadership for Person-Centered Elder Care. Here, she shares a leadership lesson she learned while vacationing on Sanibel Island, after years spent transforming her organization into a person-centered care environment. “She fell and can’t get up…” In…

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The 12 Essential Components of an Orientation Program

High employee turnover is one of the greatest challenges facing long-term care communities today. Without consistent staffing, care communities and their residents suffer the serious consequences of inadequate care, unnecessary expenses, and inefficient operations. Using these 12 components as the core of your orientation will form the basis of a thorough and effective program.

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