The Vision of a Better long Term Care Facility
A Insurance Article Contributed by Shobha Cutting
The Desirable long Term Care Facility
There is an obvious need to remodel long term care facilities so they maintain a home like environment that focuses more attention to the needs of their inmates. This may sound easy but is a challenging task. The challenge is on account of the alteration both in the systems and the philosophy that is necessary in the working of long term care facilities in order to make them more sensitive to the physical and emotional needs of inmates.
Attempts to change the attitude and temperament of personnel are usually met with stiff resistance. To begin with, a clearly defined, unambiguous vision of the altered, chastened and therefore much more desirable long term care facility will hasten the change in the attitude and approach of the staff and that will bring about the desired changes in the facility.
In a typical long term care facility the staff comprise an interdisciplinary team having well defined and compartmentalized roles. In order to provide personalized long term care, the demarcating lines between roles must become porous and staff must not confine themselves to performing isolated functions. Ancillary staff comprising housekeepers and recreation workers must be willing to perform tasks that are in the realm of nursing.
Similarly, nursing staff must be prepared to take on recreational activities to the benefit of inmates receiving long term care. Such patients are elderly, sometimes neglected by their own family, frail and approaching the last phase in their lives. They certainly deserve humane treatment that is not made cumbersome by protocol. The Management of the facility must also alter their approach. Their role must include more by way of consulting and advising rather than supervising and policing.
The Vision of an Altered long Term Care Facility
If the ancillary staff of a long term care facility visualize themselves to be a part of the community they service and not just doing their assigned jobs, the changeover to a total caregiver from a staff member having a job to do, becomes more appealing and acceptable. They apply all their talent and capabilities to their jobs. In the process, they come out of the compartmentalization of their job descriptions. When people visualize a better long term care facility, they will work to create it.
The same holds true for the attitude of the Management. The managers must visualize themselves to be experts being invited to solve a problem. Their functions must not be restricted to performance reviews or imparting discipline but they must also pursue a more creative role.
Motivating the Staff of long Term Care Facility to Alter Their Attitude
The atmosphere in a nursing home is quite depressing. Inmates staring into space, morose and silent or talking to themselves are common sites in nursing homes. Now visualize a nursing home where there is a homely atmosphere. Inmates help in cooking meals, washing up and keeping the place clean. The scene becomes more cheerful. It is the vision of the future that motivates staff to perform differently at present.
If the vision of the future is to motivate people to perform differently, such vision must be vivid. Mere occasional reference to the nursing home planned for the future at staff meetings will not serve the purpose. A daily reminder of that vision in more ways than one is required to bring about a change in the attitude of the staff.
