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Whitney 25th Aug 2021 Activities Director

Hello everyone! I'm a new Activities Director (under a year) and I was wondering if there were any particular sites to reach out to other directors/coordinators besides this one? Not just for ideas for activities, but also for the department as a whole. I've had zero training and I've never held a supervisory position before this one. I now have a basic idea of how things are done, but any advise is greatly appreciated.

Susan 25th Aug 2021 Activity Director

Hi Whitney
Congratulations on your position
I’ve seen several new activity the directors on this site
Maybe you can connect with these peopl
https://www.goldencarers.com/comments/33813/

https://www.goldencarers.com/comments/33284/
Do you have any specific questions??
Please read the comments on these posts
I have given some good advice here
What do you need help with??

Whitney 30th Aug 2021

Well, I work at a nursing home/rehab facility so I have many residents that are STC. It's almost always the case that they want to keep to their rooms and only come out for therapy or family visits. They want to get out of here ASAP and I can't blame them. I know it's because they don't want to be reminded that they are in a nursing home, even if it's just for rehab. I don't know how to encourage them to participate when it's the environment that's the problem. Of course, due to Covid, my options are limited. Any ideas?

I've also been having some issues with the Nursing staff. We have a very clickish atmosphere and it starts from the top down. Their thought process seems to be that Activities is here to make things easier for Nursing. We are met with hostility most of the time, whether we extend a helping hand or not. There is a sense of entitlement from most of Nursing. I've written a CNA up once for how she treated a resident in my rec room and the DON threw out the paper work. The DON has been confrontational with me in front of residents and with our Administrator in morning meetings. Her assistant is just as bad. The ADON had made some very unprofessional remarks to me personally (through text of all things, so it's in writing) and has had to be retrained in management because of it. I know it's only a matter of time before the problem handles itself, but I would like some advise on how to handle situations like these confidently and professionally. What steps should I take, if any?

Lastly, I have to put in 2,000 hours on the clock before I take my national exam. I already have my certificate from the classes I took online. What do I need to focus on for the nationals? Any study guides or websites I should look at? Are there any groups I could join besides Golden Carers?

Thank you all for the guidance! :)

Susan 30th Aug 2021 Activity Director

Hey Whitney
Thank you for your response
I worked in a nursing home that had rehab patients
You are right they like to keep to themselves because they want to focus on rehab so they can leave
Fortunately for me our rehab department was very cooperative
They would go over the activities to see what these residents might want to do and they would say that going to an activity is part of their rehab
I don't know how the members of the rehab department are but perhaps you could talk to them
I also had In services for the nursing staff to remind them that all staff are responsible for activities as said by CMS
There is some thing you can read from NCCAP
https://www.nccap.org/federal-regulations
You could also join this organization if you want

I worked with some nurses who were rather uncooperative and cliquish
Just did my job and try to ignore them unless you need their help
Kill them with kindness I say complement them when they help you
If you review some of the documents from CMS and share them with the nursing staff perhaps that would help
I had issues with the CNA's and they tried to gang up on me so this is very tricky
Tried to kill them with kindness as well complementing them when they help you
Have you been through a survey yet??
Getting back to the short term residents
Have separate activities for this group
See If anyone attends
Do you cannot find group activities they want to participate in just write the note and care plan saying that they prefer independent leisure activities
Hand out trivia questions or other type of things they might want to do it on their own such as word searches

https://www.goldencarers.com/search/?search_tag=Activity&search=Word%20searches

I don't know if you have tablets or they could use their own phone to do these virtual activities
https://www.goldencarers.com/15-virtual-activities-for-residents-in-isolation/6292/
I think theNCcAP well help you with study guidance
I am in OTA so the exam I took was different
If you have anymore questions please let me know
Are you friendly with anyone in another department such as social service that might be able to help you??
Do you go to the care plan meetings??
Good luck to you Remember we are here to help

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