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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??

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! :)

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