|
Walk the Walk You're Talking: Train Staff for EXCEPTIONAL Dementia Care
If you've been looking for a high quality staff training
program in the area of Alzheimer's and dementia care,
we've got it!
Our aQuire Training Solutions' game-
based system has 22 memory care modules (each
takes about 1 hour to complete); you can get
unlimited access to
all courses for as little as $10 per learner per month.
No contract; no up-front fee. For details, contact
Ed via
email
or toll free 877-843-8374
today.
Hey – who made me the boss?
Leadership skills for the new
manager
Did you know
that the
number one
reason people
LOVE or HATE their job is because of their boss?
You can give people more money, more time off, more
challenges, but it they don’t like their boss, they’ll be
gone.
So how do you be a good boss, and gain the loyalty
and respect of your employees at the same time?
You’re the Boss – believe it
One of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen over the
years is the person, newly promoted to team
leadership, who is still trying to prove him or herself.
There was Delilah who would change people’s
schedules just to show them that she could.
There was Nancy who would talk to the people on her
team in a confrontational, hostile manner.
There was Bob, who simply laughed and joked with
people – he NEVER corrected anyone about anything.
Bad bosses, every single one of them.
None of them had yet accepted the true meaning of
being a boss: an opportunity and a
privilege.
Being the boss doesn’t mean wielding power in the
way someone may have done in your life.
It doesn’t mean being tough – or too nice.
It DOES mean seeing your role in a totally different
way. Looking at the big picture, instead of just the job.
Thinking about what you want your team to become,
and how you want to build higher quality in every
aspect of the job.
It means having the opportunity to help the people
who work on your team become better at what they do.
It means feeling gratitude and a sense of
responsibility that you have the power to make people
love their job – or hate it.
You have the power to give
someone a job – or take it away.
You have the power
to make work a rewarding, challenging, great place to
be – or a place with constant turnover because it’s
boring and unrewarding.
In the next few issues we’ll look at ways to help you
build your skills to become the kind of boss people
want to work for – a great boss!
This is just a sample of the Leadership Development
courses available on our game-based learning
system, aQuire Training Solutions. Is this
something your department heads or supervisors
need?
We can help! Call us (toll free: 877-843-8374) today!
|
|
| |
Dear Sharon,
Whew! I don't know if your month has been flying by
like mine, but
if so, I'm guessing you're hanging on by your
fingernails, too. Just to give you a clue how busy
we've been, here's an email I received from Wendy
just this morning (Wendy's our faithful EasyCEU
Project
Manager and Friday Funnie's editor) as I sent a test
email to our "Tell us Your Story" board (see below for
more details):
"Thank you so much for your story. We here at
EasyCEU hear your sad, sad, story over and over
again. We'd really like to help, but we got our own
stink'n lists that our slave driving boss continues to
add to. Again, thanks for your story - it's always
comforting to know that we are not alone
in our misery! "
Wendy - I printed this email and it's in your file...
Seriously, though, did you know that a recent study
published in the journal Social Work reported
that
social workers who spend their careers helping other
people suffer more than double the rate of post-
tramatic stress than the average person? The author
of this study thinks perhaps much of what we helping
professionals (that's all of us, social worker or not)
think of as burnout may in fact be emotional trauma.
(Read More)
How do you cope? By laughing, spending time with
friends and people you love and by finding someone
to talk to - especially during periods of very
busy work!
Read on for more thoughts on our challenge, and
some exciting new ideas we have to help you in your
work.
Here's to some help along the way,
|
| |
| |
| |
| The Sandwich Generation: Lessons from Disney |
| |
For the past 20 years, I have taught about, written
about, and thought I understood the Sandwich
Generation experience: the adult children, still caring
for children of their own, and also caring for aging
parents.
Now, however, I do more than understand – I am living
the role. Last night, standing in the checkout line at
Target with all the essentials needed to set my mom
up in her new retirement apartment, I realized that I
had done the exact same thing just a few months ago
with my eldest daughter, who was moving into her first
apartment.
I had the same exact cart contents, too: shower
curtain, laundry soap, kitchen essentials, sheets and
towels.
As I rushed from unloading my mother’s purchases to
pick up my youngest daughter at dance class – 15
minutes late . . . again – I thought, “I am living the
Sandwich experience.”
I, and nearly every one of my friends and
acquaintances.
Melanie has been sitting at her dying mother’s side for
the past two weeks, leaving only to attend her high
school daughter’s performances. She’s learned
more about hospice, caregiving, and end of life
choices in the past two weeks than I have in the past
two decades.
Carol, a professional with a thriving private practice,
has gradually reduced her work week to three days as
her kids have completed college. Last week, Carol
started working five days a week again to help cover
the costs of two parents in need of high-level assisted
living care.
My husband is taking tomorrow off work to accompany
his parents to the doctor to learn how his 87 year old
mother’s recently diagnosed cancer will be treated,
and to support his 93 year old father in handling the
news.
Clearly, we’re not alone. Both CBS and NBC are
currently airing segments during their evening news
broadcast that focus on this exact challenge which is
facing millions of Americans today.
Many of our parents need care in assisted living
communities, nursing homes and retirement centers.
And you can bet your last dollar that every one of us
will be picky, annoying, and demanding. We’ve grown
up demanding more, and we’re accustomed to getting
it.
A promotional announcement for the upcoming
Assisted Living Federation of America conference
featured a Disney University past executive speaking
on the topic of “Learning from Disney, Where It's Not
About Satisfaction.”
While Disney seeks loyalty by offering the best
vacation experience imaginable, we in senior care
have felt smugly successful if our clients are
merely “satisfied”.
As my generation of self-centered Baby Boomers
enters the long term care system – as advocates for
our parents or as consumers ourselves – beware:
We’ll be looking for an experience that far surpasses
simply “satisfactory.”
Yesterday I interviewed a young woman for an office
position. She told me of an earlier job she’d had in a
care setting where she had been excited to help, but
left after just three months.
“I was thrown right into the work with no training at all –
just another employee to get me started,” she said. “I
would have loved the job, but I couldn’t do it without
training.”
No wonder the caregiver turnover rate is so high –
over 70%
annually, according to the most recent survey by the
American Health Care Association (AHCA), as
reported by the National Clearinghouse on the Direct
Care Workforce.
This one thing I know: As a profession of senior care
providers, we are not going to be ready to meet the
high demands of my generation if we don’t aim higher.
Higher in our training of frontline staff.
Higher in our own expectations of happy customers.
Because for me – and for millions like me – it is no
longer just a job; it’s personal.
Links for references in this article:
ALFA
ALFA Conference (May 15-17 in Dallas, TX)
Fred Lee, author of If
Disney Ran Your Hospital (Amazon link)
AHCA
Direct Care Turnover
Statistics
|
| |
Want to read more? Check out Sharon's blog |
| |
| Tell Us Your Story |
| |
Admit it - you waited until the last minute to get your
CEUs, too. My license is up for renewal on April 15
(nice date - I can remember it since I have some other
onerous tasks due then, too); I haven't added up my
CEUs yet to see how many "last-minutes" I'll be
needing.
Did we rescue you with last minute CEUs?
Share your story - you might make the next postcard or
front page of our website!
|
| |
Share Your Story Today! |
| |
|
My Turn
