Golden Years
St. Ann’s: Thinking Outside the Box St. John’s leadership, staff, residents, and special guests cut the ribbon at a dedication ceremony for the Rose Neighborhood at St. John’s Home in March. The Rose Neighborhood represents the first step in the organization’s Small Homes Project, which aims to reimagine what a nursing home can be.
Home Sweet Nursing Home Rochester-based long-term care facilities empowering residents
By Ernst Lamothe Jr.
T
here are so many ways that using the word “home” has become part of the fabric of our language. Whether it’s phrases such as “home is where the heart is”, “there is no place like home” or the sadder “you can never go home again”, the word has become more meaningful than simply being a place to rest your head. Nursing home and long termcare organizations understand that concept and are making changes that would have been taboo years ago. First, St. John’s Home in Rochester is in the midst of its “Small Homes Project” where the massive, six-story building on Highland Avenue is slowly morphing floor by floor from a traditional space into smaller, more personalized homes for residents. The project features a welcoming dining room table and communal kitchen where meals will be prepared with help from the residents themselves. It washes away the old images of food being delivered on trays. Residents will get to know one another and their caretakers more easily than ever before. “When you have one person
who is taking care of your medicine, another taking care of your social aspects, another overseeing your dining and someone else who oversees your mental health, that is often too much fragmented care in long-term services, which really hurts people,” said Rebecca Priest, administrator of skilled services at St. John’s Home. “That model may work at a hospital where your stay is going to be much shorter, but it doesn’t work at a place you are supposed to call home.” Recently, St. John's Home held a ceremony with residents to dedicate the first of this large-scaled project that completely re-imagines the nursing room floors. In this case, it was the Rose Neighborhood on the sixth floor of the Reservoir Building that was renovated. It is one of the first of many steps that is changing the look of nursing homes. St. John’s employee Kris Angevine, who has worked in the healthcare profession for more than a decade locally, said residents should have as many choices and as much autonomy as possible. “You can’t have a top-down structure,” she said. “You have to empower the residents to take control of their living situation.” Another change is staff eats with
residents in hopes of forming a more family feel culture. With any change, there is always some resistance, but Angevine has already heard from staff about the positives. “I had someone come to me and tell me at first she wasn’t necessarily onboard with the new strategy,” said Angevine. “She told me now she is completely onboard, loves the new strategy and for the first time she said her job has true meaning. That was so special for me to hear.” Cherie Palmer, a St. John’s nurse, loves the new environment at her facility. She has been in the profession for quite some time and views this structure as the best in her career, including residents and nurses eating together. “I came from the old-school philosophy that if you were eating with your residents, that meant you weren’t working hard enough and it was going to be a negative on you as an employee,” said Palmer. “Residents do feel like this is their home and not a nursing home. We have to understand seniors feel like so much has been taken away. They have lost so much when they have to leave their original homes and go to longer-term care. We are here to give them back the sense of ownership.”
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Susan Murty, St. Ann’s Community administrator, said the organization has continued to think of new, engaging and creative programming for its residents throughout the past few years. It has given residents more control over their social needs and integrated them into the running of their home. She said because each resident brings value in their own ways, officials are tapping into those skills and even using them as volunteers at the nursing home. “What we have done here is our residents work in our facility, whether it is in the pharmacy department to organize, count drugs and help our technicians or other departments at St. Ann’s,” says Murty. “This is just another way that nursing homes and long-term care facilities are doing what is needed to embrace and execute the patient-centered culture. You can tell that our residents feel connected in a more meaningful way because they are part of making their homes run the way they want.” Murty said too often in past decades, nursing home facilities nationwide focused on forcing residents to do arts and crafts instead of real engagement. The first key was listening to residents and expanding the notion of what a facility can truly be. It has worked well for St. Ann’s and its residents. “Our residents really are an incredible benefit to our organization,” said Murty. “They also provide an incredible benefit to the community. We have programs with local schools where we bus children to our homes and you wouldn’t believe the interpersonal connection the residents and kids have for each other. They really establish a connection over the years and the kids look forward to seeing the residents who they have made a connection with and vice versa.” Murty views the shift in philosophy as a growing trend in the future. She is pleased that St. Ann’s continues to look at new and viable ways to make their residents feel a sense of involvement. “It is our job to make sure our seniors feel fulfilled and have meaningful interactions and establish strong relationships.”
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