Farmington Presbyterian Manor
Living out ‘response ability’ NOVEMBER 2021
PMMA launches campaign to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations With a national mandate looming requiring all nursing homes to use workers vaccinated against COVID- 19 or risk losing Medicare and Medicaid funding, PMMA (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America®) is launching a campaign to encourage its remaining unvaccinated employees to reconsider. “As a not-for-profit, faith-based organization, PMMA® strongly believes that it is critical to follow our mission of providing quality senior services guided by Christian values, particularly those of love, compassion and respect,” said Bruce Shogren, president and CEO in a letter to families dated September 3. “PMMA leadership is asking employees to get vaccinated for the sake of others, which really equates to the Christian principle of love—to think of others before ourselves.” As a result, PMMA is launching a targeted campaign to encourage those employees who have not yet vaccinated to do so. “At this time, 97-percent of our residents and 66-percent of our employees system-wide are vaccinated,” Shogren said. “We have a goal to have all employees vaccinate – unless an employee falls under those standards and exceptions established by CMS, which we are waiting to receive.” The “Why Vax?” campaign is based on the doubts and concerns of PMMA employees gathered from executive directors across the system. It reminds them of the avenues for speaking with our medical directors and nurses about their concerns with the vaccines. These concerns have been added to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) documents already
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By Mary Bridges, chaplain NOTE: Our featured chaplain for November is Mary Bridges, chaplain at Salina Presbyterian Manor. Each month, we share a devotion from one of the chaplains around the PMMA® system in a nod to our faith-based roots in the Presbyterian Church.
My father, Henry, was an eighth-grade graduate and smarter than anyone I have known. He was a lifelong Lutheran. He did not verbalize his faith or quote scripture; he simply lived it, every day. He cared for my grandmother when she lived alone. She was eventually diagnosed with dementia and moved into a nursing home. My father continued to visit her, even though she didn’t recognize him and no longer spoke. My father loved the land. After he retired from active farming, he leased a small amount of land north of Russell on Salt Creek. There he had a huge garden, and he shared his garden produce with everyone. One year, he raised turkeys. That November, he and my mom cleaned and dressed more than 20 turkeys, which my father distributed to family, friends and people he knew were struggling. He reserved one of those turkeys for a man who stopped to help my father change a tire earlier that year.
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Get the latest on visitation and COVID-19 at our campus at FarmingtonPresbyterianManor.org/covid-19.
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“We want our employees to know we value them and consider them a blessing, which means we will take every means possible to keep them safe from COVID-19, including giving them time off to get their shots and providing incentives for completing the vaccination process,” Shogren said. Shogren said PMMA remains committed to supporting and protecting employees. While the government’s vaccination mandate may seem like the perfect solution, it’s focus on the long-term care industry does not take into account all the other healthcare providers that play a part in caring for seniors in our communities.
PMMA will continue to emphasize that vaccination, while a personal choice, is about doing the right thing to protect others and living out the mission that has sustained PMMA and its communities for 72 years. u
Thanksgiving Trivia 1. How many turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving? 2. What 2 football teams always plays on Thanksgiving? 3. Which U.S state raises the most turkeys? 4. What year was the first Thanksgiving? 5. What is the most famous Thanksgiving parade celebrated today? 6. Which President made Thanksgiving a national holiday? 7. What percentage of american homes eat turkey on Thanksgiving: 88% or 98%? 8. Which day of the week does Thanksgiving always occur in Canada? 9. Where was the first Thanksgiving celebrated? 10. Which Native American tribe took part in the first Thanksgiving feast? u
ANSWERS
Around 46 million! Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys Minnesota 1621 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York Abraham Lincoln 88% Monday Plymouth, Massachusetts
The timing of the campaign coincides with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine receiving full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one of the most frequently mentioned hurdles to vaccination among those who have not yet received the vaccine.
the pandemic,” Shogren said.
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And employees who get vaccinated during this campaign are encouraged to share their reasons why with their teammates to encourage others to do the same.
“This federal mandate assures unvaccinated employees an option to move to other healthcare organizations that are not under the same mandate and intensifies an ongoing staffing crisis that longterm care providers have been experiencing since the beginning of
10. The Wampanoag
being utilized in our communities. The FAQs have new embedded links to videos of fellow employees who talk about their initial doubts and concerns and why they decided to get vaccinated.
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Community Matters 573-756-6768 ◆ Fax: 573-756-6014 500 Cayce St. Farmington, MO 63640-2910 FarmingtonPresbyterianManor.org
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COMMUNITY MATTERS | November 2021
is published monthly for residents and friends of Farmington Presbyterian Manor by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
To submit or suggest articles: kjameson@PMMA.org Jane Hull, executive director Keely Jameson, marketing director
OUR MISSION: To provide quality senior services guided by Christian values.
A special shout out to nurses While we are always thankful to have such a dedicated and compassionate team of nurses working at Farmington Presbyterian Manor, we would like to share our heartfelt appreciation to all of the nurses who are going above and beyond to keep everyone safe—especially during a time when staffing can be a challenge. “All of our nurses have been great team players,” said Loren Rickmar, Assisted Living services director. “Everyone has jumped in to cover staffing shortages and have diligently worked to not only try to keep COVID out of the building but keep everyone’s morale up as well.” The past two years have been tough for everybody in our community, but our nurses—along with the entire Farmington Presbyterian Manor staff—have gone above and beyond to make the experience as good as possible.
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That Thanksgiving season, and every day, my father exercised what the Rev. Richard J. Fairchild calls our, “response ability” that is the result of His goodness. “Our ancestors in faith — from Sarah to Mary and from Abraham to Jesus, all were convinced that God is the source of everything, and that by graciously giving all things to us God provides us with a response ability,” Fairchild writes. That’s the ability to respond to God
Peggy Bland, RN, director of nursing
Loren Rickmar, RN, assisted living services director
“The residents are sad that they can’t see their family, but we have tried our best to help fill the void,” said Loren. “Our staff has been working additional hours to try to provide as
much one-on-one as possible to keep their moods up.”
and to others, Fairchild says. God hopes we will use this ability “for the good that he intends for us and for the good that he intends for our neighbors and our world.”
how slenderly we may hold to it, we have family and friends, no matter how scattered, we have community, no matter how it is organized and we have the presence of God and the promise of Jesus Christ that when we seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteous-ness, that all that we need will be added unto it.” u
My father grasped this innately, and we all felt it: his family and his neighbors, certainly, and I firmly believe he showed the world God’s great goodness.
Thank you nurses for everything you do!
I wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings. I will close with more wisdom from Rev. Fairchild: “In the hard times you see, we still have so much, we have life, no matter Farmington Presbyterian Manor | A PMMA COMMUNITY
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500 Cayce St. Farmington, MO 63640-2910 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
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COMMUNITY MATTERS | November 2021