Blogs, Guest Columns, Things I Think and Living Leadership
Federal court rules against nursing home immunity
By
Neville M. Bilimoria
Dec 18, 2020
On Oct. 16, a federal court issued an opinion that greatly limits federal immunity protections for nursing homes. The case of Sherod v. Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services, LLC, should be on all...
Just a box
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 18, 2020
It’s just a box. Not that different from the one that will probably show up on your doorstep or mine today, maybe stuffed with holiday gifts or toilet paper. So why am I feeling a little choked up standing...
The devilish details of vaccine distribution
By
Tina Sadarangani, Ph.D., R.N.
Daniel David, Ph.D., R.N
Jasmine Travers, Ph.D., R.N.,
Dec 17, 2020
The development of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine has always been a matter of “when” not “if.” Significant advances in vaccine development, a coordinated global response...
Dear Santa, I wasn’t asking for a pandemic…
By
Martie Moore
Dec 16, 2020
Dear Santa, Last year, I started my letter to you by asking for one more moment with my mother. I asked you for the moment to be like it used to be. Little did I know, when I wrote those words, that I...
Managing a bah humbug holiday season
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Dec 15, 2020
By now many of us have viewed the viral video of residents gleefully shooting soft foam balls at laughing staff members dressed as reindeer dodging through a pine-tree “forest.” It’s the kind...
Rehabilitating the nursing home image
By
Steven Littlehale
Dec 14, 2020
Have you ever asked a question, even though the answer is obvious? “Would you like another homemade chocolate chip cookie?” “Do you want to sit where you have a view of the ocean?” Even when the...
Suffering on the third shift in rural post-acute care: Who’s accountable?
By
Waseem Ghannam, M.D.
Dec 14, 2020
It is 2 a.m. at Fictitious Post-Acute Care in Rural County, USA, and all is quiet but for the 82-year-old patient in Room 15. She’s distressed and disoriented, and her nurse suspects a UTI — a condition...
‘Notes from Underground,’ with apologies to Dostoevsky
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Dec 11, 2020
This is a throwback to college reading. It’s been a while for some of us, so bear with me for a minute. In 1864’s Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s narrator believes life in Utopia...
Moment of truth
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 10, 2020
Now that vaccines really are imminent and long-term care staff and residents look to be first in line, you’re probably holding your breath, desperately longing for an answer to the most important question...
The peculiar puzzle
By
Julie Thorson
Dec 09, 2020
As we are looking for things to do at home, we’ve returned to the “good ol’ days” of jigsaw puzzles. Of course, my husband and son made fun of me as I spent afternoons working on them only to have...