There’s a red-carpet worthy moment set to happen in Nebraska’s capital city Thursday night, and if all goes according to plan, it will make celebrities out of a few individuals pouring their hearts into long-term care.
Should the producers’ dreams come true, this one moment inside the Rococo Theatre also could lead to hundreds, maybe thousands, of other opportunities to praise nursing home staff and recruit new colleagues to help carry their heavy — but also inherently delicate — load.
Following a whirlwind production schedule, the Nebraska Health Care Association will debut the docuseries “People Worth Caring About” at a membership meeting in downtown Lincoln.
But this seven-part series of 15-minute episodes about people working in nursing homes, assisted living and hospice isn’t about just people working in the seven specific facilities highlighted by director Peter Murphy Lewis. He’s a professional television host and trained CNA who gets into the teamwork as a dietary aide, activities assistant, hair stylist, therapy sidekick and more over nearly two hours of video.
The series tells the story of almost every long-term care worker NHCA President Jalene Carpenter has ever known.
“At New Cassel Retirement Center, in particular, one of their team members that is highlighted, you learn her story and you can just understand and feel why she does what she does,” Carpenter told me this week. “That’s every episode: You’re learning about a caregiver and you’re thinking, ’I know that person.’ It’s been captured in a way that it actually is translating on the screen, hopefully in a meaningful way that causes other people to think, ‘I want to feel those things at work. I want to come work in this industry.’”
Recruitment and rebranding a much-maligned indusry was the initial goal of the series, which grew out of conversations Carpenter had with Lewis, who previously brought his podcast to NHCA conventions. A former CNN correspondent and host of AquiTeLasTraigoPeter.com, a reality show in which the Chilean expat tries out other professions on camera, Lewis spent six months working on the new docuseries.
It was supported (on what Carpenter would only characterize as a “shoestring budget”) by the Nebraska Health Care Foundation and Golden Gen Movement, a Nebraska organization focused on supporting caregivers. Golden Gen’s Amber Lihs helped scout potential facilities to participate, settling on seven whose staff and leadership were willing to open their doors, warts and all, to a film crew.
The faclities are rural and city-based, for-profit and nonprofit, senior living and skilled — representing many of the kinds of LTC employers hiring in Nebraska.
There was a good deal of trust given in the process, but Carpenter is counting on the perspective she has now seen delivered as being so different from other takes, so emotionally powerful that it could help providers fill vacancies across her state and beyond.
“Our goal is first, that we have as many eyeballs, as many people viewing this, as possible,” Carpenter said. “Our first phase is going to be rolling it out. Our second phase is incorporating it into CNA classes, at career and technical education schools, community colleges, really anywhere looking to potentially leverage workbooks and guidance that can go along with the episodes.”
The entire series will be available online, for free. It could easily become a tool for recruiters and those who want to show others what they do. At times, the work of an LTC staffer must be experienced to be understood, and helping set realistic expectations and goals may help with retention.
While NHCA held the series close to its vest this week, a short trailer is available for viewing here. Individual episodes will be available at nehca.org/peopleworthcaringabout by Friday morning, Carpenter said.
Aside from sneak peeks of Lewis scrubbing a toilet and helping do residents’ hair, not much is known yet publicly about the vignettes captured in the series. But Carpenter, who was on set for just one day of shooting, assures me there’s something special in the mix, no Hollywood special effects required.
“It felt like magic watching it and watching Peter engage. What you worry about is, does that translate to the screen? Does that magic come across? Because we feel magic every day in our facilities. There are moments every day that have that overwhelming feeling that are rarely captured,” she said.
“The beauty truly is there. Peter and his team captured it, and you feel every emotion. Through the series, there are moments where you are laughing out loud. There is contentment and peace. There are moments where you were tearing up because you just feel for those caregivers.”
Kimberly Marselas is senior editor of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
Opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News columns are not necessarily those of McKnight’s.
