After witnessing a musical performance that left me amazed and stupefied, I went home with a flash of insight and a long-sought analogy — facility administrators are the blues drummers of long-term care.
Forgiveness — do it
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 01, 2014
That new CNA ran over your foot with the med cart. Someone else is getting the promotion you expected. A resident’s family member said horrible things about you. A coworker stole your shift — and...
Amazing Grace Superstar: The great question of sacred or show-tune music
By
Gary Tetz
May 08, 2014
Nothing is clear these days — in long-term care or life. Everything’s brutally ambiguous. We’re living an endless good-news, bad-news life loop, where all the things we think are good for...
Saved by the bad apples
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 05, 2017
Personal phone technology is creating headaches for long-term care facilities, as a few dumb staff with the judgment and moral clarity of hamsters continue to ruin it for the rest of us.
P is for ’possum
By
Gary Tetz
May 30, 2019
After receiving a flash of unexpected insight straight from the universe, I can finally say definitively: The P in PDPM is for ’possum. And, yes, there’s a story to tell.
The life-changing magic of ABBA-ing up
By
Gary Tetz
Jan 12, 2017
Even though I’ve decided not to make my usual naïve New Year’s recommendations to veteran long-term care professionals, maybe a quick review of some important industry news from the profession’s...
Celebrating the CAN, er, CNA
By
Gary Tetz
May 02, 2019
Here’s how you’ll know I’m sincere in my desire to celebrate some of long-term care’s most uncelebrated people. I’m willing to spend the next two hours trying to get the Word program to stop...
Nomophobia threat
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 01, 2013
They say confession is good for the soul, so here goes. I’m having an affair — with my smartphone. What started with a few innocent conversations and some harmless texting quickly became an obsession,...
Things I think: Windmills of change
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 02, 2012
I’ve driven up and down Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge roughly 486 times, give or take a thousand, for the past three decades.
Raging against reality
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 02, 2020
If I needed an object lesson in why seniors, long-term care providers and actually, all humans, seem to have such difficulty facing the inevitability of change, I got it recently — in the men’s wear...