Last week an insurance adjuster came over to scope out some storm damage. Anyone who enters my home must be vaccinated or wear a mask (I keep clean masks at the front door. I’m nice like that). If...
Nursing shortages, and why ‘nobody wants to work anymore’
By
Jean Wendland Porter
May 02, 2023
Everyone has been feeling the nursing shortage, and now the Biden administration has tightened staffing rules, and that order will become a harbinger of more skilled nursing facility crises and closings....
Healthcare burnout may not be what you think
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Mar 07, 2023
The New York Times recently published an op-ed about how healthcare workers are “burned out” from multiple factors, including decreased staffing, pandemic challenges and increased regulatory oversight....
‘Plateaued’ is not a medical description
By
Jean Wendland Porter
May 28, 2024
I’m starting to sound like a broken record (vinyl is coming back; the kids know what I mean), but I recently heard a therapist say the patient’s progress plateaued, so we have to stop therapy. Again. ...
How to address progress in therapy documentation
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Apr 28, 2017
One of the fallacies that we suffer under as therapists in SNFs is the mythology of the “Plateau.”
Get to know the geriatric LGBTQ patient
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Jan 10, 2020
You know how sometimes you’re asked to speak on a subject with which you have years of experience? Then during your research you discover a wormhole that’s so much deeper and more concerning that you...
Side effects of medicine and hope
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Jan 22, 2021
I got the first step. The first step of the vaccine gave me a headache, a sore arm and the euphoric feeling of hope for release from the restrictions, illness and death that have literally plagued...
Learning from design regrets
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Aug 12, 2016
Last week, McKnight’s published a guest editorial by Michael Hass, “Five design decisions you’ll later regret.”
Don’t let up this fall. A potential ‘twindemic’ awaits.
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Nov 02, 2020
The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the leaves are turning and the temperature is dropping. It’s another lovely fall day, but what does that mean for those of us in healthcare? October is when we...
Mythology vs. reality in rehab
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Jan 22, 2016
Rehabilitation in geriatrics is a challenging and extraordinary endeavor, but can be a vortex of possibilities, rumors and mythology. The mythology of skilled services in the SNF prove challenging and...