Setting minds and hearts at ease: a clinician’s guide to end-of-life-care conversations
By
Joseph Shega, M.D.
May 18, 2020
Having honest conversations with long-term care residents about their end-of-life wishes should always be a priority for primary care physicians, specialists and facility clinicians. The COVID-19 pandemic...
Taking time to connect and renew — we need it now more than ever
By
Penny Cook
Aug 16, 2020
In 1997, a group of 32 people gathered in Rochester, New York, with a belief that the world of nursing homes should and could be different. They decided to formalize their gathering, named themselves the...
The nurse guilt Is unbearable
By
Steven Littlehale
May 04, 2020
Amid a deep bout of “nurse guilt,” I feel like I should be doing more.
Almost done
By
Gary Tetz
Feb 04, 2021
“Almost done,” the doctor assured me, as she aimed her laser at my right eye. Then over the next 20 minutes, she said it several more times. By then I knew it was all a cruel deception, meant to distract...
Delaying death not enough for nursing home residents
By
Jim Towey
Jul 08, 2020
Strict isolation. Constant surveillance. No communal dining or group activities. No hugs, no touching, no visitors except in extreme cases. This may sound like life on death row, but in...
McDonald’s versus long-term care: How nursing homes can compete for staff
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Sep 22, 2020
Recent calls1, 2, 3 for an increase in nursing staff levels may have providers wondering how to accomplish this. Under normal circumstances it can be challenging to find qualified individuals; the pandemic...
Seeking paradise in a pandemic
By
Renee Kinder
Apr 09, 2020
When will we ever see paradise again? It may be staring you in the face already, or just around the corner.
My job in a COVID-19 hotspot didn’t give me COVID — it gave me PTSD
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Aug 11, 2020
Even a long-term care psychologist can fall prey to the psychological and emotional terrors of the COVID-19 pandemic, I can unfortunately report to you with ironic confidence.
Lack of unified action is killing our Greatest Generation
By
Scott McConnaha
Sep 28, 2020
If I were to propose that the Greatest Generation wasn’t really all that great, that those leading the fight during WWII didn’t know what they were doing or, worse, manipulating media messages in order...