The departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security have announced their intention to “start the process to end” the COVID-19 vaccination mandate. Now, before we get too excited,...
Two sheets to the win
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 30, 2022
Infinite call-center wait times. Delivery mix-ups and delays. Rude responses to reasonable requests. Promises unfulfilled. I hear there’s a cutting-edge business principle called “the customer is always...
Don’t spring a wellness leak
By
Gary Tetz
May 18, 2023
In a valiant attempt to achieve maximum personal and professional potential, and in support of her difficult job recruiting long-term care staff, a colleague of mine chooses one word every year on which...
Trail banter, long-term care style
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 02, 2022
For lots of good reasons, a long-term care facility hallway should not be the same as a hiking trail. Protruding rocks and exposed tree roots would create a fall hazard, and make med cart navigation...
New tech for not-so-new people
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 24, 2023
Do you yell at your Apple Watch? I do. All the time. Out loud. This happens most often while hiking, when I’ve dutifully set the device to track my activity. I’ll be laboring up the trail, trekking...
I honestly love you
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 11, 2022
I know we have a lot on our minds these days. Little brain teasers like, how do we possibly replace the estimated 362,000 employees the long-term care profession has lost during the pandemic? A recent...
Better together
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 30, 2023
An hour or so before the siren in our long-term care factory blasted the official start of the work day, and feeling a heightened level of job-related stress, I strolled into a colleague’s office uninvited...
Begin what? I begin.
By
Gary Tetz
Jan 27, 2022
As I sit here at 2 a.m. eating a big bowl of unnecessary cereal, driven from bed by work-related stress and the need to speedily write a column for a distinguished publication named McKnight’s, it doesn’t...
Wine on a dog
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 23, 2023
You work in a difficult profession — long-term care. We all know that. I’m not even going to list the myriad challenges again, for fear of manifesting them into permanence. And yet, if your existence...
Eat your vegetables
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 28, 2021
I’m all about simplistic solutions to impossible difficulties. Faced with huge challenges like staffing, staffing and staffing, long-term care operators, administrators and clinical leaders are feeling...