If you ever want to get an assisted living operator’s blood boiling, ask how the plans for federal oversight are coming along. You’d be better off asking a less insulting question, like how...
Is this job demeaning? That’s up for a judge to decide
By
Kimberly Marselas
Feb 15, 2023
An appellate judge in Illinois is in a position to right a very old wrong, to elevate the status of nursing home caregivers — and do so with legal authority.
Dedication doesn’t falter amid fresh destruction
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jan 03, 2023
It’s been a calamitous couple of weeks for storm-battered skilled nursing operators and many of the dedicated people who work in them.
A lesson on life from Guatemala
By
Liza Berger
Nov 23, 2010
As Thanksgiving comes around, I think back to my volunteer experience in Guatemala City last summer. There, I was reminded about the importance of taking time to enjoy life—wherever you happen to be.
Congress improves its writing skills
By
Liza Berger
Sep 29, 2010
It sounds like a set-up for a punch line. The Senate this week passed the Plain Writing Act of 2010. Plain Writing Act? So what do we have now? Inscrutable, government-speak?
Do your patients have ‘a right to fall’?
By
James M. Berklan
Sep 01, 2022
It doesn’t take a professional caregiver to tell you that the thought of an older, frail person falling is the stuff of nightmares.
The new LTC superheroes: non-retirees
By
Kimberly Marselas
Feb 16, 2022
My middle child, not yet old enough for middle school, recently asked me when I planned to retire. Me of no gray hair, of the too-small 401K, of exciting career accomplishments yet to be achieved! For...
HBO documentary reveals a certified nursing assistant’s struggle
By
Tim Mullaney
Mar 18, 2014
President Lyndon Johnson highlighted impoverished families in Appalachia when he declared a “war on poverty.” Fifty years later, as the nation takes stock of how successfully we’ve waged...
Community connections and quarters: How one nursing home responded to a 45-day water crisis
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 08, 2014
In its forthcoming emergency preparedness guidelines for long-term care facilities, maybe the government should include this directive: The facility is to cultivate strong relationships with area businesses...
What to do with unused meds
By
Liza Berger
Mar 10, 2010
There is more and more talk in state legislatures of finding new ways to dispose of unused medications at healthcare facilities. This is an idea whose time has come.