Lawmakers must address nursing home workforce crisis to ensure quality care
By
George Linial
Mar 08, 2021
Before COVID-19, Texas nursing homes reported the worst staffing shortages in the nation. Texas projected we will be 60,000 nurses short by 2030, and that demand in nursing homes would double between 2015...
When the fog lifts
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 16, 2021
I fancy myself a brave and intrepid hiker, and a couple weeks ago chose a particularly daunting trail that was rumored to lead to some of the best possible views of Mount Hood, the 11,249-foot peak that...
My look: Forever changed by the pandemic?
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Jun 22, 2021
For my first 20-plus years as a long-term care psychologist, I arrived on the job wearing not just clothes, but outfits. I chose garb that contributed to the sense of “expertness, attractiveness, and...
Skilled care, mental health focus needed to decrease hospitalizations
By
Gayle Morris
Jan 11, 2021
Preventing hospitalizations is as much a sign of good health in older adults as it is a way to maintain it. The burden of infection control, preventing skin breakdown, pneumonia — and the myriad other...
Compassion fatigue – the struggle is real
By
Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC
Jul 27, 2021
Not getting a vaccine isn’t just affecting you. It’s why we have this variant, and it’s why we all have to keep dealing with this. And it’s why nurses are burning out and getting compassion...
Is your facility prepared for returning families?
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Mar 02, 2021
If all goes well, over the next few weeks there will be an increasing number of family members visiting their loved ones in the nursing home, many for the first time in a year. Along with the joy and relief...
When good men say nothing
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 05, 2021
Though Genesis HealthCare is making vaccinations for long-term care workers mandatory, I’m not so foolish as to reveal my own true feelings about the requirement. I fear the warring ghosts of liberty...
Where did person-directed care go?
By
Penny Cook
Mar 15, 2021
As we mark the one-year anniversary of life-altering changes brought about by COVID-19, I think about those aspects of life that left me, and those that have arrived. What has left me? Air travel,...
The shortest distance between two points
By
Noah Marco
Feb 17, 2021
Prior to 1816, it was common practice for doctors to place their ears to patients’ chests to detect the workings of hearts, lungs and other organs. That year, French physician Rene Laennec, who was...
Honoring the fallen
By
Michael Wasserman
May 08, 2024
It’s been more than four years since the onset of the tragic pandemic that took the lives of nearly a quarter million vulnerable older adults living in nursing homes. Their lives mattered. How they spent...