Traveling to Omaha Tuesday morning

© Imelda Maurer, cdp   June 29, 2015
ilmcdp@yahoo.com

The Sisters of Mercy have a very intentional and active network around issues of aging and aging services for their own Sisters.  The individual in Omaha who is the staff person responsible for the overall program for the retired Sisters for the Mercy Sisters' West Midwest Province is Kris Sullivan, MHA, BSN.

Kris told me not too long ago that they (the group in Omaha, I believe) are looking at and working on what comprehensive professional preparation and continuing education should be provided for those individuals, lay and religious, who serve their retired Sisters in unlicensed settings where there are not federal or state regulations to guide them.

I invited myself to Omaha because I’m eager to learn about the thinking and the work on this ‘curriculum’, and the programs that are part of daily life there for the Mercy Sisters in Omaha. My knowledge of Kris, gained through a few phone calls and browsing their website has revealed a woman who is well prepared academically for her position and who brings such great energy and passion to her work.

Early this evening I went to Kris’ LinkedIn page and found the following ‘comment’ written by a person who regularly visited the Sisters there at their convent.  I include it here because it reflects such positive images of what life must be like for the Sisters and the staff at that Mercy convent. Clearly the scope of the work there goes far, far beyond “good (physical, nursing) care” and embraces every aspect of daily life.  I’ll share my experiences here when I return on Wednesday.

“Comment” on LinkedIn Page

I was a weekly visitor to retired Sisters of Mercy that I worked with when I was an elementary principal. I saw firsthand how Kristine and her staff took care of every need for these Sisters from health care and accommodations to activities and entertainment. Kristine put together a fantastic staff, provided needed training, supervised operations and did so with respect for both her staff and the sisters for whose care she was responsible. Outstanding administrator, great person.

When you see the picture of this elder, are your first thoughts "loss and diminishment?

© Imelda Maurer, cdp  June 5, 2015
ilmcdp@yahoo.com

This is Sister Adrienne Marie, a Sister in my Congregation of Sisters of Divine Providence. On Sunday she will note 75 years as a Sister of Divine Providence. This is a beautiful picture of a beautiful person -- beautiful inside and out. This 90-something-year-old woman reflects life, vitality, warmth, and a deep relational capacity in this picture. Thank you, Sister, for providing such a positive, affirming view of what aging really can be. On to Sunday's celebration in our beautiful Conventual Chapel!

“We are in the midst of re-aligning our practices with our mission... ”

© Imelda Maurer, cdp  June 3, 2015
ilmcdp@yahoo.com

“We are in the midst of re-aligning our practices with our mission... ” Thus read the first line of a letter to LeadingAge HR Listserv earlier this week.  It struck me as quite a significant statement. The writer was seeking information from her peers about a particular program in her community that clearly is valued precisely because it is aligned with her community’s mission.

“Mission-driven” is a term that has always stirred me, particularly since the beginnings of my work in aging services.  For me this term means that beyond the Mission Statement that may be framed and posted in the lobby and included in every marketing brochure, the mission is the wellspring of every practice, every policy, and every procedure in the workplace ‘where the rubber hits the road.’ Of course in licensed communities, many regulations frame policies. But the mission and values of the community should be wrapped around the technicalities of those regulations.

An exciting reality for me is that the mission of the community, its values and philosophy, in so many instances parallel the spirit and letter of the federally mandated minimum standards of care, ‘the regulations.’  If you are connected to a licensed aging services community, take a few minutes to see if you can discover those parallels, particularly in the areas of Quality of Life, Quality of Care and Residents Rights.

For Sisters and their staff who live in or serve Sisters (by election or by appointment) in a convent setting  that is not licensed, the parallel with these non-binding regulations is so evident.  We need only to read our documents and our Congregational mission statement with new eyes, the eyes that see the provision of aging services as closely aligned with justice, mercy and compassion. I invite you to read your documents again -- with new eyes.

“Best Practice”

© Imelda Maurer, cdp  June 2, 2015
ilmcdp@yahoo.com

Businessdictionary.com defines best practice as follows:  "A method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means and that is used as a benchmark. Wikipedia’s definition adds this: “In addition, a ‘best’ practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered”

In a way the concept of transformative culture change within aging services organizations can be seen as a systemic ‘best practice’. The work of Sister Lucy, as a leader of Pennybyrn at Maryfield reflect this.  Pennybyrn is a continuing care retirement community near Greensboro, NC.  Although the “facility” had deficiency-free surveys as a matter of course, Sister Lucy felt that something just didn’t feel right. Along with some of her staff, she learned of the Household Model at an annual conference of the Pioneer Network.  Their organization was in the midst of major architectural renovations and the household model made perfect sense.  Pennybyrn moved from a good institution caring for elders to HOME!  still serving elders with the same clinical proficiency, but at HOME! not in an institution. 

The transformation at Pennybyrn was/is systemic because transformational culture change is not experienced just because certain programs or policies are part of the organizational life.  This transformation is the result of a shift of consciousness, a shift in thinking about aging and aging services, about organizational leadership and how it is exercised not just by someone or some few who hold a title, but from within the total circle of staff. A successful shift will result in a positive new way of life for staff and for residents.

Interestingly, even though transformational culture change cannot be equated with the presence of certain programs or policies, within those organizations moving toward culture change, certain “artifacts” are usually present.  Karen Schoeneman and Carmen Bowman developed the “Artifacts of Culture Change Tool” in 2006 which is available here.

This is a lengthy document, made so by the wealth of information it contains. In addition to providing the free-access tool (pages 22 – 31) it provides the rationale for including the various areas of nursing home life that make up the tool. There is also a section on topic-relevant research references and a general bibliography.

If you look at nothing else, study the tool.  It is not a government tool, or an enforcement tool. Finally, in the words of the authors, “The tool affords the opportunity for an individual home to gauge its progress and do its own benchmarking of where they are on a culture change journey.”

So there we are, back to where we began:  best practice as a benchmark and as part of a journey, an ongoing journey of transformational culture change, whose practices can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered