Topics About 'Long Term Care'.

Mary and John are great friends. Mary is 94, John is 96. John still has much of his mind, whereas Mary has dementia that's been progressing a lot lately. They met when John moved to the nursing home about 2 years ago. They do everything together. Eve...

We should never have gotten involved with this guy. First of all, Donald Lee* (name changed to protect privacy) was, in my humble opinion, much too young for assisted living. A short, compact man with salt-and-pepper hair, he was barely three years o...

I am a seasoned long-term care nurse. I deal with life and death matters all the time. My voice is often the last one a patient hears, and my hand the last human touch he or she feels. It's OK most of the time, that's why I was built strong enough to...

Although I no longer work in the long term care industry, I am still acquainted with people who work in local LTC facilities. My close friend, a nurse manager at a local nursing home, griped to me about a recent state survey that involved two assista...

Here I am moseying down the hall taking care of business. VS before dig, crush so and so's meds, not the Dilantin capsule though, put it in a bit of applesauce. Flush the peg. "Med pass for you." "Open wide, here you go." "Now swallow." "Big drink." ...

During the many years that I have spent browsing these forums, I have noticed a common theme regarding the preconceived notions that many people in healthcare have expressed about long term care (LTC) and the elderly population in general. To be stra...

The following name has been changed and the situation slightly altered to protect the privacy of those involved. However, it remains a 'true story' about a lesson learned through an elderly woman I first met Grace after I had been at the nursing home...

It's Saturday morning at Paradise Nursing and Rehabilitation Center*, and I've just arrived on the floor to pass the 0900 meds. Spying my cart, I can see that Mac has already been there, for once again there is a carefully arranged "house of cards" m...

This one is about Ed, the crusty curmudgeon of "ear WAX!" fame from "Elders Say the Darnedest Things". Without revealing too many personal details, let us just say that this gentleman is one of my favorite residents, EVER. He's been on the ICF (other...

The pale, haggard face and the expression of fear in the elderly gentleman's eyes are still fresh in my mind as I try once again to focus on getting myself safely home through the crush of Friday night freeway traffic. Gone is my customary resentment...

Having worked in long term care for some time, first as a CNA, now as a nurse, I know how important touch is to the residents. A hug, a hand on the back or shoulder, even a quick squeeze of the hand lets residents know that they are not alone, that s...

I was "high power" for 20 years. I lived the fast lane at Rush University Medical Center, U of Illinois Hospital and Clinics, and 13 years at Loyola University Medical Center. Suddenly, in 2001, my life changed. I was not happy about it. I missed the...

A mannequin according to wiki, is "(also called a mannekin, mannikin, manikin, dummy, or lay figure) is often an articulated doll used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, and others especially to display or fit clothing. Did these women feel like dolls...

It's generally my pleasure, to assist our older population - those 62 years old, and older - have the BEST life possible. As you all know, nurses have to ALWAYS shoot for 100%!!! We all continuously have to ASSESS, PLAN, IMPLEMENT, AND EVALUATE, our ...

"I don't care about my new $200 shoes.......BLAAAARGH!" Lord, I hate being sick. Especially THIS kind of sick. It's been four or five days (I've lost count) and I still feel like death warmed over, but I think I may be on the downside of this thing. ...

He was a Vietnam veteran, a 61-year-old black man with a dialysis port in his chest and bilateral leg amputations who lay in his narrow nursing-home bed, watching an NBA game on the 42-inch flat-screen TV perched precariously on the wall shelf above ...

This poem has been passed around for decades, some nurses say they saw it back in the '70s. However, it's a great reminder especially with the new year near approaching. As the story goes...When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home...