The Closing of Wisconsin Nursing Homes and the Staffing Crisis Needs Everyones Attention. Last Thursday was Valentine’s Day, but that day my heart was breaking. It started as a pleasant Thursday. The facility I consulted with had a deficiency-free survey — a great accomplishment for their team. The WI DON Council received its provider number from the California Board of Registered Nursing. A wonderful addition to offering continuing education hours to our members. I was appointed to be a part of the Wisconsin Dementia Task Force on behalf of the WI DON Council. A tremendous honor to advocate for our dementia resident on behalf of our members. All in all, it had been a week of positives. Then I heard the news. Word was out that yet another facility in Milwaukee is closing. The Director of Nursing, one of our members, and her staff are going through the challenge of closing a facility and displacing the elderly from what they know to call home. It makes me sad. It makes me angry. It makes me worried. Wisconsin, we should be scared. I’m scared! Why Scared! This announcement makes six nursing home announcing closures in the first seven weeks of 2019. 27 nursing homes closed in 2016-2018. Many of these closures were related to the low Medicaid reimbursement rate. When all is said and done, Wisconsin will have lost 33 long term care facilities since 2016. Read on after you have had a moment to digest the figures above. How can we sustain this rate of closure? How can we continue to care for our most vulnerable population, if homes are not around when they are needed. We all understand the push for home based care, […]
Nurse Leader Blog: LTC Nursing is Honoring Our Elders’ Rights, Dignity and Choices
Joey Pettis, Executive Director, wrote a Nurse Leader Blog post for AADNS. LTC Nursing is Honoring Our Elders’ Rights, Dignity, and Choices By Juzell (Joey) Pettis, RN, DNS- CT, WCC, DWC – July 14, 2017 Originally posted at American Association of Director of Nursing Services blog date July 14, 2017 I started my career as a nurse in 1972 in a small rural hospital where nurses were generalists and often learned by trial and error. I first learned that I did not want to be an OB nurse or care for pediatrics. My first OB patient was having her fifth child and thank goodness told me everything that I needed to know. I mention this experience because it taught me to listen to my patients, because they know their body and what is happening to it. “Listen and learn” is a message I have carried with me all the years of my career. After working in the generalist role, I realized that I wanted to be good at something and not just kind of good at everything. This led me to taking a position as the Emergency Room and Operating Room Supervisor at a Regional Trauma Center in Oklahoma. This was certainly my dream job. I became an excellent technician and could start IVs, intubate, and assist in these amazing trauma cases. I was happy, young, and full of adrenaline from these experiences. But my husband’s career took a turn and we had a great opportunity, so I left what I was sure was the career I wanted. We moved to Texas, and I tried to be a “stay at home” mom but that only lasted for about two months before my husband and children […]
