Slaton Care Centre – Service Learning, Coursework Example

Mission Statement : Slaton Care Centre:

Slaton Care Centre, of Slaton, Texas accepts patients covered by Medicare and Medicaid. This nursing home has 104 beds making the facility smaller than the Texas state average of 108.27. Also, Slaton Care Centre’s 79 residents are more than the average state nursing homes population of 77.61, and is more full at 76% than the 72.51% occupied average Texas nursing home.[1]

The mission is to provide high quality nursing and care services to the residents and ensure a high quality of senior living and medical support.

Students Goals and Objectives:

• Help to motivate the residents to maintain an active lifestyle and improve the quality of senior living years and lifestyle.
• Find suitable activities in order to motivate the residents
• Examine existing problem issues and determine where improvements can be made
• Research how other Residential centres are addressing the problems and consider how similar approaches might be adopted or improved upon
• Build collaborative relationships with other agencies in the community
• Identify specific goals and responsibilities for those involved in the program
• Create the right environment in order to smoothly implement the desired changes

Personal Learning objectives:

• Understanding the needs of senior citizens living in retirement accommodation
• The motivational aspects of senior citizens in order to get them to lead rewarding, stimulating and quality of life experiences
• Discovering an array of activities that senior people can participate in
• Discover how to improve the social interaction amongst groups that equally stimulates cognitive abilities
• To build collaborative relationships with the Administration of Slaton Care Centre
• To understand how this knowledge might later apply to my own personal circumstances
• To help others and provide a contribution to the community

Description of Service Learning sites:
The Slaton Centre

Slaton Care Centre, of Slaton, Texas accepts patients covered by Medicare and Medicaid. This nursing home has 104 beds making the facility smaller than the Texas state average of 108.27. Also, Slaton Care Centre’s 79 residents are more than the average state nursing homes population of 77.61, and is more full at 76% than the 72.51% occupied average Texas nursing home.

Health Inspection Centre

Review the latest inspection reports applicable to:

• Health and Safety
• Fire Inspection Report

Residential Complaints Centre

The Centre retains a database of reported resident complaints. It was noted that there are no current entries in the system.

Health Care Centre

A wide range of medical statistics are maintained on the health and well being of the residents.  The more immediate important observations are as follows:

Preparation :

Working with the Administrative Staff of Slaton Care Centre we interviewed 80 % of the Facilities 104 residents.  A large sample with some exclusions for people undergoing medical treatment or who were considered to frail to participate in the working study groups.  We conducted both Primary and Empirical research by means of interviews, observations and completion of structured questionnaires.

The Staff already had a considerable amount of collected data on issues and areas of improvements to be made in the centre.  These were used as inputs to the exercise and were either subsequently verified, modified or dismissed.  The information gathered attempted to be as inclusive as possible and we included a small working group of the more able residents to help with the analysis of results, priority setting and formulation of an action plan.

In the first instance we conducted a brainstorming or creative thinking session with the Health Care administrators.  This had a number of subordinate objectives:

• Discuss any areas of sensitivity or where a soft approach needed to be taken
• Discuss other interested parties that may contribute to our exercise. Early candidates identified included the local Health and Wellness Centre (Spa) for homeopathic and aroma therapy interests; the local medical practitioner and where possible family doctors; local hospital consultation – particularly on areas of fitness for the elderly.
• How to best discuss and present findings to the residents of the facility

Identification of goals and responsibilities for all involved in the project. Finally, what resources would be required in order to complete the Service Learning Project.

Goals of the Project

• To understand the residents needs and concerns applicable to obtaining improved life experiences at the residential centre;
• What motivates them to get up in the morning – how positive is the outlook? do they look forward to the day with a renewed sense of purpose?
• To get the student team to generate new ideas, concepts for engaging the residents in interesting events, hobbies, group work and social interaction to make the days both more interesting and rewarding
• To develop a prioritised action plan that would gain the support of the Centre Administrative staff and other interested parties

Responsibilities:

• The students would be responsible for carrying out the study including the interviews of the residents, preparation of questionnaires, analysis of existing data, analysis of questionnaires and summarising the results.  From this they would take the lead role in the determination of the prioritised action plan.
• The Administrators would provide a support role to the students helping with areas of clarification, providing introductions to the residents, briefing the residents on the purpose of the study, helping in the selection of the ‘fit workgroup’ in assisting with the development of the final report.
• Stakeholders – To define their vested interest to the study team and potentially where they can offer contribution, lend support or input to the exercise taking place
• Residents – Are the most important contributors to the exercise. In addition to providing the prime data each resident can consult with a member of the nominated residents workgroup to provide additional input and ideas.  The objective is to be as inclusive as possible.
• Project Leader – The Student team will have a nominated Team Leader responsible for overall project management and co-ordination of the exercise

Reflection

The Analysis revealed a number of important results where life improvements to the residents could be made.  These were summarized under the following headings:

1. On site entertainment facilities
2. On site Health and Well being facilities
3. External Events
4. Social Events and Social Interaction

On site entertainment facilities

A number of improvements could be made in this area:

• A reading lounge where you might spend some quiet time reading books
• A games room where you could mingle with other residents and arrange special evenings like bridge or whist evenings, pool tables and board games
• Development of the Garden area with more areas of relaxation, places for sitting out near flowers and water features
• Outdoor activities of a gentle nature like lawn bowls, polo etc

On site health and well being

• An exercise room that embraced aspects of well being like aroma therapy, massage, gentle exercise machines
• A swimming pool would be a great addition to the exercise area.Possible introduction of a deck area and a hot tub.

External Events

• Cultural evenings – Trips out to the theatre,fine dining,  music evenings etc
• Event days – Trips out to botanical gardens, ocean shore etc

Social events and interaction

• Guest shows – Comedians – we all like to laugh it is good for us!
• Minglers – Wine and Cheese party’s, barbeques,
• Guest speakers
• Film shows

Funding of some of the items raised concerns but it was generally agreed that there would be a number of sponsors who would donate in return for advertising rights. In addition further investigation of grants and possible fund raisers.  It was agreed to hold further talks with the key stakeholders and determine what level of funding is considered appropriate.  The Swimming pool and hot tub being two large items but a local construction Company had already indicated that it was prepared to offer support.

Evaluation

Our best strategy involved the interactive workshop with the nominated residency team. We were able to obtain ‘buy-in’ to our plans and get help with the prioriotization plan to assist with the implementation.  The work group team acted as ambassadors to promote the goals and objectives to all of the residents.  This increased our measure of inclusivity and working relationships. Our amazement was from one external sponsor who offered to pick up the bulk of the costs on the swimming pool; and hot tub. Turned out he had a relative who was a resident and he was really pleased to step in and both support the project financially and with builders.  The Administration team were a bit concerned about the scope and depth of the project but once they realised that this would be accomplished in a linear priority sequence they became much more comfortable and supportive of the process.

The project provided new enlightenment on citizenship and responsibility.  People throughout the groupings were very keen to be helpful and support the objectives of the program.  Communications proved to be key in terms of raising awareness of the issues. The local press were extremely supportive and a feature article in the local paper generated a considerable response from local businesses that wanted to offer help and assistance.  In the future getting to grips with the costs of implementation, earlier in the process, would have alleviated some of the find raising issues that surfaced towards the end of the project.

[1] Slaton Care Centre is located in Slaton Texas, USA : http://local-nursing-homes.com/nursinghome.cfm?detail=general&home=slaton-care-center&provNum=675496