Pioneer Network's "Color Book" Series
This ground-breaking series has inspired thousands of Pioneers on the journey to culture change. Now all four books are available for one price.
While they last -- your order will also include a collection of Conference Convener Remarks by Carter Catlett Williams. 5 books for $12
Meeting of Pioneers in Nursing Home Culture ChangeMarch
16-17, 1997
Rochester, New York
Leaders of four pioneering
approaches to culture change in nursing homes met March 14-16, ]997, in
Rochester, New York. The other 28 invited participants drawn from across
the nation as well as the local area, were from the fields ofregu]ation
and law, nursing home administration (administrators, directors of
nursing and social workers), as well as advocates.
The goals of
the meeting as set out by the funder, The Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation
were:
- identification by the Pioneers of what was common among
the four different approaches;
- identification of indicators of
culture change;
- guidance on the research, evaluation and assessment
of culture change
PURCHASE
Relationship:
The Heart of Life and Long-Term Care
by Carter Catlett
Williams
Once upon a time, there was an old man who went to live
in a nursing home. He had a friend who visited him soon afterwards. At
the end of the first visit, as his friend was saying good-bye, the old
man held onto his friend's hand and said, "Come back to see me soon so I
will know that I'm living."
But this is no fairy tale. It's my
own, very real experience. This man was my friend, and it was my hand he
clasped, and it was to me he said those words, "Come back to see me
soon so that I will know that I'm living." This captures the feelings of
thousands of elders across the country who enter nursing homes each
day. Many, if not most, feel that to go into a nursing home is simply to
wait to die rather than enter into another stage of life to be fully
lived.
My friend had gone straight to the heart of the matter:
When I am with someone with whom I have a relationship, I know that I am
living. But, surrounded by people who are strangers, funneled into
daily routines that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable, my life unknown to
others, I'm not sure I am live. It's as though I have fallen out of
life -- perhaps into a living death.
Here, at the beginning of
this discussion, I state my conviction: relationships are not only the
heart of long-term care, they are the heart of life. And life ought to
to continue, wherever we live.
PURCHASE
The
Pioneer Challenge: A Radical Change in the Culture of Nursing HomesWendy
Lustbader, M.S.W.
Imagine this — you live in a nursing home. You
wake up when you feel like it. You summon help to get out of bed when
you're ready to face the day. You wheel yourself a few yards down the
hall to a family style kitchen for some freshly poached eggs, your
favorite breakfast. You sit at a normal kitchen table with afew of your
neighbors, and then take your coffee mug back to your room with the
morning newspaper. After some quiet time with your coffee and newspaper,
you let your assistant know that you will soon be needing her help
getting dressed. You know each other well, because she is with you
almost every day. You glance at the events calendar, but decide that you
would rather stay put the rest of the morning after you stop in at the
community meeting. Your assistant promises to remind the afternoon staff
that later you'll need help getting over to the child care center, as
today is your day to read stories to the children. Right before dinner,
you'll have a glass of wine with a friend who visits from another floor
and with whom you've had this daily ritual for the past year. At night,
you're likely to get caught up in a novel and read past midnight, glad
that you'll be able to sleep in the next day if that happens.
Spontaneity.
Self-direction. Relationships. Community. Privacy. Meaning. Why do
these qualities not describe a typical nursing home in America? Why must
we forfeit the basic freedoms of life when we become frail and need
assistance? Instead, the acute care model has been dominant in nursing
homes for decades. This model is essentially a control model, e.g. the
providers of care do what they see fit to ensure residents' health and
safety. Instead of addressing the meaning of the lives of those who
become frail, we have narrowly limited our society's resources to
address only the physical concerns of residents. We have centered our
efforts on quality of care, largely to the exclusion of quality of life.
In
places where care is provided on a short-term basis, taking control
over someone's life may make some sense. Acute conditions require
intensive management, and doctors and nurses possess specialized
knowledge that people need in critical situations. Under these
circumstances, we surrender a certain degree of our right to
self-determination in the hope of getting better and returning to our
lives in the community. The error was to transfer this model of care to a
setting where it is not necessary and where people then experience a
fundamental and ongoing loss of control over their lives.
PURCHASE
The Sanctity of Life and the Sacredness of Death:
A Journey
of Putting Pioneer Values into Practiceby Rev. Julie
Berndt
Values in practice are at the heart of the work of caring
for elders. If you talk with staff involved in long term care for
decades, time and time again the discussion returns to the power of the
relationships that were built: resident with staff, staff with family,
resident with resident and staff with staff.
What is remembered
over the years are the stories of these relationships; stories that
bring laughter, stories which bring tears because life in a nursing home
or community where elders live is all about relationships. Quality
care, as well as quality living, happens when people are connected to
one another.
"I know that how you remember and take care of my
neighbors is how you will remember and take care of me." — Edith
Keller, age 93
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Pioneer Network Convener's Opening Remarks included while supplies last.
A complilation of the Carter Williams convener's opening remarks for the Pioneer Network's National Conferences. From the the first conference in 1999 to the 7th National Conference 2008.
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