Table of Contents
Introduction
Henry County Senior Center (HCSC) is a non-profit organization that focuses on providing a home for the senior members of the society of the age of 60 and above. In particular, the organization core aim is to offer the senior members of the society with a special living center where they can flourish and achieve their life goals. HCSC offers the senior members of the society with a myriad of senior services, which includes health care, daily living activities, including recreational activities, which help them live a normal yet fulfilling life at the center. The organization, which is founded in Henry country, fosters human dignity, independence and community engagement, factors that help make the senior members feel appreciated and loved.
For some time now, HCSC has been providing senior services to happy communities around the Henry County. It is, however, clear that a majority of the senior members cared for in the organization endure various chronic and acute illnesses, which need constant care and support. Furthermore, many of the senior members are suffering from cognitive problems, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s illness, which need an advanced level of care and understanding.
Dementia is a condition characterized by a dwindling of the cognitive abilities of the victim, such as memory retention problems and poor thinking patterns (McCaulley & Grush, 2015). Some senior members, diagnosed with dementia, begin to show early signs of language incapacitation. In this view, it can be difficult to communicate with them. They have problems expressing their feelings or thoughts (Jellinger, 2015). People with dementia have a problem managing their moods as a result of brain damage or stroke, including Alzheimer’s illness (Jellinger, 2015).
Many caregivers are trained to offer basic health care support and daily life activity care to the senior patients and often, the challenge has been taking care of patients with cognitive problems, such as memory loss or poor problem-solving abilities (McCaulley & Grush, 2015). It may be difficult to address their needs satisfactorily, especially, with the fact that the senior members diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s illness cannot conduct their cognitive functions normally, such as reasoning, communicating or even engaging in their daily life activities (Jellinger, 2015).
Therefore, a funding of $132500.00 will be essential in helping to boost positive staff attitudes and behaviors towards the patients diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The following three objectives clearly describe the priorities of the project. They include the strategies required and the activities that will be involved to help achieve the main goal of the project:
Objectives
- Training of the staff members and the community on behavioral attitudes towards the patients diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
- Hiring professional caregivers with tangible experience caring for the senior members with complex chronic illnesses, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
- Creating an appraisal system of the staff members who show a consistent care and improved performance towards caring for the patients diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
Objective1: Training
The organization’s main mission is to provide a refuge for the senior members of the society. However, with the rising cases of senior members with dementia and Alzheimer’s illness, we need to improve the skills of the caregivers as our primary objective. There is an urgent need for the organization to integrate training approaches that will help boost their attitudes and behaviors towards the senior members, especially those diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s illness.
Strategies
We, therefore, need to employ various strategies that will help us achieve this objective of improving the skills of the caregivers. It is the objective of the organization to foster the value of empathy on the nurses while caring for the senior members. Empathy entails the quality of feeling one’s situation and much more to have a close understanding of the welfare of an individual (Digby, Williams & Lee, 2016). Empathy will help the nurses to come to terms with the specific problems that the senior members diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s illness encounter. Furthermore, there is a need to boost the communication process of the nurses, such as supporting new and innovative ways of communicating. Communication entails interaction effectively with an individual and in this case, developing an effective communication technique will enhance the senior- nurse relationship (Norouzinia, Aghabarari, Shiri, Karimi & Samami, 2015). The nurses must be educated on how to listen actively and much more to provide the necessary feedback to the senior members. Communication training will go a long way to educating the nurses on how to interact with the patients and their families for a smooth working relationship. It will help the senior members to communicate their personal concerns freely for easy and better care (Norouzinia et al., 2015). Nursing training on patient assessment and diagnosis will be an important strategy as it will help learn more about the patients diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s illness and help prepare for their special care regimen, which entails boosting the level of care and improved outcomes (Williams & Wold, 2016).
Activities
The nurses can be enrolled in training sessions where other professionals, experienced nurses and health care providers can teach them how to improve their care skills of the senior members, especially those diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. In this view, the training program will be conducted through the following activities, seminars, conferences, ongoing training, brochures, collaborative practice, interprofessional training, professional exchange learning programs, placement, evidence-based practice, research studies (funding of projects) and case studies.
Objective 2: Hiring
HCSC targets the senior members of the society aiming to boost their quality of life. In this view, we need to focus on hiring more professional caregivers, especially, with tangible experience caring for the senior members with complex chronic illnesses, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Highly professional caregivers entail people who have a track record of providing care in a similar setting or even higher settings than the HCSC or any other non-profit organization. However, to find these qualified people, with professional skills, vast knowledge, proper training, and experience, requires hiring, selecting and recruitment.
Strategies
Several strategies can be adopted to find the most applicable personnel and provide the required care to the senior members diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s illness. In particular, it is important to focus on selecting people with tangible experience dealing with senior patients. People who have a track record of managing and caring for senior patients will be ideal for caring for the seniors at HCSC because they understand the ideal requirements for fostering quality care (Gilhooly, Sullivan, Wilson, Gilhooly, McIntyre, Woodbridge, Crutch & Harding, 2016). Furthermore, there is a need to adopt a strategy of picking only individuals who prove to have advanced skills and knowledge, such as individuals with high-level education degrees or certifications. Such individuals show increasingly high commitments and professional knowledge towards caring for the senior’s and will be ideal for this project. Besides, searching for senior employees with tangible experience and skills to handle senior patients, especially, with chronic illnesses, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s will be essential. Such individuals have a clear and close understanding of the senior population and can communicate easily with them. It is also important to focus on a strategy of picking qualified individuals with a managerial level experience. Individuals with a wide span of experience working in a geriatric care unit or center as a manager will be ideal in helping with the decision-making and recommendations (Gilhooly et al., 2016). As the project develops, decision-making and change management will be essential, thus calling for individuals with towering leadership and management skills.
Activities
For the strategies of hiring the right individuals for the care of the senior members diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, it will be essential for us to come up with applicable approaches to find these qualified individuals. The approach selected must be timely and cost-effective to ensure that it addresses the problem at hand fast and efficiently. Some of the ideal activities that we will engage in include; advertisement, interviews, background checks, references checks, referrals.
Objective 3: Appraisal
Appraisal entails a process used to determine the level of performance of the practitioners with the aim of averting errors and omissions, integrating training needs, effecting employee promotions or layoffs. It entails setting goals or objectives that the organization can measure on account of the individual performance. We will introduce appraisal in the organization to help improve the management decision-making. It will help make a proper allocation of duties, including reviewing the remuneration packages that the caregivers receive at the organization. It is a commitment that the leadership and management of the organization will use to determine how the caregivers can help the organization achieve the main goal of boosting the attitude and behaviors towards the seniors diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. A constant appraisal at the organization will reflect an improvement of performance and thus confirm the development of positive attitudes and behaviors which foster comfortable living for the seniors.
Strategies
The strategies that will be used to make appraisal a success in this project entail fostering improved motivation. It is imperative to foster employee motivation as this is a crucial element in the performance of the caregivers. Every employee works best when he or she is motivated. Therefore, any approach that will boost motivation will translate into positive attitudes and behaviors towards the seniors (Gilhooly et al., 2016). Increased motivation leads to increased productivity. A highly motivated individual translates to a loyal employee, who is willing to go an extra mile when caring for seniors. Such individuals will provide extra care services, such as person-centered care approach, which will help attain the main goal of boosted attitudes and behaviors of the caregivers towards the seniors with dementia and Alzheimer’s (Leung, Yates, Orgeta, Hamidi & Orrell, 2017). With an appraisal, it will be possible to establish individuals who underperform and execute relevant measures to foster improvement or averting underperformance (Leung et al., 2017). The appraisal will help facilitate adequate resource management and utilization. It will help denote how resources are managed, which means that it will point out the percentage of resources required and help save on costs used on underutilized resources, which will foster efficiency. A poor resource management leads to poor care at the organization.
Activities
For the appraisal to be implemented in the organization, it will be essential to adopt various activities, such as increasing salaries, promoting nurses, firing incompetent caregivers. With the knowledge of appraisal at the organization, many employees will aim at climbing the ranks and avoiding layoffs.
We can do it today.
- Digby, R., Williams, A., & Lee, S. (2016). Nurse empathy and the care of people with dementia. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 34(1), 52-59.
- Gilhooly, K., Sullivan, M., Wilson, L., Gilhooly, M., McIntyre, A., Woodbridge, R., Crutch, S., Harding, E. (2016). A meta-review of stress, coping and interventions in dementia and dementia caregiving. BMC Geriatrics, 16(1), 1-8.
- Jellinger, K. A. (2015). Update on Alzheimer’s disease. EMJ Neurol., 3(1), 82-90.
- Leung, P., Yates, L., Orgeta, V., Hamidi, F., & Orrell, M. (2017). The experiences of people with dementia and their carers participating in individual cognitive stimulation therapy. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 3, 1-9.
- McCaulley, M. E., & Grush, K. A. (2015). Alzheimer’s Disease: Exploring the Role of Inflammation and Implications for Treatment. International Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2015(2015), Article ID 515248.Norouzinia, R., Aghabarari, M., Shiri, M., Karimi, M., & Samami, E. (2015). Communication Barriers Perceived by Nurses and Patients. Global Journal of Health Science, 8(6), 65-74.
- Williams, P., & Wold, G. (2016). Basic geriatric nursing (6th ed.). Washington DC: Mosby.