The long-term care industry is up against many different fronts right now. One of the main “fronts” is the potential staffing mandate that is ever looming. 

It is a dark cloud of a waiting game. We do not know what will happen, if the mandate will look like what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has already described, or if it will continue to evolve. Every day, I wake up to more articles and theories on what could potentially happen in the future. 

I think we need to stop wondering and start preparing. We need to take action to prepare not only ourselves in leadership but also our staff.

It starts with a stellar new hire orientation program and retention of current staff. Both are monster feats, but let’s discuss some ideas on how we can make an actionable difference in our communities today.

Start a new hire orientation committee

Let’s be honest. Committees seemed to have stalled during COVID. We were so concerned about meeting the CMS COVID guidance, testing and protecting our staff and residents that many of the committees and thoughts of committees went to the “back burner.” 

A new hire orientation committee is a simple and easy tool that we can use to bring all levels of departments together and discuss how to build back our orientation programs that were dulled during COVID. We all need a true “red carpet rollout.” 

A few ideas include a full tour and introduction to fellow staff and residents including the peers they will be working with in their assigned working area, lunch provided, true teamwork and team building discussion, and real conversations on leadership and how they support staff. If you are a member of a program like The Eden Alternative, use their expertise and ideas like learning circles to truly bond with your new hires. 

Staff retention

Staff retention is something we talk about every day, but what is our action plan? What are we doing besides talking about retention? We are so focused on staffing challenges and recruiting new hires that if we are honest with ourselves, our staff retention focus could be much stronger. 

We need to bring back potlucks (manager organized and minimal cost), raffles for fun items, themed dress-up days and organizing resident activities that we include our staff to participate in. But we also need to evolve. Think outside the box. 

Staff retention also includes directly emotionally supporting our staff. Gone are the days when a manager can “write up” a staff member and say, “Just do your job,” and get the outcome that the manager desires. We, as leaders, have to be out on the floor and reading our staff’s body language. 

We have to be aware that perhaps Suzy Smith looks tired today, more than usual, and stop and ask if she is ok. Does she need an extra 15-minute break on this specific day because she helped by coming in early due to a staffing challenge? Maybe you find out through the grapevine that a staff member is having a difficult time in their personal life. 

Gone are the days when we plug our ears and go about our day. We do not need to get into our staff members’ personal business, but letting someone going through a hard time know that you support and appreciate them goes a long way. We have to go out of our way to emotionally support our staff. This is crucial if we want to keep them.

In conclusion, we have to stop talking about what is going wrong and start acting on how to make things right. Focusing on our new hire welcoming process and supporting our staff through a crucial time in our history is key. We need to do what we have always done in long-term care. Gather the data on what is “going wrong,” create a plan and fix it. 

We are some of the greatest problem solvers and we have to use our expertise and knowledge to refocus on our core team to prepare for whatever is in our future. The time has come. This year, 2024, we continue to focus on our residents, but that focus will widen for our staff. They deserve it.

Abby Spence is the administrator at Signature HealthCARE of Cleveland in Cleveland, TN.

The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.

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