Though I strongly support the concept of gratefulness, I’m not much for delivering public speeches about it, even to close friends or family around the Thanksgiving table. Truth be told, I generally…
Things I Think | All about the music
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 01, 2021
During trying times in long-term care, how do leaders and staff stay focused on what’s most important—caring for seniors?
Dark night of the sole
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 11, 2021
Maybe I just need to stop reading McKnight’s. That’s the bottom line. Because every time I flip through its pages, whether virtually or in print, I seem to discover researchers have found another horrible…
Things I Think | Keep moving forward — It’s the only choice
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 01, 2021
In hiking or life, through any difficulty, there’s only one strategy I’ve ever found that always applies: Keep moving.
Eat your vegetables
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 28, 2021
I’m all about simplistic solutions to impossible difficulties. Faced with huge challenges like staffing, staffing and staffing, long-term care operators, administrators and clinical leaders are feeling…
My incredible shrinking lifespan
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 14, 2021
With so much still to say to the long-term care profession, I’m realizing I better write fast, because I may not have many years left. Less all the time, according to a study from Oxford University….
Advice from a recovering pessimist
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 30, 2021
Who am I to be giving advice? I have no proficiency in PDPM, MDS, CQI, RUGs, ISNPs or any other intimidating or indecipherable acronym. No one is begging me for my thoughts on staffing or infection control….
When the fog lifts
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 16, 2021
I fancy myself a brave and intrepid hiker, and a couple weeks ago chose a particularly daunting trail that was rumored to lead to some of the best possible views of Mount Hood, the 11,249-foot peak that…
Grateful? Make a list
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 02, 2021
While walking reluctantly into our place of long-term care employment yesterday, a colleague and I started talking sarcastically about how delighted we were to be alive and at work. We didn’t mean a…
Stronger at the broken places
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 19, 2021
Well, here we go again. Within long-term care especially, the shock and discouragement of the delta variant and the havoc it’s wreaking on those we care for and work beside is pervasive and demoralizing. …
When good men say nothing
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 05, 2021
Though Genesis HealthCare is making vaccinations for long-term care workers mandatory, I’m not so foolish as to reveal my own true feelings about the requirement. I fear the warring ghosts of liberty…
Everything matters
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 22, 2021
I’m a slow and resistant student in the classroom of life. And perhaps the truth I face most reluctantly is how unwelcome and painful challenges teach lessons that I probably wouldn’t learn any other…
After the train
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 08, 2021
There’s a hopeful phrase we started hearing a lot from long-term care leaders, residents and staff when the vaccines first arrived—“a light at the end of the tunnel.” Invariably some wise-guy or…
A CPAP in every room
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 24, 2021
One thing the pandemic has done is put everything in perspective. When 97.2% of long-term care news over the past 18 months has been about the horrors of COVID-19, it’s a breath of fresh air to instead…
A silver lining to vaccine hesitancy
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 10, 2021
One of many puzzling memories from my childhood is witnessing my father’s failed attempt late one dark Canadian night to convince an unwilling horse to walk up a rickety ramp into the back of our pickup…
I’ve just seen a face
By
Gary Tetz
May 27, 2021
I don’t want to put a hex on the situation with a premature celebration, but the downward trajectory of the pandemic makes it appear that long-term care people can finally perhaps maybe start discretely…
No bad ideas, right?
By
Gary Tetz
May 13, 2021
Now that the pandemic is easing, one of my best ideas is probably never going to get the chance it deserves. It involves using the power of natural law to make sure an unvaccinated long-term care resident…
Self-compassion training without apology
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 29, 2021
Self-compassion isn’t something I do very well. That’s probably because I was born in Canada, and when the doctor slapped my wrinkled baby butt, I said, “Sorry!” instead of crying. While…
No time for brain damage
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 15, 2021
Has the “fog of late pandemic” hit you? Even if it has, you’re above it.
Sleep like your life depends on it
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 01, 2021
One thing I’ve learned in my mostly unsuccessful lifelong quest to get enough sleep is that nothing helps more than feeling under pressure to do so. So learning in McKnight’s that extra sleep reduced…
