“I came from  pharmaceutical market research. While doing field work as a market researcher, I discovered nursing homes. I then fell in love with them because it’s such a meaningful job, more meaningful than hospitals. They don’t give the attention that nursing homes can give. That move made my life more meaningful.” 

— Joseph Peixoto, Regional VP, Procare LTC Pharmacy, Farmingdale, NY

“I was actually able to grow within the facility from an IT position and moved into the administrator role. [I strive] mainly to help people and to make a difference within the long-term care community.” 

— Jonathan Shiraki, Administrator, Arcadia Retirement Residence, Honolulu

“It gave me an opportunity to work on a mission field everyday. I can look back at the end of the day and see where my footprints have been and if I’ve made a difference in people’s lives.” 

—Cassie Allen, Executive Director, Kensington Center, Elizabethtown, KY

“I actually was a practicing clinician in physical therapy first. After working with the geriatric population, I gained such a love and affinity toward that population that I knew my direction from that point on was going to be in long-term care. I was a clinician for 15 years and then I became an administrator. As time went on, I found myself in supervisory roles. I ended up getting a couple of more degrees in healthcare management and health administration and I became an administrator in multiple different types of facilities. I found that I could take care of residents in more than just a clinical fashion, and in many different ways.” 

—Paul Wasser, President and CEO, the Dominican Village, Amityville, NY 

“I actually got into long-term care sort of by accident. I was [enrolled] in a healthcare administration program in the state of New York and I was interested in going into acute care initially. As a senior, we had to have internships and I didn’t have an internship yet. There were some long-term care companies that were coming out and interviewing my classmates and kind of promising them jobs. I said, ‘Well, I’ll try an internship in a skilled nursing facility, and after 35 years, I’m in it and I still love it. I’m in my fourth state and wouldn’t have done anything different.” 

— Reginald Eldridge, Executive Director, Consulate Health Care, Maitland, FL

“It’s a family business. My family has been in [long-term care] for all of my life. I just kind of went with the [family business] and I enjoy it.” 

—Emma Paugh, Skilled Nursing Home Administrator and Director of Operations, Bermuda Village NCC, Advance, NC

From the January 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News