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Good Shepherd Staff Attend Fellowship Program
The Minnesota Area Geriatric Education Center is hosting a Fellowship Program entitled Leading and Managing Culture Change and Performance Improvement in Long-Term Care and Aging Services. Chris Jones, VP of Resident Services/Director of Nursing for the Good Shepherd Nursing Home and Cindy Tiemann, Director of Nursing for Good Shepherd Community's Outreach Services have been selected to participate. The program consists of five monthly sessions and will run through May.
The purpose of the fellowship program is to provide an active learning experience that will enable participants to recognize organizational culture, lead and manage sustainable culture change, and implement performance improvement programs in the aging services setting in which they work. Participants of the workshop will work together on a project that will be implemented in the workplace. The focus is not only about the project, but also to teach how to implement other projects as participants go through their culture change journey. After attending the first session, Jones and Tiemann's project will focus on identifying pain in nonverbal people.
As Good Shepherd Community is currently changing physically (Good Shepherd Lutheran Home is currently under construction to create eight households with nearly all private suites) to suit the socialization model of care also known as the Household Model, staff are also working together to change the routine operations to suit the Household Model.
When asked, how do you think this program will be valuable to you and Good Shepherd Community? Jones responded, "It is an opportunity to learn and work with the colleagues who are working toward the similar goal towards culture change for the community members."
"To me, Culture change in any organization is nothing more than changing the way we think about those around us. It is the tearing down of task orientated thinking and the building up of true relationships with those around us. Think of it this way, who would you rather have providing care for your most intimate needs? A person who simply has a job to get done, or a friend who wants to help you live life to the fullest?" Said Cindy Tiemann when asked what culture change meant to her.
Topics to be covered throughout the five sessions include: Methods for improving organizational culture, Defining and measuring quality in aging services settings, Staff engagement and roles and Setting the charge and establishing the team.
As part of the Culture change process, Tiemann also presented at the Pioneer Network's National Conference in August. Pioneer Network is a group that was formed to advocate for person-directed care. She and two other Good Shepherd staff presented their program entitled Basics Training, which focuses on basic etiquette, professionalism, communication skills, teamwork and service. They created this training to teach and motivate Good Shepherd staff during their culture change process.
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