God is Good nursing home success story
A nursing home refers to a place whereby terminally ill individuals are given care. As a child, I developed the urge to visit the less fortunate members in our society who were being gathered at the God is Good Nursing, a nursing home in our neighborhood.
To quench my urge, one Sunday morning I decided to visit the nursing home and have an interactive session with not only the patients but also the care givers. As I approached the God is Good nursing home gate, the place looked rather quiet as a grave. This was a clear indication that the place was isolated.
Located at a serene environment in the outskirts of urban life, God is Good nursing home has turned to be a blessing to the community that had earlier rejected its construction. The watchman humbly directed me to the Director’s office. On seeing us, the director welcomed us with a broad smile on his face, maybe to hide the intricacies faced by the hospice. We introduced ourselves and began a conversation.
First, the Director, Mark Johnson, sought to tell me what a nursing home. A nursing home, he said, was a place whereby individuals who have terminal illnesses are taken care of upon discharge from hospital. The place is staffed with nurses and aides who help in the delivery of services.
Seated in his comfy chair, he narrates his life experiences in a nursing home. He gives a historical overview of how he landed himself in his present career path. As he spoke, it was evident that he was doing what he love doing best, taking care of the underprivileged. He detailed how as a young man, he helped the less fortunate members in the society such as the elderly.
This prompted him to enroll in a nursing school, where he underwent academic training to help him have theoretical background. As any graduate does, he spent considerable amount of time, hip-hopping into various offices in search of jobs. However, after a long search, as he perused through the local dailies, he bumped into an advertisement seeking nurses to be employed at the God is Good nursing home. In a span of one month, he had secured a place at the nursing facility. To cut it short, he says, that’s how he managed to scale up the ladder of management in the nursing home.
Asked about the day to day activities of the nursing home, he says, involves the observation of those patients in the facility, administering medicine to them. He further confirms that the facilities at the nursing home are inadequate to deal with the ever increasing number of individuals admitted on a daily basis.
Johnson explains that the facility was the brainchild of the Catholic Church in 2000 to cushion the residents of the area against rising mortality rates as many of them had turned to home-based care fearing high financial costs. The facility provides subsidized services to the residents to beat high costs of medical care in most health facilities in the region.
As a leading nursing home in the region, God is Good home has received accolades from the American government who as a result have chipped in considerable help both materially and financially. This, the director He asserts that the facility has a one hundred-bed capacity that is a small number compared to the patients who flock the facility but are turned down due to its low capacity and small land in the area.
Although, it has been faced with numerous obstacles, Johnson is quick to point out its prominence in the region that has led to its recognition and awarding of prizes for exemplary service delivery. He takes me around the nursing home environs, where I get to meet with the patients. Benson Lawrence, a 70 year-old man, basking in the sun. The smile on his face betrays the inner pain that had deprived him the much needed joy in his heart. Lawrence chronicles the experiences at the facility. He praises staff at the nursing home, who he refers as ‘God-sent’. This, he says, is because of their willingness to support the ailing individuals with zest and courage. Giving an example, Lawrence says, the staffs at the facility are ever more than willing to attend to the problems of the patients, an approach that has given him courage to face each day with courage. “They ensure that you had taken medication in time, you have eaten and assist you incase of any hardships” says Lawrence.
Beatrice Jones, a staff says, working at the facility has been made possible through provision of a hygienic environment to carry out their work. For example, unlike other health facilities that a nurse is not given safety tools such as gloves, God is Good nursing home provides all in abundance. This, she says prevents second party infection of diseases from the patients.
“Here, the administration provides all the requirements for nursing purposes to help in the reduction of counter infection” Jones said. She adds that better remuneration has encouraged them to stay put in the nursing home.
As a parting shot, he urges people of goodwill within and without the locality to positively help the health facility meet the rising demands, for instance, through monetary of material donations. He thanks, the Catholic Church for the role they have and continued to play in ensuring a healthy society. He says he endeavors to reach out to the unreachable and less fortunate members of the society in an attempt to change their lives positively. In this regard, he intends to provide wise counsel through medical campaigns to the people in the locality to effectively help in the fight against controllable ailments such as diabetes.
As I leave, I am convinced that giving back to the community through social work in nursing home is not only God driven but also needs courage and self will. For example, in the nursing home, one meets people of different caliber and character. In light of this, an individual learns how to interact cohesively with them without necessarily creating a conflict. For example, as I came to realize, any worker in the nursing home should not only understand but also be able to control anger. This effectively alienates inferiority complex that could arise from patients feeling insecure and unworthy.
In conclusion, the success of the nursing home has been made possible by the very able management, staff and the community in general for their determined duty to ensure a healthy and self-reliant society. The nursing home has provided solace to a number of individuals who had lost hope in life after diseases took their happiness away. However, all said and done, the nursing home requires.