June 21, 2013

STNA Appreciation Week

June 13 - 20 is known as National STNA Appreciation Week. At Good Samaritan, we prepared a luncheon on Thursday, June 20 to celebrate our STNA's and to show our appreciation for all of their hard work and dedication to the facility and our residents. Staff members brought in a variety of food items including barbeque chicken, pasta salad, vegetable pizza, a cupcake cake, fruit salad, and a variety of other homemade dishes.

The resident's of Good Samaritan showed their appreciation for our STNA's by creating a sign that we displayed in the employee break room. A photo of the sign is posted below.

Although STNA week is a national holiday, at Good Samaritan, we try to show our appreciation for staff throughout the year by offering different incentives, raffles, and employee potluck lunches. Our employees make Good Samaritan a great place to work and live. As you can see below, the resident's would agree!

April 30, 2013

Nurses Week 2013

National Nurses Week begins on Monday, May 6th. At Good Samaritan, we are greatly looking forward to the opportunity to express our appreciation to the 40 nurses we currently have on staff. Throughout the week, we will have different treats and events for our employees. On Friday 5/10, we are looking forward to grilling out hot dogs and hamburgers at Good Samaritan on the patio. All nurses are invited to the cook-out and we hope everyone will be available to join us. Our Director of Nursing and other Managers will be preparing and serving the food/drink. Weather permitting, we would really like to have the celebration outside. Cross your fingers because Cleveland weather could potentially give us a gorgeous, sunny day (or snow)!

On May 8, our facility will be hosting Scrubs On Wheels during nurses week. Scrubs will be for sale through their company. A $5 off coupon is available for all employees to pick up from the human resources office.

A special THANK YOU to all of our nurses - you give us a reason to celebrate!

Nurse Aide week is also right around the corner in June... Stay tuned for more event details!

April 22, 2013

Save the Date May 11, 2013

2013 Lorain County Heart Walk

            Good Samaritan will be participating in the 2013 American Heart Walk Saturday May 11th. We would love to have as many walkers as possible show up and support a wonderful fundraiser. The festivities/check-in starts at 8am at the Avon Commons Shopping Center. Many give-a-ways and light breakfast served by Subway. If you are interested please let Amie Betz in Admissions know. Hope to see you there.

January 22, 2013

Olympics at Good Samaritan

    In lieu of Activity professional week, we have 3 days of power fitness and brain fitness planned in this years winter olympic games. To kick off the events we will be having an olympic parade beginning at 2:00 on 1/22/13. The residents will walk around the main part of the building wearing the flags of the country that they chose to represent. The leader of this walk will hold the infamous torch that signifies the coming together of so many different people.
Today's events include U.S. Geography and Cornhole. In U.S. geography, the athletes have 2 minutes to name as many U.S. States as they can. Pencils down when the time is up and winners will be calculated for the closing ceremonies. In Cornhole, the athletes will play each other in a braquet. The first to 21 gets to move on to the next round, then the next round until we have 1st, 2nd, & 3rd places.

Each day consists of two events and will run through Thursday. Thursday night all of our athletes will come together for the Medal ceremony. Each event has 3 winners, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place. All of our contestants will receive a bracelet and a participation certificate. We hope to see a big crowd and lots of cheers. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!

Also, we will be having something special for the Activity Team and for our Volunteers, as it is Activity Professional Week.

January 18, 2013

Upcoming Events in February

February is going to be an exciting month at Good Samaritan! Please save these upcoming dates!

Recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February is American Heart Month. According to the CDC website, "Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States; one in every three deaths is from heart disease and stroke, equal to 2,200 deaths per day."

On February 1, we are asking all of our Good Samaritan team members to wear red in an effort to celebrate American Heart Month and to spread awareness. Looking forward to future events, Good Samaritan is putting a team together to participate in the 2013 Lorain County Heart Walk on May 11, 2013. If you are interested in walking with our team, please contact the Human Resources office at (440) 937-6201. The event begins at 8:00 am at Avon Commons. Please visit www.heart.org/loraincountywalk for additional information.

Also, on February 1, we will be hosting an Employee Appreciation Luncheon at Good Samaritan. All of our current employees are invited to attend. We look forward to celebrating all of our hardworking and dedicated employees! For more information about this event, please contact the Human Resources department.

January 3, 2013

Not Just Another New Years Resolution, New Years Resolution Blog

It's that time of year, isn't it? Everyone is making their pronouncements of how they will change-- become a better person, loose weight, try something new--you know the routine. Of course, changes like this can be especially difficult if we don't have the right support from our families, friends and even our workplaces. When you live in a nursing home setting a goal for weight loss is equally as difficult and sometimes additional challenges present themselves. Meals in a nursing home are planned with each resident so that everyone gets the calories they need to gain, loose, or maintain weight depending on individual goals. Of course, for many families and friends, the act of sharing a meal or food  doesn't end just because one of us lives at a nursing home. This means that the three meals perfectly planned with the dietician don't include the care packages, the bag of goodies from a favorite fast food joint shared with visiting friends or the meal out with the kids. This can add up to a lot of extra calories and weight gain for someone who had intended to lose weight this year.

At Good Samaritan, we identified this challenge for some of our residents and set about to create a support and education group to help residents meet their goals. We call it Healthy Choices. Last year,  the first year,  the group met three times. I had the pleasure of attending two of the final sessions to celebrate their success. We talked of what everyone had accomplished and what was still ahead. We even talked about how we could be more supportive in our food menu choices and how the program could grow and develop.

I'm looking forward to our next Healthy Choices group and the growing programs and systems of support. I hope that Healthy Choices can be part of even more residents support as they challenge themselves with new years resolutions.

December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!

WELCOME 2013

With a smile,
A spirit of giving,
A sense of humanity,
& A pledge to spread peace and happiness!

GOOD SAMARITAN WISHES YOU A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!