Staff striving to learn - Samuelson
Monday, December 19, 2005 -- Craig Anderson
With a complete openness to OMNI educational initiatives, staff and management built “a learning culture” at Garden Terrace in 2005, says Karl Samuelson, administrator.

“We made great strides in education this year,” says Karl. “The staff met initiatives not with trepidation but with excitement.”

Whether it was Point Click Care, Theresa Hurd wound care or supportive measures training, the staff were “right there ready to learn,” says Karl. The receptivity to educational initiatives was shared in all departments, he adds.

The “tributary” effects of the staff’s willingness to learn could be seen in nutritional improvements made during the year, says Karl.

“They were surpassing dietary standards, providing residents with nutritionally sound, attractive, tasty meals,” he says.

A specialized program offered by the home – the short stay program – has been a “wonderful service to the community” over the course of the year, says Karl.

Beds in the short stay program are available for up to sixteen people, offered to Kanata residents who need a period of respite care. Many of the temporary residents are “very challenging” for staff, says Karl, often displaying brain-injury induced behaviours or requiring acute care. Although they rarely stay long enough to feel like a member of the Garden Terrace community, says Karl, they feel welcome nonetheless.

“They always leave feeling that they have come to know the home and their peers,” he says. The home receives a lot of repeat requests for the short stay program.

As they have built the learning culture over the last year, staff and management have learned to negotiate thoroughly before making important decisions in the home.

“Our decision making process is very much a dialectic one,” says Karl. “We don’t let our emotions move us and we don’t converge immediately on a solution. We try to undertake a complete evaluation before making a decision.”

Pondering 2006, Samuelson sees 150 staff and management building on the educational and care foundation, and using this knowledge in order to brainstorm any possible challenges that may arise.

‘We don’t know what’s in store – it could be legislative or demographic – but we know there is a strong commitment to meeting challenges and finding solutions. We’re saying ‘Yes!’ to the new year, and with excitement.”