Introduction
Retirement home standards and staff hiring are two important areas related to residents’ overall safety and care quality. The first one covers essential procedures to ensure that the environment is appropriate for hosting older adults and does not affect their well-being. The second aspect concerns the approach to preparing potential employees, involving screening, qualification compliance, and training. A recruit that may have a criminal record, lack the necessary skills, or refuse to be trained in one of the mandatory elements is likely to cause harm to residents. Thus, it is paramount to ensure compliance in the areas of retirement home standards and hiring by establishing and following a plan underlining such aspects as problem-solving, project management, and best practices.
Leadership and Motivation
The team includes various members of the community, such as part-time students, full-time workers, and those on the verge of retirement, and is culturally diverse, having Asian, Native American, and Latino representatives. The leader practices transformational and cross-cultural leadership, and she is not against temporarily transferring the role to someone who is more competent in a particular field.
Everyone in the team is motivated because they are genuinely interested in improving the experience for older members of the community, and some have relatives who would like to use retirement home services. However, one person is less enthusiastic about the target chain, previously belonging to the competitor, so he is mostly driven by potential profits. Still, it is possible that productive teamwork will impact his motivation and make it more intrinsic. While risks of conflicts based on cultural disagreements exist, the leader is qualified to resolve them, and the focus will on generally accepted aspects. Overall, the team’s leadership and motivation appear beneficial for the process.
Problem-Solving
While addressing the issues in the target areas, the team will employ the IDEAL method. They will identify what prevents the standards and the hiring process from complying with the Act, define the context, explore the solutions, act according to the best one, and reflect on the results. First, the team will brainstorm, trying to understand the underlying causes of the issues. Then, the members will interact with all parties involved to expand the context further and see how each side contributed to the problem or suffers from it. Consequently, they will develop the solutions while applying the existing evidence in the field.
Not all recommendations, which are likely to contradict one another, can be implemented, so the best option will be chosen as the basis for the actions. Afterward, an assessment of whether the employed strategy ensures compliance with the Act is necessary.
Working with People
The problem-solving process will involve working with various people on different stages. Information-gathering implies asking the stakeholders regarding the issues, so the right approach to each group involved is necessary. For instance, retirement home residents require careful handling, and only those who consent to an interview should be questioned. The personnel directly responsible for not improving the measures should also be approached in a special way to avoid escalation and other complications. The action stage will involve working with people to resolve the issues, and the same stakeholders may participate in the process. Some will do so willingly, while others will have to be convinced to contribute to the project. Altogether, good communication skills are required for a successful implementation of the measures.
Budgeting
The project’s budget is fixed, meaning that no additional investments are possible. Therefore, the members will have to consider low-cost options while developing the solutions and cooperate with those who will be willing to perform several tasks simultaneously with a minimal reward. An example would be having one provider for numerous retirement home services, such as fire safety and building maintenance. However, the team should also consider quality issues that may arise while following the frugal approach.
Project Management
The stages of project management will partially reflect the established scheme of the problem-solving process. It will start with the initiation phase, defining the goal of improving the community retirement home, identifying the stakeholders, and considering the project’s limitations, including budget and time. The next stage is planning, implying the creation of a roadmap highlighting the objectives, the milestones, the results, the available resources, the timeline, and the risks. For instance, the outcome would be to make the residence fully comply with the Act and have a license issued unconditionally.
Meanwhile, such indicators as the number of incidents and the residents’ level of satisfaction will serve as the basis for assessing the project’s success. The risks may include reputation losses in case the problems are not resolved promptly and potential consequences of inappropriate expenses. Afterward, the project will be executed in collaboration with the stakeholders, which will mean the implementation of the best practices into the hiring procedure and the retirement home maintenance. Then, the results will be monitored and controlled if flaws are discovered. Once everything in the residence is stabilized, the project can be concluded.
Managing Yourself and Others
While managing oneself, it is essential to realize the areas of strengths. However, a person cannot always judge them correctly, so other sources of confirmation, such as feedback analysis, are crucial (Drucker, 2007). Once the strengths are established, the next step is to improve them and address one’s ignorance in other fields (Drucker, 2007). The latter, perhaps, is even more significant for the project’s success, as having an incompetent member performing an important task threatens the initiative’s viability. During the active phases, one should focus on assessing their performance and the factors affecting it (Drucker, 2007).
For example, some may work better in a stressful situation, such as the one surrounding the project at hand, while others are likely to experience the opposite effect (Drucker, 2007). The discussed points apply to managing the team by helping them discover their strength and determine the most suitable roles. Overall, self-management still requires cooperation, and mutual analysis is the basis for ensuring the team’s success.
The Retirement Residence in the Community
The retirement home under consideration is the Niagara Gardens Retirement Manor, which is licensed with conditions. The establishment has issues with such aspects as a behavior management strategy, fire safety, and employee qualification. For instance, at the time of the issuing, it did not have a person to ensure compliance with the Act (Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority [RHRA], n.d.). The retirement home appears to struggle with resident-to-resident aggression, not having proper measures to protect non-aggressive residents (RHRA, n.d.). Regardless, the residence is functional and undergoes regular inspections, the last of which happened in January 2021 (RHRA, n.d.). As the risk may persist, it is important for the team to address the issues’ core and prevent any harm to the residents.
Best Practices and CQI
Fire safety in retirement homes is a major issue, considering the implications of evacuation procedures. Most residents may require full assistance during emergency egress, which is not always achievable due to staff shortages (Folk et al., 2016). Thus, the emphasis should be on preventing fire hazards by having sprinklers, extinguishers, and other equipment installed. Having more drills can potentially improve the preparedness for emergency situations, but regularly conducting them might have a distressing effect on the residents (Folk et al., 2016).
Simply hiring more personnel to account for every person is also unreasonable, as it is likely to aggravate another issue and be costly (Folk et al., 2016). As the establishment already the necessary equipment and only lacks sprinklers, the budget can handle the expenses (RHRA, n.d.). The CQI will be ensured through regular assessment of their condition and the staff’s skills in using them.
Aggression is another serious problem for retirement homes, leading to residents’ death in the worst-case scenario. Dementia appears to be the prevailing factor causing the phenomenon, with others playing a less significant role (Murphy, Bugeja, Pilgrim, & Ibrahim, 2017).
Unfortunately, the residence at hand does not have a special care program for those with dementia, aggravating the issue (RHRA, n.d.). Its establishment is costly and requires highly qualified specialists, who may ask for proper compensation. For now, the retirement home should continue cooperating with mental care institutions by reporting the incidents. Within the restrained budget, the fall-prevention environment can be improved, as falls are responsible for most deaths during resident-on-resident aggression cases (Murphy et al., 2017). The CQI will involve monitoring of reports, supervising case resolutions, and resocialization of aggressors.
Lastly, the quality of employees directly impacts the care and safety of residents, so their selection and training should be carefully handled. The issue is that the Niagara Gardens Retirement Manor lacks qualified staff, and hiring experienced personnel is financially impossible. Consequently, the establish can either focus on training the existing employees or seeking those who just graduated from a specialized college and supervise their growth as the CQI. The situation’s urgency makes the former more disable currently and should be immediately implemented.
References
Drucker, Peter F. (2007). Managing oneself. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Folk, L., Gonzales, K., Gales, J., Kinsey, M., Carattin, E., & Young, T. (2020). Emergency egress for the elderly in care home fire situations. Fire and Materials, 44(4), 585-606. Web.
Murphy, B., Bugeja, L., Pilgrim, J., & Ibrahim, J. E. (2017). Deaths from resident-to-resident aggression in Australian nursing homes. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 65(12), 2603–2609. Web.
Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority. (n.d.). Niagara Gardens Retirement Manor. Web.