Terrific Ideas for National Nursing Home Week

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National Nursing Home Week is May 8-14

Here are some terrific ideas for National Nursing Home Week

Honoring Your Staff National Nursing Home Week® can be a time to honor staff. Have a special "cocktail" hour where residents can assist. Ask residents for suggestions for their easiest, tastiest recipes and assist them in gathering the ingredients they need. If you need more recipes than residents offer, pick a few from one of the following sites:
•http://www.recipezaar.com/r/145/81
•http://busycooks.about.com/cs/seasonalcooking/a/toohottocook.htm
You can also give out awards to honor staff and volunteers. Your categories might include the sunniest personality, the funniest staff member (or resident/family member), the most dedicated volunteer or the best bingo caller. Set up voting boxes throughout your facility and let everyone vote on the various categories.

Act of Kindness Bag
Fill a decorated bag with slips of paper suggesting different things that residents, family, friends, and staff members can do for people throughout the week. Suggestions can be simple, like sew a button on Jill's white shirt, brush and fix Sally's hair, tell a staff member a funny childhood story, etc. Ask the recipient to write a comment on the back of the "Act of Kindness" slip. At the end of the week, review the activities and comments to everyone.
Intergenerational "Life" Stories
Youngsters of any age can be fascinated by the living history that residents represent. To kids, it is hard to fathom life before McDonald's, television (even color TV), computers, video games, cell phones, plastic bags, etc. Of course, residents who are 85 years old were 20 years old in 1946, so a veteran might tell a "tale" of combat in World War II or Korea or what life was like on the home front. Suggest discussions about the advances in technology (radio, TV, movies, telephone, etc.) which are interesting topics for children.

Hug Day Proclaim a "hug day."
Ask everyone in the facility to greet each other with a warm hug and count up the hugs. The most hugs in a day wins a bouquet of National Nursing Home Week® balloons or other prizes. Bonus points go to those who make contact with residents that they do not know very well, if at all.

Salon Day
Hold a "Salon Day" for your special ladies and men. Ask local volunteer organizations or a local high school to come in and help. Set up a room as a salon and invite the ladies in for makeup, brush their hair and pin back with sparkling bobbie pins and put on nail polish. The men can come in for a haircut and shave. Try for pedicures too.

Mini-Shuffle Board
Mini-Shuffle Board is fun and easy to set up. Take a smooth piece of wood and mark lines every few inches from the beginning. Give each line a different point value starting with 10 and increase in increments of 10. The object is to push a coin along the board and add the point values of where the coin lands on the board.

Reach for the Stars
Create a "Reach for the Stars" game. Ask residents to sit in a circle, blow up a NNHW balloon and then keep the balloon in the air for as long as possible. A person whose balloon falls can still participate, but is ineligible for a prize. At the end, the person who has maintained the balloon in the air the longest would get some recognition and a special NNHW prize.

Alumni Party
Consider having an "Alumni Party" as part of the staff event (above). Invite former residents, patients (and family members) who have been discharged to home or to a community setting. Weather permitting, throw a BBQ/picnic or, if this is not possible, have a special sit down lunch or dinner.

Fancy Flags
Since each country and state has its own flag, how about each of your residents having one of their own? Ask residents to draw what they would like onto their flag (e.g. decorate according to their hobbies). When finished, staple each flag onto a dowel and have a "parade."