Time to Reflect

I saw a quote in a recent Newsweek article* about election strategy that had me thinking about why it is so hard to change and learn new things. Here it is:

“When FDR was making radio addresses, ‘people had the time needed for reflection, to mix emotion with facts and reason,’ says [Antonio] Damasio. ‘But now, with 24-hour cable news and the Web, you have a climate in which you don’t have time to reflect. The amount and speed of information, combined with less time to analyze every new development, pushes us toward the emotion-based decision pathway.”

“…a climate in which you don’t have time to reflect…” Any of you familiar with that feeling? So, we cling to “the way we’ve always done things” because we know it is, if not the best way to do things, at least a safe bet. It’s worked this far, right? We put a wall up to protect ourselves and the institution because we don’t have time to look at alternatives and learn new things. We barely have time to get everybody to the dining room, for Pete’s sake.

But we must find time, or at least slow down a little, if we are ever to realize that there is a better way to care for our elders and to work together as a team. We need to value individuals and effectiveness as much as efficiency and task.

I have previously posted blogs and handouts on the spiral of learning and debriefing - practices that can help us process exactly what’s going on besides our gut reactions. In time, these pre- and post-action tools can become the new “way things are done.”

Anyone have any good ideas for carving out time for learning?

* “Heard Any Good Stories Lately?” By Sharon Begley, Newsweek, Sept. 22, 2008

Life on Campus

I haven’t been on my soapbox in a while, however, this time I’m on it so I can reach in and stir the pot. Basically, I’m looking for an answer to, “Why do you think that is? And why has nobody challenged it?” Here’s the issue at hand:

I’ve often thought life in a nursing home in many ways is like life in the college dorms and campus. They are environments constructed by an organization for people of a specific age group (generally) and a specific situation. Living in these environments, you have a roommate who you very likely did not know before you got there. There’s the dining room and cafeteria. And pretty much everything you need is right on campus: drug store, library, places for socializing and entertainment such as movie theater, coffee shop or recreation center, a place to worship, laundry, clinic, security, etc. The major stuff like taking care of the landscaping and green space, cleaning of common areas and general building maintenance are taken care of as well. (And talk about departmental silos- but that is getting off the point.) The idea is that the burden of the chores and errands of daily living are lessened so that focus, time and attention can be spent on other things. In college, it is studying, of course, and in a nursing home, it is the things that take a little more time and effort than they used to.

However, we know that for college students, time spared from daily tasks is also spent on those “new life experiences” and, well, having a good time! Why should it be different for those living in nursing homes? Of course, new experiences and having a good time means very different things to people in their twenties as opposed to folks in their eighties, but it seems so odd for me that in these very similar environments, one inspires activity and growth while the other centers on function (or dysfunction). I don’t think it is the age of the people living within. I think it is the expectations we all have about what is supposed to go on there. In fact, it seems the expectations should be reversed. College kids are going to grow and be active on their own, they don’t need a special environment for that. What they need to do at that stage in life, is learn to function in the “real world.” Whereas, elders are pros at functioning in the real world, but are not in a time of life we generally think of as full of activity and growth like our twenties.

What do you think? How can we change the expectations of what living in a nursing home should be to match the richness of the college experience?