A Proud Salute to Ecumen’s Nursing Assistants
It’s National Nursing Assistants Week, and Ecumen honors and thanks its nearly 1,500 direct caregivers for their dedicated care and commitment.
Unique High School Program Helps Students Become Nursing Assistants
A high school in Alexandria, Minn., has developed a unique program that allows students to become Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) and help fill a pressing need for senior care workers.
Honoring Ha Thu Rethwisch: Exemplary Nursing Assistant at Ecumen Detroit Lakes for 40+ Years
Ha Thu Rethwisch has dedicated more than 40 years to serving the residents of Ecumen Detroit Lakes with dignity and compassion as a Nursing Assistant.
Karen Sjostrom & Cindy Mostue: Dedicated CNAs with 71 Years of Combined Experience at Pelican Valley Health Center
It's National Nursing Assistant's Week and Ecumen honors its 1,800 Nursing Assistants for their dedicated care and commitment. Here's a story about two very special ones.
On National Nursing Assistant’s Day: Meet Bev Jacobs at Ecumen Prairie Lodge and Her Chorus of Admirers
Beverly Jacobs, a Resident Assistant at Ecumen Prairie Lodge, is sitting at a table off in a corner, probably wishing she had never agreed to this interview. She’s a person who loves giving attention to others — but not so much drawing attention to herself.
She sees a balloon volleyball game starting across the room and escapes from the table to get in the middle of it.
The occasion for the interview is National Nursing Assistants Day — a day to honor the caregivers who do the real boots-on-the-ground work in healthcare. They are the infantry of caregiving, and most anyone in senior care will tell you it’s one of the hardest jobs on the planet. The job is meeting the daily needs of older adults in assisted living or nursing homes — whatever those needs may be.
Bev has been doing this for an unusually long time. It’s the only job she’s ever had. She watched the building go up in Brooklyn Center 18 years ago and has been working here ever since.
Back at the table, the interviewer asks her: Is the job as hard as people say?
“It’s not hard if you love what you’re doing,” Bev says with a blinding smile. “Making people happy, caring for them, meeting their needs… I love that.”
How does she go about her job?
“I listen first,” Bev says. “I hear what their needs are, and I just try to fulfill them. If I don’t know how to do that, I find somebody who can.”
She feels appreciated, she says, in so many little ways every day, like when the residents anonymously leave candy for her at the nurse’s station. “I can usually guess who it’s from,” she says, “by the type of candy they leave.”
As she’s talking, a curious but hesitant crowd begins to gather. One by one, the residents ease over in their wheelchairs and walkers until a half dozen have assembled. “What’s going on with Bev?” a resident pointedly asks.
The interviewer explains that June 11 is National Nursing Assistants Day. Ecumen would like to honor its Nursing Assistants, he says, and Bev has been singled out for an interview because she is a fine representative of her profession.
Spontaneously, the group bursts into applause. Several residents come over with big hugs.
What do they think of Bev?
In unison they exclaim: “We LOVE her!”
What do you like about her? One by one, they shout:
“She treats everybody like they’re special.”
“She’s efficient.”
“She knows her job.”
“She’s patient.”
“She’s fun.”
“She really cares about us.”
As the chorus of praise fades, a resident offers this wisdom: “It’s like she’s our mother — just younger than us.”
They all agree that Bev is like family. They say when she takes a few days off work, they miss her dearly and the halls of Prairie Lodge echo with the refrain: “Bev does it this way!”
The way Bev does it comes through loud and clear.
From the heart.
You’ve Got To Have Heart To Do This Job: Honoring Ecumen’s Nursing Assistants
It’s an intensely challenging job. It’s a deeply rewarding job. It’s an absolutely critical job that not just anyone can do. But it does not get a lot of recognition.
The Nursing Assistants who take care of the frail elderly are a special breed who give compassionate care all day long to people who are at their most vulnerable.
This week is National Nursing Assistants Week, and Ecumen honors its 1,800 Nursing Assistants for their dedicated care and commitment. (Nursing Assistant is a 
general job category with many more specific job titles such as Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA), Resident Assistants, Home Health Assistants, Personal Care Attendants, Adult Day Services Assistants and Trained Medical Assistants.)
“This is an extremely important job,” says Anne Diekmann, Director of Nursing at Ecumen of Litchfield. “It is a noble calling and a career to be proud of.” Nursing Assistants do tasks like making sure residents get their meals, medication, therapy and personal care when they are supposed to, and they are always on call for any immediate needs residents have.
Diekmann says the 72 Nursing Assistants she supervises “are the eyes and ears of the Nursing Department. They are the people closest to the residents every day. They are the first line of everything. They notice when things aren’t right. They are keyed into every little detail. Without them, the nurses can’t do their jobs.”
Three Nursing Assistants at Ecumen of Litchfield gathered this week to talk about their jobs.
Jody Dilley, a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) for eight years, says, “It’s rewarding to help someone who cannot help themselves without expecting something in return.” She chose this career after taking care of her own mother, who was dying of cancer. “I knew I had found my calling,” she said.
And many Nursing Assistants refer to their jobs as a “calling.” Kelly Peipus has been a CNA for 30 years at Ecumen of Litchfield. She describes herself as an easy-going and patient person who finds that caregiving “just comes naturally.”
Missy Kielty, a CNA for 13 years, says she feels like she is “making a difference” as a caregiver. “I love interacting with the residents, hearing their stories and experiences,” she says. “The residents thank us all the time for what we do. They apologize for needing help, but we just tell them that’s exactly what we are here for.”
To be a Nursing Assistant, the group agreed, you need to be patient, sympathetic, compassionate and caring. And Anne Diekmann added a fifth qualification: integrity. “Nursing Assistants must be unconditionally trustworthy,” she says.
To honor the Nursing Assistants she supervises, Diekmann handed out “Survival Kits” with the following items and explanations:
Lifesavers: Because you are a REAL lifesaver!
Tissues: For those times you have to dry tears, even your own.
Snickers: To remind you that laughter really is the best medicine.
Sucker: To help you lick every problem.
Starburst Candy: For those times when you need a burst of energy.
Laffy Taffy: To remind you to laugh at times when you fell like crying.
Stick of gum: To help you stick with it and accomplish anything.
Mint: Because your compassion is worth a mint!
Rubber Band: For when you need to stretch beyond your limits.
And in big type at the end: NURSING ASSISTANTS ARE ALL HEART.
__
Ecumen thanks and honors its Nursing Assistants — and all Nursing Assistants — for your compassionate care and selfless service to others.