A Spirit of Giving: The Family & Nursing Care Foundation

Puzzle piece with a hand holding a heartAt Family & Nursing Care, our mission of care extends to the community through the Family & Nursing Care Foundation, which offers grants to help lower-income older adults gain access to the home care they need and provides scholarships for students to receive Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training to care for the aging population.

We are so grateful to those who have contributed to the Family & Nursing Care Foundation, which operates as a fund of the Greater Washington Community Foundation. It is because of these donations that this year we were able to grant:

  • $20,000 to Home Care Partners
  • $20,000 to Community Reach of Montgomery County
  • $20,000 to the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA)

In addition, the Family & Nursing Care Foundation has established a scholarship fund at Montgomery College to support students pursuing their Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) license. Through a partnership with the college, the Foundation has established a $50,000 scholarship. Ten-Thousand dollars is awarded each year over a five-year period to selected CNA candidates applying for financial assistance.

It is very rewarding to see our grants provide low-income seniors with peace of mind through devoted home care and help build and enhance the careers of future CNAs. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to support these incredible organizations.

Improving the quality of life for low-income seniors is the reason our Founder, Sandy Kursban, started the Family & Nursing Care Foundation. Every gift to the Foundation is personally matched by Sandy, dollar for dollar. If you are interested in donating, please click here for more information.

Partnership in Practice: The Impact of Support in the First 48 Hours Post Hospital Discharge

Hospital emergency drop off signRecognizing a real need for post hospital discharge support for older adult patients, Family & Nursing Care and Suburban Hospital partnered on a pilot program to evaluate the impact of a free shift of home care during the first 48 hours after hospital discharge. The goal was to evaluate the impact on readmissions to the hospital, as well as to break down the barriers of home care to those resistant to having care at home.

Mitch Markowitz, Vice President, Business Development at Family & Nursing Care and Margie Hackett, Transition Guide Nurse Manager at Suburban Hospital will be co-presenting on their learnings from the pilot program at the upcoming Lifespan Network Annual Conference and Expo in Ocean City, Maryland.

September 28th – October 1st, join them at the conference to hear more about the overall program and its results, including pivotal information on how the outcomes of the pilot group differed from those that declined service.

Based on their findings, Mitch and Margie will present a best practice for maximizing conversations about home care prior to hospital discharge and help audience members understand the real gaps between discharge and the start of Medicare Home Health services.

Click here to learn more and register for the conference.

Summer is Over, but the Thermometer Keeps Rising

COVID Vaccination thermometerOur efforts to get Caregivers vaccinated against COVID-19

Each week during our full staff stand-up meeting, we discuss the metrics that are most important to our business. In January 2021, we added a new metric – one that has grabbed everyone’s attention because it is related to the safety and well-being of Caregivers, clients and their loved ones. This metric is a thermometer that tracks how many Caregivers we’ve collected COVID-19 vaccine records from.

When COVID-19 vaccines became available across the country earlier this year, we knew we had our work cut out for us with our goal to get every one of the over 1,300 Caregivers affiliated with Family & Nursing Care vaccinated. We also knew that we simply could not stop short of our goal because the stakes were too high. So, we strategized, planned, organized, strategized even more, implemented our plan and revised our strategy along the way to keep up with the changing landscape of vaccine availability.

How we did it:

We communicated. We emailed and texted about the importance of the COVID-19 vaccination, the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, and the requests from clients and Senior Living Communities to only work with vaccinated Caregivers. We put together a video of interviews with several Caregivers who were early adopters of the vaccine, to convince their peers to get vaccinated as well.  We increased the frequency of our Caregiver communications with most of the topics emphasizing the vital importance of getting vaccinated.

We incentivized. At our Caregiver Appreciation Event in June, we held a special raffle with multiple $250 and $100 gift cards for Caregivers who had submitted a vaccine record.

We reached out. In 2020, we hired a team of full-time employees whose sole responsibilities were dedicated to reaching out to Caregivers to stay on top of their need for regular COVID-19 testing.  We asked this team to add Caregiver vaccine outreach to their list of duties. These team members call Caregivers daily to talk with them individually about getting vaccinated, educate those apprehensive to get vaccinated, help them find places to get the vaccine, and follow up with them to make sure they get both their first and second doses (where applicable). Our Caregiver Coordinating and Caregiver Services departments also spent extensive time talking one-on-one with Caregivers about the importance of getting vaccinated.

With these combined efforts, we’ve made great strides in reaching our goal to get every Caregiver vaccinated. While we haven’t accomplished our goal just yet, the finish line is very much within sight.

With over 1200 Caregivers now vaccinated, our staff recently took some time to reflect on our efforts. “What do you think helped us get this many Caregivers vaccinated?” asked President, Jeff Zukerman. The answers came in rapid succession. “Communication!” “The raffle!” “Personal outreach!” “The video!”. Neal Kursban, our CEO, added, “It’s a combination of all our efforts.  The enormous commitment and investment of time is our moral imperative to keep doing everything we can to keep clients and Caregivers as safe as possible. Thank you to everyone who has played a role in our success here at Family & Nursing Care.”