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Our 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.”
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Keeping our clients and Caregivers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a team effort – and nobody knows that better than Client Services Manager (CSM) Amanda Schwaninger. When the pandemic first spread across the country and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) quickly became sparce, Amanda led the charge to secure and distribute over 600 masks to clients and Caregivers. On top of this, Amanda was a true team player, shifting her schedule and working alternate hours to accommodate client and Caregiver needs.
As families get ready to reconnect under sunny skies, it’s important to make sure older family members are protected from extreme heat. For older adults, warmer temperatures present additional challenges that can be detrimental to their health. Family & Nursing Care Caregivers can be on hand to help prevent and respond quickly to warm-weather health issues that arise – here are some of the things they can do to keep your loved ones safe during the heat of summer:
Even with over 18 years of experience in client care and customer service, Shannon Bednar didn’t have a playbook at the ready for how to do her job as a Client Services Manager during a global pandemic. What she did know was that even if she had to do everything differently, she’d continue to serve her clients just like she always had – with the utmost attention to detail and a high degree of integrity, dignity, and respect.
Family & Nursing Care is honored to announce that for the fourth year in a row, it has received the Workplace Excellence Award from the Alliance for Workplace Excellence (AWE). The company will be recognized for building and maintaining an incredible place to work. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, an in-person celebration will not be possible and instead a celebratory video will be posted to the AWE website in the coming weeks.
