A week ago I attended an open house celebrating a new gym that has been installed in The Wingate, an assisted living community in Highland, here in Ulster County N.Y. I responded to an invitation from Genie Keating, Wingate’s NY Regional Director of Marketing, a colleague in the Business Marketing Association of the Hudson Valley, but found myself arriving at the tail of the afternoon open house. The political and business networkers had come and gone.
It was time for the cognoscenti of nursing home and home care to kick back and share stories. I was the only male at the table, and the only non-medical institution professional. Around me were managers, staff pros, people working in this facility or others in the region and a legacy of serving in many medical facilities. This is a small coterie of pros, and they keep up with what’s going on in he field. I mean, they could name virtually every facility between Times Square and Albany.
Being a fly on the wall has its merits. While the chairs around the table were refilled several times with these wonderful people stopping by to catch up with their associates and the news, I had the opportunity to listen. From smartly dressed managers to hands-on staff dressed in those maroon, shapeless medical sets, from the salaried set to the hourly workers I began to see something beneath the surface – call it a fire, a certain calling.
What motivates one to devote a career to taking care of elderly people in the latter chapters of their lives?
“I remember when I started working in this field. I remember I was bathing this resident. As I washed her hair, I recall the smile on her face. Nothing can equal that feeling. Nothing.” I listen to this, recalling decades past when my grandmother was, reluctantly, placed in a nursing home, where the care was magnitudes less than this and where, I swear due to neglect, Nanna contracted pneumonia and died. Incredible, there are people who actually take pleasure in treating our senior most friends well.
Conversation flowed, like the river nearby, taking this notion of commitment across the landscape and along the years – each of those present with snippets of similar stories. There is a subculture of people who work at the Wingates and other facilities like it who are not just committed, but who are enthusiastic with all the small steps that add up to be Quality care.
I learned that there is a class of manager, supervisor, nurse and health-facility worker who embody this viewpoint. Sometimes they work in wonderful corporate organizations, like Wingate, formed 22 years ago and which operates 18 additional facilities. They also work for, have worked for and know of other groups which have different values, where profit trumps quality, where good care is delivered because of the committed staffers and managers – in spite of the ownership. All owners don’t exhibit the deep commitment evinced by Wingate.
I want to acknowledge too the sobering statement one at our table made. “We know someday we can be here as a patient.”
At the table, I listen, and realize I am in the company of of individuals who represent legions of others like them who’ve come to America from the four corners of the world, who are busing to their jobs via Ulster County Rural Transportation (UCRT) or New York City’s MTA Bronx lines. I am not only privileged to listen. WE are privileged to have them among us.
To all who bring your management skills, your medical skills, your care, your concern, dedication, your compassion and your care, I say thank you on behalf of all those whom I have loved and who were quietly and professionally cared for.
