Networking opportunity - And I took advantage of it

I have truly been focussing on improving my networking skills. For example, this morning, I attended an event for the Women's Fund of RI.  At the end of the event, I put the networking skills to work by introducing myself to several people including, Sentator Sheldon Whitehouse.  I opened by stating that I wanted to make him aware of a few important programs: 1) the RI Nursing Home Quality Care Collaborative, which is a project I am working on for my employer, and 2) College Unbound!!! 

As a result, Senator Whitehouse agreed to write a letter in support for my project, which will be extremely useful as I recruit nursing homes for statewide participation.  More importantly, he was thrilled to hear about College Unbound and it's mission.  He referenced a recent meeting with the President of RWU - at which, College Unbound wasn't mentioned.  He has met Dennis and was positive not only about The Met, but also about College Unbound - now that he knows:)  He indicated that when he speaks, again, to the President of RWU, he will ask specifically about College Unbound.

Pictures from Wednesday's presentation at SAGE-RI's Visible Lives event. I presented information related to my project work, as well as "plugged" College Unbound!

SAGE-RI: Healthcare Transformation for Lesbian Elders - Final Report

The information in this report informed me about the LGBT elder community; which until this project, I knew nothing about.  This particular information was a nice segway for me since I am familiar with the elder community, in general, and in relation to nursing home or long-term care, as well as hospital care. 

The task included rewriting and formatting the entire, draft report and turning into the Final Report, which will be submitted to the funder, as well as distributed to those that participated in the assessments, and made available on the SAGE-RI website. 

As my learning plan indicates, I finalized the report, wrote the Executive Summary, created a PowerPoint presentation; and, will present the information at a public event later today - Visible Lives. 

SAGE-RI: Healthcare Transformation for LGBT Elders - Final Report

Next steps include connecting housing, health, and the LGBT community. The task is to develop a concept for an alternative housing plan for LGBT elders in RI.  The concept will be presented to SAGE-RI in December of this year.

Final Presentation: Visible Lives Event

I will present on 10/24 from 12:15 - 12:45 pm.  This is my final presentation with speaker notesHealthcare Transformation: Final Report Findings

This evening, I participated in Mid-Term Exhibitions as a presenter and as a peer offering feedback. 

I was fortunate to be in the audience for four, fascinating presentations.  There was a comrodary among the group in the room; and, everyone demonstrated topic knowledge, their CU perspective, and professionalism.

Although I was nervous before and during my presentation, I had a level of confidence because I had the knowledge to back up my work.  I prepared in advance and sought feedback from my professional mentors, as well as prepared speaker notes to guide the discussion.  The experience was positive; and, the feedback was valuable. 

This evening, I am finalizing a presentation (related to Phase I of my project), which I will deliver at the Visible Lives event (hosted by SAGE-RI) this Wednesday. Additionally, I am formatting and rewriting SAGE-RI's Final Report on the methods and findings from recent research conducted with LGBT elders and healthcare workers.    The Final Report is 70 pages long.  This task is taking longer than expected.  At this time, I am on Page 35.  The rewriting has taken longer than expected.

  

Final (10/23) - Mid-Term Exhibition Presentation

This morning, I met with my mentors at Healthcentric Advisors to discuss the Mid-Term Exhibition.  I received feedback and revised two slides.  This is my final presentation for this evening.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwUD2OHktY78djhtQ29VanZJSms

Mid-Term Exhibition and Executive summary

Mid-Term Exhibition Presentation - FINAL
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwUD2OHktY78M2JNQzYxLUROc2s

Worked on my Visible Lives, presentation (10/25)- DRAFT
Finalized SAGE-RI Report - Executive Summary
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwUD2OHktY78NVdzMTZmVWl2SXc

Visible Lives event invitation

Good morning,
This is an important educational opportunity.  I am scheduled to present from 12:15 - 12:45 pm.
Thank you,
Melissa

To register: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e6eeoyynd3049330&llr=orqrh6bab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday, October 16, 2012, I met with two members of SAGE-RI to discuss progress on my project.  They offered feedback about key messaging related to my mid-term exhibition, as well as for my 30-minute presentation at the Visible Lives event on October 24th. 

I expressed my feelings about what I've been learning related to the LGBT elder community; and, shared information about the Holistic Approach to Housing, which was shared with me during Monday night's lecture (10/15) with Professor Raymond Neirinckx.  In particular, I noticed how the Holistic Model for Housing reflected similar methodology to the Holistic Approach to Transformational Change (HATChTM) Model that we use to create sustainable, system-wide changes in nursing homes.

On Wednesday, October 17, 2012, I attended a four-hour educational session entitled, "Keeping and Growing Your Staff."  This event was hosted by my employer, Healthcentric Advisors.  The focus of the training was to target staff retention issues among direct-care workers in long-term care facilities. 

This training is relevent to my educational goals for a couple of reasons: 1) long-term care facilities serve as home to our state's elders and/or disabled adults and 2) focusing on the retention and growth of low-paid workers direct impacts the health, housing, and well being of themselves, their family members, and the residents they care.

The objectives of the training were:  

• Recognize the key elements that support staff stability.
• Diagram the elements of a vicious cycle of staff stresses and their impact on census, staffing, and quality.
• Identify management practices that support the staff.
• Practice using the drill-down tools to determine the issues that negatively affect staff stability.
• Develop a plan for implementing strategies to correct turnover and instability in your building.

Key information:
The majority of our LTC workforce are:
·         Single moms
·         Living at or below the poverty level
·         Challenged by child-care issues, transportation, relationship issues

They need your help and support - one nursing home administrator said, “we’re dealing with their problems, because they’re dealing with their problems. It’s just a question of whether we deal with them up front or if we force them underground. When we force their issues underground, we wind up dealing with the problems in other ways, when they can’t come to work, or are carrying their worries without any help or recognition from us as their employer. That’s when we can lose a good worker who’s having a bad time of it.”

Successful Strategies:

Implement effective attendance policies and practices:
·         Accommodate requests for time off
·         Allow employees to switch days
·         Anticipate needs after stressful times
·         Respect an employee’s reality
·         High absence trigger
·         “No-fault” policy
·         Plan ahead for a 2^nd day’s absence ahead of time

Consider a mix of low/mod/high-cost programs:

·         Grocery-points program – rewarding good attendance
·         Mini loans – low impact for facility / huge impact on the lives of your staff
·         MSW - case workers – offer social supports
·         Avoid micro-inequities – for example, your colleagues call out sick and you are concerned; but, when your staff calls out sick you are annoyed!

Creative Whack Pack

Creative Whack Pack

 By Melissa Miranda

The Explorer: See the big picture; Listen to your dreams; Get out of YOUR box; Give yourself a whack on the side of the head.

I am certainly demonstrating elements of the “explorer” in my project.  I am diving into the lives of elderly, gay folks.  I am neither gay nor elderly; and, I surely feel out of my element or out of my box.  The project involves identifying an innovative housing plan for gay elders.  How many of us have thought what it would be like to be old? I’d like to think many of us have.  How many of us, though, have thought what it would like to live at home alone when we are old?  Even more thought provoking is what it would be like to live in a nursing home for the rest of our lives.  Now, taking it even further, what if we are gay and have to live in a nursing home?  For many, this scenario contributes to gay elders going back “in the closet” effecting their health and quality of life.  Until now, I didn’t recognize this issue.  Now that I know – I am ready to explore and contribute to the healthy life and wellbeing of my fellow eldersJ 

The Artist: Reverse your viewpoint; Make a comparison; Imagine how others would do it; Change its name.

This perspective is brilliant!  For some reason, when I think of how one of my closest friends would tackle my project, I immediately become relaxed and feel less pressure.  Of course, she is a fourth-grade teacher and everything she does with her students seems simplistic yet brilliant.  I’ve always felt that teachers who make learning fun – who make learning not feel like learning – are the most successful.  If she and I were to sit down, I am sure she would give me great ideas on how to go about my work – things I would never have thought about. 

Additionally, I am a fan of “changing the name.”  My mentor at work is famous for this.  Not only does she change the name, she is the master of cool acronyms also.  A couple examples include: Career Health for the Upwardly Mobile (CHUM) and Share from the Chair. Until now, I didn’t realize that changing the name or creating a metaphor was an element of artistic creativity.  But I can say that I am attracted to the elements of it.  I love cool names used differently; I remember them easier.  Maybe I love them because  no one can “really” tell you that you’re wrong when your intent is to be creatively and innovatively different. 

The Judge: Focus on the real truth; Ask a fool; Slay a sacred cow; Check your timing.

The perspective of the “judge” is a little more difficult for me to implement.  Certainly the timing of our ideas is critical.  If the timing is off it could mean it is too late, in which case the need has been lost; but, it could also mean the world isn’t ready and it must be shelved for some unknown amount of time.   Both are hard to accept.  Dislodging assumptions is no easy task either.  Not only must I dislodge my own assumptions as I create an idea, I must present my ideas in a way that encourages others to dislodge their assumptions – assuming I even know what those could be.  It would be unrealistic to think an idea would be accepted by everyone; but, when you have a good idea, who doesn’t want to shout it from the roof tops and get everyone’s attention!

The Warrior: Give yourself a kick in the seat of the pants; Have something at stake; Sell, sell, sell; Expect Resistance.

In this perspective, it is apparent that my great idea can place me in a lonely, unsupported place.  Through that, it is persistence and the belief that the idea is as good as I believe it is that keeps me from caving in.  Certainly if my idea requires anyone to change either their thoughts or actions, I expect it to be met with resistance and criticism.  After all, I don’t love change either.  I’ve learned, though, that the pains of change are usually well worth the effort.

The Four-C Model of Creativity:

The Four-C Model of Creativity makes sense. Certainly any expertise is captured in stages.  At any given time throughout our lives, we likely demonstrate elements of each depending on what we are doing. Even an expert can tackle something new, which may change the level of creativity that they exemplify.  After reading the article, it seemed likely that most people would never reach the Big-C level of creativity.

Creativity Assignment – Part 1 Submitted by: Melissa Miranda http://www.paintinghere.com/UploadPic/Vladimir%20Volegov/big/Yellow%20Roses.jpg Painted by Vladimir Volegov, a Russian artist. Volegov’s pieces often portray a young woman in a timeless, floral setting like this one known as, “Yellow Roses.” Volegov’s work matches the imagery I encompass in my own poetry.

Critical Thinking

A response to “Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts” by Peter A. Facione

By Melissa Miranda

 The most impactful information in this article was the sidebar on Page 3, Failures of critical thinking contribute to…  The question below that information seemed to bounce right off the page, “What were we thinking?”  As I attempted to define critical thinking, I realized it is really quite simple. The definition according to me is as follows:

Critical Thinking - the act of considering as much information as possible from my own knowledge, skills, and experience and including the knowledge, skills and experiences of those considered experts on the topic to ensure that the end result is never this question, “What were we thinking?”

Both on the job and in my personal life, I’ve learned to turn to the experts.  The experts may mean a well known geriatrician specializing in the prevention of pressure ulcers and or a mother of five including a set of twins.  I’m not saying that the experts’ information is always the right information for me; but, it is necessary to analyze good information in order to make the best decision.

I will have to use critical thinking skills in order to complete my student project, which is to create an alternative housing design plan for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual/ transgender (LGBT) elders.  I need to read and interpret information about housing, health, and the lesbian and gay elder.  I will evaluate the feasibility of innovative ways for this population to age in place (meaning at home), and develop an idea that can easily be explained and accepted by the RI Chapter of Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders (SAGE/RI).