Home management talks about care work: "Not much to be noticed from appreciation"
Created: 01/05/2022, 05:30 AM
From: Stefan Weinzierl
Would like more support from politicians and relatives: Anika Fischer (right), manager of the senior center “Wohnen am Schlossanger”, and care manager Ingrid Till.
© Stefan Weinzierl
The excitement was great when it became known that there was a corona outbreak in the senior center "Wohnen am Schlossanger" in November, in which 22 residents were infected and in the end seven people died.
At least in the social networks, some were quick to assign blame, criticizing the institution for alleged failures.
Höhenkirchen
- Anika Fischer does not want to leave the allegations unchallenged.
In an interview with Münchner Merkur, the 43-year-old, who has been running the old people's and nursing home run by the community for almost two years, and nursing manager Ingrid Till (57) give an insight into the challenging work of nurses in pandemic times.
At the same time, they demand more understanding from relatives and more support from politicians.
What is the current corona situation in living on the Schlossanger?
Fischer:
Everyone has been negative since December 15th and the house is completely free of corona.
Do you know exactly how the last outbreak came about?
Fischer:
You will never be able to determine that correctly.
One thing is certain: the two residents who first tested positive were not people who had previously left the house, for example when they were shopping.
Then nothing came for a long time, then a number of other infected residents and only then did employees test positive.
This suggests that the virus was brought in from the outside.
Seven residents died during the outbreak - all of the corona infection?
Fischer:
You have to keep one thing in mind.
We are a nursing home for the elderly.
Dying is the order of the day here.
We try to make the last phase of life as beautiful and varied as possible for the residents ...
Till:
... but we cannot prevent dying.
Fischer:
The months of November, December and January always belong to the months when unfortunately many residents die.
Of the total of seven deaths, two actually died of Corona.
The others had been palliative for a long time and had serious underlying illnesses.
In principle, these people moved into our home very late and in a very poor general condition.
Nevertheless, the outbreak of infection will have been very stressful for you and your employees.
Fischer:
At the same time, we also had 21 residents who were sick with norovirus.
That was a challenge for everyone here in the house.
I don't even remember how many ambulance services we had here.
That wasn't nice and very frightening for everyone.
Nevertheless, everyone carried on.
No nursing employee has given up or stopped working.
On the internet and social media, some have blamed your facility's recent outbreak.
Fischer:
Such accusations annoy me.
At the time we had the infection outbreak, there were infections in a total of 22 houses in the county.
We have high standards and work to the best of our knowledge and belief.
Even the health department has praised our strict testing practice.
We have always implemented everything that was required.
Often we had already implemented measures before they were ordered.
Relatives who compared us to other institutions have even criticized our strict rules.
What is going on in your house to prevent outbreaks or to detect them at an early stage?
Fischer:
We have hired extra housekeeping staff for disinfection rounds, we have employees on a 450 euro basis who go through the whole house six times a day and disinfect every doorknob, every handrail and every surface.
We have had a virus cleaning device in every parlor since December 23, as well as in the foyer and in every duty room.
To prevent the virus from spreading throughout the house, we organized dozens of residents move.
That sounds like a lot of effort.
Fischer:
That's not all.
Due to the pandemic, we have developed, implemented, evaluated and repeatedly adapted several concepts.
There are a total of 13 concepts.
How do church services work?
How do we deal with it when we have interns in the house?
What do you have to look out for at the hairdresser or when taking care of your feet?
We have a pandemic concept, a hygiene and protection concept, an admission and visitor concept and a test concept.
How does it look?
Fischer:
We have regularly adapted the test concept to the regulations.
In December of last year, we started testing residents and employees on a regular basis.
At the moment, every employee is tested before the start of each shift - by trained staff from our company.
The residents are tested once a week, currently twice a week - on a voluntary basis, of course.
There are relatives and residents who disagree.
And of course we don't force anyone.
On average, we get 1,000 to 1,200 rapid tests.
How is it possible to do this extra work? Your institution - like many others - has had to struggle with staff shortages in recent years.
Fischer:
Thank goodness we are a small community center and not a big profit-oriented house or a chain.
We are in close contact with the community, from whom we receive support at all times.
That also means that we generally have more staff.
During the outbreak, we also had temporary workers in the house from time to time.
Not many employees are absent due to the corona, but those who are absent tear holes.
That means, for homes with a normal care key ...
Fischer:
... the whole effort is actually not feasible.
We also have the advantage that we also have specialists in managerial positions.
We can also lend a hand in an emergency.
During the four weeks of the outbreak, Ms. Till and I could be reached day and night for four weeks.
Ms. Till was here on the weekends and saw how the residents were doing, we called on every shift and asked if everyone was okay.
How did the two years of Corona affect the residents overall?
Fischer:
It certainly affects one person more than the other.
But there is basically a feeling of uncertainty among the residents, and some of them are also fearful and cautious.
Of course we try to counteract this.
We are trying to get back to normal operations as soon as possible so that the restrictions do not persist for longer than absolutely necessary and we continue to make offers.
Our residents certainly don't have to be afraid of becoming lonely.
With loving handicraft and gift campaigns, the care workers ensure that the residents have happy hours not only during the Christmas season © Seniorenzentrum
How do the relatives react to the monthly exceptional situation?
Till:
Overall, we would like more understanding from some relatives - and support.
In which form?
Till:
For example, that relatives don't call five, ten or even 20 times a day to inquire about their relatives.
We understand, of course, the concern behind the calls.
But it's incredibly slow.
And we just don't have enough staff to do this kind of phone service.
We would like the relatives to support us in implementing our concepts and measures.
Fischer:
What has increased are also demanding and negative e-mails from relatives.
We are discussing measures with which they do not agree, but which are not ours at all.
Or loopholes are sought to circumvent the measures.
What are the consequences?
Fischer:
That makes everything even more exhausting.
I can also understand that there are employees who turn their backs on care.
Because there was not much to be seen of appreciation and recognition in the last few weeks and months.
For example, our employees have to justify themselves to some relatives why they still go shopping or to the cinema in this situation.
Thank God there are also relatives who always stand behind us and motivate us.
What would you want from politics?
Fischer:
Apart from more staff, we would like to have a central contact point for each municipality where relatives and citizens can get general information on the subject of Corona and the corresponding measures. For example, so that we don't have to discuss with someone at reception for the tenth time in the senior center why he or she does not come into our house with a quick test that has expired for half an hour.
Till:
We would also like to have quick access to personal help if the next outbreak occurs. For example, by creating a pool of employees.
Fisherman:
Perhaps it could also be organized on a small scale, in the community.
That you have housewives or former carers on hand to help out in an emergency.
As I said: we are not afraid that our residents will become lonely, we are afraid of the next corona wave.
If Omikron comes and sweeps away 70 percent of the staff here, then we have a serious problem.
"Nobody is lonely here": As far as the Corona restrictions allow, as many community activities as possible take place in the senior citizen center, such as a Christmas devotion here.
© Senior Center
It is said that vaccination is the most effective protection against the next wave of infections. How many residents, how many employees are vaccinated in your home?
Fischer:
89.61 percent of our employees are vaccinated, and 93.06 percent of the residents.
We have eight employees and five residents who are not vaccinated for various reasons.
Two of the employees have recovered from being infected during the last outbreak.
However, after six months at the latest, you will have to ask about the vaccination again.
If every employee has to present a vaccination or convalescence status by March 15, this could be problematic.
If we lose one or the other employee as a result, things get tricky.
In other words, you are skeptical about the mandatory imprint for nursing staff?
Fischer:
Yes.
I cannot understand why there should be compulsory vaccinations only for nursing staff.
What about the visitors?
They can come to our house without vaccination with a simple rapid test.
The quick tests are actually too imprecise.
So no compulsory vaccination?
Fischer:
If there is a compulsory vaccination, then there must be a general compulsory vaccination.
We have been at the forefront here for almost two years and we hold our position despite all the adversities.
Most of us are really working to the limit.
And yet I feel that our employees are constantly being criticized, even though we have a great team.
