Now available: watch People Worth Caring About, a long-term care workforce docuseries featuring seven Nebraska nursing homes and assisted living communities!

The docuseries, produced in partnership with Peter Murphy Lewis and Golden Gen Movement, showcases the variety of career opportunities and rewards of working in Nebraska’s nursing homes and assisted living communities, thanks to funding from Nebraska Health Care Foundation.

All seven episodes of People Worth Caring About are available to watch below and on YouTube.

In this episode, host Peter Murphy Lewis spends the day with nursing home resident Myrna. He meets Mary Jo, a certified nursing assistant, who does restorative therapy with Myrna, leading her through range-of-motion and speech exercises.

“Even though we’re taking care of them, they’re kind of taking care of us too. They teach us so much,” Mary Jo says about working with residents.

Then, activities director Cheryl assists Peter and Myrna in baking a cake. Prior to this role, Cheryl was a certified nursing assistant, medication aide, housekeeping aide, and restorative aide.

“It just felt kind of natural. I love what I do, and I enjoy it,” says Cheryl. “And I help,” Myrna adds.

In this episode, Peter explores an assisted living community that prides itself on its community immersion and participation. One of the pioneers of this facility, Barb, shows Peter a few examples, including hosting a “pre-prom” with high school students at the facility and implementing a “grandma-on-a-stick” program for families.

Peter then meets passionate caregiver Jennie, director of resident care, and assists her with doing a resident’s hair and playing a card game with a group of residents. The residents and staff then attend a pep rally presented by the local high school cheerleaders and basketball team.

“I love how they’ve innovated assisted living and inserted family as the cornerstone of the bedrock of everything they do,” Peter reflects on his time at the facility.

In this episode, Peter meets administrator Cassie who expresses the importance of their facility engaging with the community, especially students.

“For us to expand the workforce in Nebraska, we need to be reaching out to those younger individuals to make it less scary to walk into a nursing home. The residents here are your family and they have a good story to tell,” Cassie says.

Resident services coordinator Maria leads a group of Future Farmers of America (FFA) students from the local high school in planting succulents with the residents.

In this episode, Peter joins medication aides Jace and Bailey at a home-like end-of-life care facility. Jace explains the facility as “one big family, one big home, celebrating the end of life.”

Peter helps Bailey curl resident Bev’s hair. “It feels like you’re taking care of your own family,” she says about working in the facility.

He also meets resident Kim, who uses her phone to communicate with her caregivers, typing out messages like “I am dying but glad they are by my side.”

In this episode, Peter spends the morning serving breakfast with culinary associate Joy, who goes above and beyond to get residents exactly what they want for meals. The residents appreciate Joy’s patience and care so much, one even jokes, “I don’t like when she has a day off.”

He then joins physical therapist Leanne, who was inspired to start a career in rehabilitation after seeing her grandpa improve with physical therapy following two strokes when she was graduating high school.

“We love happy residents and happy team members,” says executive director Patrick.

In this episode, Peter meets assistant wellness director Gabriela as she helps get resident Jimmy ready for the day and take care of his bird Perky. He also visits resident Guadalupe who has a special relationship with Gabriela and appreciates being able to speak Spanish with her.

Peter then visits the Adult Day Center at the facility and meets its director Melanie, a passionate employee with a deep connection to the facility. He also helps food service administrative assistant Christine prepare a meal for the residents.

“Sometimes we’re the only family these residents have. It’s hard sometimes, but I want them to be able to think, ‘Oh this is our family,’” Christine says.

In this episode, Peter joins medication aide Chris to see what the frontline caregivers do to get 60 residents up and ready in the morning. Chris wakes up resident Mark and gets him ready for the day, then Mark holds Peter’s camera as he takes him to breakfast.

Peter then meets environmental services coordinator Matt, who was the first employee the facility ever hired. He helps him clean and disinfect resident rooms.

He ends his day by playing a game of “Noodle Ball” to have fun, work on reaction time, and get some exercise with a group of residents and life enrichment assistant Denise. One of the residents remarks that the facility is the “Cadillac of places” and a place “that anyone wants to live out their days.”

People Worth Caring About is presented by Nebraska Health Care Foundation and Nebraska Health Care Association
A Strategic Pete LLC and Golden Gen Movement production
© 2024 Nebraska Health Care Foundation