MDS Alert

Show, don't tell -- give staff ideas about what residents like to talk about.

Ready for some fun that will help your staff personalize care and improve residents' quality of life?

To help staff become more aware of who residents are, Molly Morand, RN, BSN, BC, suggested a couple of activities in a presentation on psychosocial outcomes at the September 2007 American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordinators meeting in Las Vegas.

Conduct a scavenger hunt where staff members receive descriptions of individual residents' interests and accomplishments and then have to figure out who the residents are -- for example, a resident has a PhD in chemistry and taught many years or someone sang "Sweet Adeline" to a former president, suggested Morand, a former MDS nurse and director of nursing. The staff then figures out whom the characteristics describe. The approach arms nurses and CNAs with practical ideas for talking to residents about what's important to them, said Morand.

Another idea: Play a game of "Who am I?" with a group of residents where a staff person reads about four to five things about a resident in the group and everyone figures out who it is, explained Morand. That way residents also learn about each other.

Good idea: When communicating about a resident to staff starting at admission, work in psychosocial information about the person's occupation, interests, etc., in addition to the usual clinical rundown, suggested Morand. Residents don't describe themselves as "I have a stage 4 pressure ulcer and am incontinent of urine," she pointed out.