Dec 8, 2024
Culture change takes buy-in from the top leaders and joint participation by them in the process. These are the words of the Regional Vice President and just a few of her Area Directors of Operations to their many staff members before starting a 2-year culture change project.
RSVP, Ops Lisa: “Hi I’m Lisa Meyer and I’m the Regional Vice President for the skilled rehab services division for RehabCare. I service the Missouri and Illinois communities and I’m very excited to have you guys all participating in our training program. We’ve brought this together because we want to enhance what we are doing with our patients and to be able to create a joyful, caring community, for not only our staff but also for the residents and the families we service.
ADO, Ashley: “My name is Ashley Todd and I am an Area Director of Operations for RehabCare in Missouri. I have been a part of this this wonderful course here. I’ve always held a lot of stock in kind of the power of human interactions and what people are capable of. What we’ve learned in this is how to mold your your interactions with with your peers and your direct reports to help them be successful.
ADO, Lori: “Hi my name is Lori Toennies. I’m an Area Director of Operations with RehabCare. I’ve really enjoyed learning the tools and techniques that are available through LifeWork Systems. There’s been an array of tools that we’ve been taught recently that are very practical, that we can immediately begin implementing in our day-to-day life.”
RSVP, Ops Lisa: “We really want to have this program be something that you can find useful and not just another educational topic that you have to check off as part of your annual compliance training or different things related to your clinical requirements. We really want you to be able to experience different strategies and skills to deal with some of the things that come up just in the everyday life of working with patients, working with communities, working with families, and really just to be able to to have that fun therapy department where our patients want to come and get better and participate with their their peers.”
ADO, Lori: “I’ve already begun using some of these tools in my professional life. It’s helpful to when you’re find yourself in a difficult situation, to have tools to fall back on so that you don’t feel like you’re at a loss and that you’re not sure how to handle a situation. It gives you a little bit more confidence to be able to to deal with the situations and to know that you are causing something effective to bring about a positive result.”
RSVP, Ops Lisa: “As your Regional Vice President, I’m committed to bringing these skills to all of our team members so that we’re able to interact with our patients and interact with our facility staff, our nursing staff, and really to be able to have a great outcome for our patients. We’ll do this through different training sessions, through some coaching and some role modeling, and giving some folks just the opportunity to be heard.”
ADO, Lori: “I think these tools can be helpful with the employees because it’s it’s it’s helping them to understand why I’m communicating with them in a certain way as well as gives them the tools to to be able to effectively communicate with their peers and their direct reports. It shows our employees that we are invested in them and that we want to make sure that they feel valued and they have their core values met. I want my staff too to understand that we have a given and take relationship between us, and that you know, I’m not causing that power over or power under, but that we have a a mutual respect for one another.”
RSVP, Ops Lisa: “As the leadership team for our region, we are all committed to developing these programs and learning these skills so that we can all have better outcomes for our patients. I’m taking some of the courses alongside of the Area Directors of Operation and we’ll be spending time in each of the facilities teaching you those skills and helping work through any of the challenges that you may face. It’s really going to take a whole team commitment and that team is not just the leaders in terms of managers and program directors but it really is all of our therapy staff and Rehab techs. We really want everyone to feel like they have the opportunity to express their concerns, bring up ideas, problem solve when we’re running into some barriers. It’s all it’s going to take all of us to really make this a success.”
ADO, Lori: I’ve really enjoyed the program. I think what I have enjoyed the most about it is that is it isn’t just kind of abstract concepts and ideas which is maybe what what I’ve heard before, but it’s really concrete things. It’s it’s step by step what to do, and then you do have the opportunity to practice that, because it’s not always as as easy as it may first seem. Then you get the the actual practical application of it in real life situations. It makes it much easier to use in in your specific situations.”
ADO, Ashley: “For people to be happy at work, and to want to work for Rehab care for a very long time because they feel like they have the support of the therapists they work with, their leaders and that they have the confidence in them themselves.”
ADO, Lori: “I think now I I know better. I feel better equipped to respond and to know that my response is appropriate, whereas before I’ve always kind of second guessed like, “Okay is that what I should have said?” or “Maybe I could have said that a little differently.” So now I have the specific words and verbiage that I feel a little bit more empowered myself to have more productive relationships.”
RSVP, Ops Lisa: “We’re doing this program because we need to invest some time in ourselves. As caregivers, we spend a lot of time taking care of patients, taking care of families, tending to those needs, whether it be on the workplace or at home and we really need to spend some time investing in ourselves because if you don’t take care of yourself first you’re not going to really be as adequate as a caregiver as you need to be.”
