May Message from Karen Shammas

PRIDE in the Workplace

How can you take pride in your job:

1. Decide to give it 100%: What your mother told you was true. If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing right. Own your job and put your good name on it.
2. Exert control over what you can: You may not have control over all aspects of your job, but identify what you do have control over and focus on them.
3. Make it fun: How can you lighten up your workplace? How can you smile at your coworkers and make their day?
4. Speak and act positively towards your coworkers: If you change your behavior towards others they will likely change too. Notice the good things they do not the negative. The result will be a happier less stressed you.
5. Practice extreme self-care: Take care of yourself. Seek ways to manage your stress. Take a walk at lunchtime. There is a life after work. Make the best of it and take advantage of hobbies and activities with driends and family.

Proud

Resolve

Invest

Determine

Effort

CEO Cookbook Favorite

Interview of Karen Shammas from Kindred Cookbook.

Kindred AZ Kronicle: What recipe did you make? 

Karen Shammas: Cranberry Bliss Bars (pg 70)

KAZK: How long did they take you to make?

KS: Total 30 minutes

KAZK: Where they difficult?

KS: No very easy

KAZK: How well did they go over for those you made them for?

KS: I made them to take to a holiday party and they were a huge hit.

KASK: Would you make them again?

KS: yes

KAZK: Would you do anything differently if you would make them again?

KS: Make more to take to a party. Ran out s o not everyone got to taste them

KAZK: Anything else you would like to share?

KS: No

KAZK: What recipe are you interested in trying next?

KS: I was looking through the cookbook a recipe to cook for Easter and I would like to try the Linguine with Chicken and Sun Dried Tomatoes (pg 37)

March Message from Karen Shammas

As Kindred employees we all must take personal RESPONSIBILITY. You can not change the circumstances around you but you can change yourself. That is something only you have charge of. Find joy in everything you do, every job, every relationship. It is your RESPONSIBILITY to love it or change it.

I would like to share a story about a nurse who took RESPONSIBILITY to help another person.

The Drive

An ICU nurse came to work one day and saw an elderly woman sitting alone and crying. She learned that this woman had been on a bus trip for senior citizens bound for Branson, Missouri, with her husband of 50 years. They stopped in Valparaiso to have dinner when her husband had a heart attack. Despite the efforts of the ICU staff, he passed away.

     She was still in the ICU because she had nowhere else to go. The hospital was making arrangements to get her back to Ohio on a bus, because the seniors' trip had gone on without her the previous night.

     After learning this, the nurse immediately told her supervisor that she needed emergency time off. Then she introduced herself to the woman and asked if she would like a ride to Ohio. She called her husband and asked him for directions, because she had never been to Ohio.

     On the drive the nurse kept the woman's mind off her husband's death by chatting with her bout their families, careers, and lives. The time flew by for both women. The nurse was surprised when she received thank you cards from the woman and her loved ones. The nurse had only been doing what she would like someone to do if her mother went through something like this.

- Submitted by Donna McHenry, Porter Hospital, Valparaiso, IN

What's Right in Healthcare: Compiled by Studer Group

Thank you for everything you do for our patients and the RESPONSIBILITY you take towards your position here at Kindred.



Thank you,

Karen Shammas, CEO



Holiday Message from Karen Shammas

As we prepare for this busy and joyous holiday season, it is a time to reflect on the cherished and important things in life. When we think about what are those things that create meaning, those things that enrich our lives, those things that are hard to live without, they would have to be your family and close friends. Kindred is like a family and without all the support for one another it is very difficult to get through some of our challenges. The gift of family and the gift of friendship enrich each of our lives in incredibly significant and almost indescribable ways.

As another year comes to a close, I would like to thank you for all your hard work. Although it has been a very challenging year for the hospital we have so much to be proud of as an organization. Our quality and patient satisfaction scores are the highest they have ever been since we opened a few years ago.

On behalf of the administration team thank you for all you do to support our mission and the patients we serve. Best wishes to you and your family during this holiday season.


All the best,

Karen Shammas

Service Excellence for November/December: Compassion

The Service Excellence Standard for November and December is Compassion

In our day to day lives tasks become routine from waking up in the morning, to taking care of patients to making dinner. Everyone once and awhile something will remind you how very fragile we all are. It may be an accident on the highway, a friend getting sick, a reunion of a child and their military father, whatever it is that something tends to re-ground us.

In the spirit of compassion I want to share this story with you that involved such a small gesture but impacted someone's life greatly.

One Last Hug

At Genesis, we try to live our mission of providing quality and compassionate care to those who come to us in need as well as to their families. Sometimes the way the staff puts this mission into action makes us stop and catch our breaths in wonder and awe.

We recently had a patient named Walter who was nearing the end of his life. His family visited constantly and it was evident that his man was deeply loved by many. One evening Ursula, his wife of almost 70 years, was sitting at the beside in her wheelchair crying quietly. Her nursing assistant approached her. gently touched her shoulder, and asked, "Are you alright?" With tears in her eyes, Ursula looked at the nursing assistant and said, "I'd just like to hug him one more time."

The nursing assistant went to talk with Walter's nurse. Together, they reentered the room and suggested a plan to Ursula.  The two nurses carefully lifted Ursula out of her wheelchair and placed her on the bed right next to her husband. She turned to him and gave him a soft kiss and a caress on his cheek. Walter slowly opened his eyes, smiled back at her, and whispered in her ear. Then he placed his head against her shoulder and drifted back to sleep.

What Walter said to his wife remains a secret between the two of them. their caresses and stillness took them on a journey of memories, all lived in a single touch and a shared smile. In moments like this, our mission to our patients and their families is exemplified in all its meaning, potential, and poignant beauty.

- Submitted by Lavonne Dwinal, Genesis Medical Center, Dewitt, IA

What's Right in Healtcare: Compiled by Studer Group

With a small gesture on a nursing assistant's and nurse's part this woman and her husband's lives were deeply touched. It is reminders like this that make the biggest difference.

Thank you for all that you do,

Karen Shammas

CEO