The Transformers – Care Home Managers
Care Home Managers are the are the ‘Superheroes’ of care home industry. When I say Superheroes, I meant it. If you ask a Care Home Manager, what are your responsibilities, they will be replying “What is not?”. Are we looking after our Care Home Managers well enough in return for their hard work? I would say not enough. What can we do to look after these fantastic individuals?
Mapping the responsibilities
It is quite natural for Owners and Directors to think, I have hired you as a Care Manager; hence everything falls on you. As a nominated individual, a provider has equal and more responsibilities in making sure the care home is run well. Providers need to make sure in clear terms what a Manager should do within their organisation. It is not about leaving Managers with a load of simultaneous projects to run but to make sure they have enough support to fulfil their role.
More time Managers get to spend with the staff and the residents, better the quality of care delivered. Sit and observe your manager for a few days, try to separate the tasks which could have been done by an administrator or someone else instead of the Manager. It becomes a problem in the long run where Manager getting caught up in administrative and paperwork exercise. Encourage them to focus on the tasks that improve the quality of care at the point of delivery on a daily basis. It would make sense for Manager to do an audit and to implement action plans rather than setting up the contract for a new resident.
Who would provide support for Managers?
Being a Care Home Manager can be an isolating job at times. Stuck in an office with no one to share problems. After all, they are very much humans. Annual supervision and a bonus on filling the bed is not enough to look after this high performing individuals. The burnout rate for care home managers can be very high. It is hard to find a Care Home Manager who switches off their phone outside work hours. They are on call 24*7, responsible to answer the calls even at midnight. They will have to rush to the care home when there is an emergency at odd times.
However, how many times these get noticed by a provider is questionable, as there is no one to inform the owner if the Manager has gone an extra mile. Most Managers keep their commitment as silent as possible. It makes sense if Provider can have regular discussions with their Managers to find out how things are going. As a provider understand the human element of your Care Home Manager and do everything to ensure their wellbeing,
How could Managers help themselves?
There were days when I felt overwhelmed to work as a Manager. However, implementing some of the following strategies has helped me to overcome the perceived stress about the work. I do not think any of my previous colleagues will never have seen me stressed at any time. Some of the following strategies has helped to remain calm in managing the care home:
- Being positive and focusing on the good – DNA of the Managers are scripted to identify faults and correct mistakes. We focus too much on negatives happening around us and miss to spot the fantastic world of good around us. Practice focusing on identifying the good and ask your staff to find good in others too, slowly the culture of the place would change, creating a positive working atmosphere within your care home.
- Switch off time – We may feel as if we are losing control with the amount of workload we have. Whenever I feel like this, I take a step back. Take myself to a quiet place, and do nothing for an hour. After that I will write down everything that I need to catch up on when I put it on paper, I sometimes feel I shouldn’t have felt overwhelmed seeing the limited list in front of me.
- Breaking down into workable chunks – It is not easy to be a manager, whenever you are doing some creative work, you may be approached by the staff asking you to come and have a look at something which could have been waited a bit longer. Hey ho, we still have to go and see what is happening. Later I twisted my mindset to believe that I can never get things done in one go. Hence any little progress made is still a sign of progress. Try this: be happy with what you have done today, you can do the rest tomorrow.
- Physical activity – Two new skills which I have learned after becoming a Manager is learning to swim and run distances. It may not be the right exercise for you, but doing physical activities has made me keep me fit and to develop mental-tolerance to do the best in the job and my life. It is never late to learn a new skill. A random exercise with residents or taking them out to the park was another strategy for me to take time off from the computer.
- Healthy habits – One of the best thing that I gave up during my Manager role was to stop eating those cheesecakes even though it was a tough decision. If you are not good at drinking enough fluids, please start a fluid monitoring chart yourself. Manager’s brain is supposed to be active even when we are sleeping. Dehydration is the biggest reason for feeling worn out. Please keep a bottle near you and promise to finish it by the end of your shift. Trust me; it will help you a great deal.
Manager wellbeing should be a priority if your care home is striving to become outstanding. More strategies to follow in later blogs.
