NursingHomeVolunteer.com

Enhancing the Lives of Nursing Home Residents One Volunteer at a Time

Diane

My Thanksgiving Gift To You

by Leave a Comment

What happened to Thanksgiving? When I was growing up, Thanksgiving was a major holiday. We studied it in school and heard sermons about it at church. Stores were closed, and hardly anybody had to go to work. In addition, we looked forward to getting together with family and friends over a delicious meal on Thanksgiving Day.

Today it seems as if the minute trick-or-treating ends, we turn our attention to Christmas. The new major holiday in November appears to be Black Friday.

I think this is all rather sad because we miss out on so much by ignoring the true meaning of Thanksgiving: gratitude. As I explained in this previous post, gratitude brings us so many benefits.

[Read more…] about My Thanksgiving Gift To You

It’s Time For A Packing Party

by 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links, and I will be compensated (at no extra cost to you) when you make a purchase by clicking on my links. 

Operation Christmas Child

Can you believe it’s only four weeks until collection time for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes (November 13-20)? We’ve had so much fun gathering items for our boxes over the past few months. Now it’s exciting to think our gifts will soon be on their way to kids all over the world.

If you’re packing just a few shoeboxes, it’s easy to get a group of residents together and prepare the boxes as an afternoon activity. However, if you’re putting together many boxes, we’ve found it’s best to host a packing party. Here’s how:

[Read more…] about It’s Time For A Packing Party

Let’s Be A Positive Voice For Nursing Homes

by Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links, and I will be compensated (at no extra cost to you) when you make a purchase by clicking on my links. 

positive stories about nursing homes

As you can probably guess, I spend a significant amount of time scouring the Internet, looking for new ideas for my blog. So it saddens me greatly when most articles I find about nursing homes focus on abuse, neglect, and lawsuits.

Yes, terrible things have happened in some nursing homes. This is not okay, and these situations need to be corrected.

What the public rarely realizes, however, is that there are many, many excellent nursing homes out there. They employ compassionate, devoted staff who work hard to provide top-notch care for their residents.

[Read more…] about Let’s Be A Positive Voice For Nursing Homes

How Old Is Too Old To Be An Organ Donor

by Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links, and I will be compensated (at no extra cost to you) when you make a purchase by clicking on my links. 
age limits for organ donation

Several years ago, when I worked at the nursing home, one of our residents asked for information on how he could become an organ donor. I must confess that I wrongly assumed he was too old. Thankfully, one of our social workers put him and his wife in contact with someone from an organ donation organization. When he died two years later, he was able to donate bone tissue to improve the lives of other people.

Like me, most people believe there is a cut-off age where a person can no longer become an organ donor after death. In reality, they base the ability to donate on medical criteria & not on age. (The oldest recorded donor I could find was a 92-year-old man. After dying of a brain hemorrhage, his liver was donated to a 69-year-old woman.) It’s important to remember, too, that even though some of a person’s organs may not be healthy enough to donate, they may have other tissues (such as bone or corneas) that are usable.

[Read more…] about How Old Is Too Old To Be An Organ Donor