Everyone Has A Story

<sub>Roberta Madison and Bob Speelman at Highbanks Care Center

April 20, 2022</sub>
NOTE: This was taken from the blog of Foundations Health Solutions leader Bob Speelman. Bob works closely and frequently communicates with our Foundations Health facilities. It is so inspiring to see how each care team embodies the vision of our founder and nursing home developer, Brian Colleran, to be "A Culture of Care."

I worked with my first TNA (Temporary Nursing Aide) yesterday at Highbanks Care Center, our center in Worthington, Ohio. The TNA program is a waiver that CMS granted during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing anyone who completed an 8 hour online course to work as a TNA to help with the staffing shortage. This was a definite lifeline for our industry, and I got to experience first hand the amazing individuals we were able to bring into our Care Team.

Roberta Madison is 36 years old, has four kids and prior to becoming a TNA, worked in child daycare. Roberta has a mother’s heart, and her residents adore her. She told me that as soon as they get a new resident, she talks to them a lot, asks about their past, asks their family members all about them and their likes and dislikes. Roberta told me she wants to know them as much as possible. She said, “Everyone has a story, and I want to know theirs.”

As we worked together throughout the day, I was amazed at how well Roberta knew every resident at the center. She knew exactly what to say or do to bring a smile to their face. We had a little down time, and I said, “Roberta, you said everyone has a story earlier, and you want to get to know the story of all your residents, what’s your story?”

Roberta began to tell me about how her mom got messed up in drugs when she was a child. As a result, things at home got really bad, so bad in fact that her grandmother and grandfather drove to Columbus from Buffalo, New York, to get her and her brothers and sisters. Roberta's grandparents raised them for several years until her mother could get her life together.

Roberta told me that her grandmother was a religious woman and that it was because of her grandmother that she is a believer today. Roberta said her grandmother was the most influential person in her life to this day, and it’s because of her that Roberta loves taking care of people.

Roberta told me that her mother passed away from cancer several years ago. She said that her mother found Jesus and got her life together, and before she died, she told Roberta to “always treat people right; you could be entertaining angels.” Another thing Roberta said that her mother would always say that stuck with her was, “If you’re gonna worry, why pray? And if you’re gonna pray, why worry?” Roberta said, “I live by that! God always makes a way when I pray, and I don’t have to worry.” Roberta smiled at me and said, “And that’s my story.”

“When you look at a person, any person, remember that everyone has a story.

Everyone has gone through something that has changed them.”

Bob Speelman, STNA