Lori Walsh: Now as nursing homes closed their doors to visitors in order to protect residents and the staff who care for them, one of the challenges is how to keep families connected. Kim Knox is the Highmore Nursing Home Administrator and she's joining us today on the phone. Kim, welcome. Thanks for being here.
Kim Knox: Hi. Thanks for having me.
Lori Walsh: Also with us, Paula Haiwaick who has been working to raise money for the Highmore Nursing Home to get iPads for residents to fuel that communication. Paula, thanks for being here as well.
Paula Haiwaick: Thanks for having me.
Lori Walsh: All right. Kim, let's start with you. Some of the challenges of really shutting your door to visitors at a nursing home is really cutting off those vital connections. How has that been for you and Highmore? How has that adjustment and transition gone?
Kim Knox: It's been really tough. We are really working hard on our Facebook page to put up post daily so the families and loved ones can kind of see what's going on. Even if it's our normal routine activities, they just love seeing it. Also, we do have some family members that have come and talked to the residents on the phone through their windows of their rooms and of the dining room. It's just, I can tell it's a little, I don't know, more down some days.
Lori Walsh: It impacts people. And that struggle is really real. And Paula, tell me a little bit about these efforts to kind of get iPads into the nursing home to make that a little bit better.
Paula Haiwaick: So I have been on Facebook and saw that the Dairy Queen over in Pierre was doing a similar effort for the residents of a nursing home in Pierre. And I thought it was a really great idea and I shared it. And then I thought, "Well, why don't I do that in Highmore?" So I started to go, I reached out to Kim and said, "Is anybody doing anything like this? Would you be interested? Would it be helpful?" And she said, "Oh, my God. Go for it." And so I figured out how to set up a GoFundMe page. And in three days, we hit our goal. It was really super easy.
We had a lot of generous people in the community and some even friends of friends who aren't even tied to Highmore pitched in. And it was really fun. It was kind of a breath of fresh air for me. I kind of had a bad day and this is a really fun project to feel like I didn't do a whole lot, but I was able to feel like I had done something for the community. And we have six iPads and cases and covers and protectors at the nursing home. I think they're getting configured. And then I got another shipment of four just yesterday. So it was a pretty easy lift.
Lori Walsh: Nice. All right. So Kim, how do you end up transitioning those to residents and helping them learn how to use it?
Kim Knox: We have had one resident so far, talk to her family on it and it's a little different because they're not from the generation with the technology. And it was her daughter, she was at home and she was talking to her mom. We chose this resident first because her family, her daughters all live here and they come every day. And so all of a sudden, just to cut that off, everybody could tell she was down and down in the dumps and didn't want to get out of bed. So we started with her. And at first, she didn't really understand what was going on, but it was so great. And she was happier, smiling and it just made my heart happy.
Lori Walsh: Tell us a little bit about just some of the efforts that the iPads are a big part of this, but other activities within. This is a big burden on your staff. The worries that you must have for if the virus comes into the nursing home, and then also the worries about just the consequences of the isolation. How has your staff sort of handling this and what kind of creative ways are they adjusting?
Kim Knox: Well, okay. First of all, I really struggled with this because getting them to... The ones that they can eat in their room, they're eating in their rooms now. No communal dining. The residents that do need help, we do have them out in the dining room spread apart. And I really did struggle with this. I had to come to terms with it myself because I just think this is something that everybody looked forward to is to go out and visit, visit with your friends and see everybody at all three meals. And that was... The number one thing is I just didn't want them to get depressed.
So we are feeding them in their rooms. One activity that we can never get rid of would be bingo, and that's because, I mean, that is a weekly occurrence, you just don't take away bingo. So we are doing hallway bingo where we're just bringing the residents outside of right in their doorways with an over bed table. And all the CNAs have walkie-talkies, that's how they communicate normally. So we just gave the department head staff extra walkie-talkies and we just go up and down the hallways and help. And so when they do the numbers at the desk, they just say it over the walkie-talkie and it is a big hit.
Lori Walsh: Hallway bingo and iPads. So Paula, is the project... We really only have about a minute left, but is the project ongoing? Can people still donate to as people... As this stretches into weeks, more people will learn and master this technology. Are you still raising money? Are you still working on the project?
Paula Haiwaick: No. We hit our goal. So if people think that this is a great idea, I would encourage you to be a helper in your own community. I got a call from somebody from Vulcan wanting to know how to do this and they talked them through it. So if it is something that you do think is a great idea, then ask locally and help out people in your community.
Lori Walsh: Well said. Paula Haiwaick raised money for the Highmore Nursing Home to get more iPads for residents, and Kim Knox is the Highmore Nursing Home Administrator. Thanks to both of you for joining us today. We appreciate your time.
Kim Knox: You bet. Thank you.
Paula Haiwaick: Thank you.