AN UNHAPPY CAREER

                                                            

     In my career as a nursing home administrator, I have interacted with scores of other administrators.  And whether at social events or professional conferences, sooner or later, the conversations turns to the same topic- how much we hate our careers.  Some administrators have abandoned the industry, but most have stayed.  Yet if you hate your job, why would you stay?  Well, maybe it's the money, or maybe we don't know what else to do.  So maybe the question that should be asked is "why do we hate it so much?"

     After decades of doing this work, I may have found the answer.  I think we hate it because we don't feel a sense of control over our lives.  Whether it's survey problems, pressure from owners, employee complaints and foul ups, and never ending family complaints, we tend to "knee jerk" problems, meaning that we are reactive rather than proactive.  We often times don't prepare ourselves for issues that we generally can guess are coming.  

     To gain career (or life) control, we must first control our environment.  Having effective Quality Assurance programs,  meaningful on-going staff education programs, sound management communications systems, and manageable complaint resolution programs are absolutely critical.  Many insist they already have these, but in my Interim experiences, they really don't.  

     On a final note, in speaking with many unhappy nursing home residents, guess what is their number one complaint...you guessed it- a lack of control of their lives.  How ironic.