Author: mfehrmann

All week, we’ve been celebrating nurses — because we’re so proud of them! We are fortunate to have nearly 225 nurses who serve in dedication to our residents. They care for residents in assisted living and the Health Center and providing health services to independent-living residents.

Today, we are especially pleased to be highlighting what it means to dedicate your entire career in service. Westminster COO Garry Hennis wrote that nursing is a calling, and deserves its special role in our society. Read about leadership in nursing, our Employee Scholarship Fund, or how the Mission inspires our team members, from earlier this week.

Denise Dearborn, a Registered Nurse at Westminster Point Pleasant in Bradenton, has been a nurse for more than 40 years. She’s been at the community since 2008, and she loves the sense of fulfillment she gets from caring for residents — something that’s only possible in a long-term care setting.

Dearborn said, “This is something I always wanted to do, from when I was very young. I’ve been fortunate to do it for so many years.” She has cared for people of every age. Earlier in her career, Dearborn worked in the nursery in a pediatric ward, and in hospitals and doctors’ offices, before finding her inspiration to serve seniors 15 years ago. “Taking care of seniors, I’ve found that they love to give back and tell you about their life. It’s very enriching!” she said.

The Mission of Westminster Communities of Florida has been very rewarding to Dearborn in her career as a nurse — because our organization can emphasize quality care first and foremost. “We’re so fortunate here to be able to do a wonderful job caring for the residents. We’ve had great leadership… I’ve seen communities where it’s even hard to get supplies. We’ve never had those kinds of problems,” she said.

Why become a nurse? We asked Denise that and she said, “Nursing is a very rewarding field! You have to have a willingness to want to help people. But there are also a lot of benefits. The pay is good, and we have a lot of single parents who work here. You can help support a family working in nursing. The job can be flexible, you can work nights and weekends. Flexibility is a good thing.”

“At the end of the day, I go home feeling very rewarded that I have helped somebody,” Dearborn said. “That’s a great reason to do something!”

Are you interested in joining the Westminster team? Find out more — go to www.WestminsterCommunitiesFL.org/careers!

If you see a nurse, say thank you! That’s the theme of National Nurses Week, a time when the whole country expresses our gratitude to our hard-working nurses. Westminster Communities of Florida is thankful to have nearly 225 nurses who are hard at work serving our residents. Their dedication to our Mission of service inspires us all.

Today, we’re highlighting the way that working for a faith-based, not-for-profit organization like Westminster Communities of Florida impacts our residents and our team members. We have team members of every background serving residents of all faiths and none, but we’re all inspired by our Mission to provide the highest-quality care and services.

How does working in a non-profit, faith-based environment affect the calling to become a nurse?

National Nurses Week:Read a personal letter of thanks from COO Garry Hennis, an interview with Kim Pagana, director of nursing at Westminster Woods on Julington Creek, and learn more about how our Scholarship Fund supports continuing education.

“What I like best is that this community is a godly place,” said Lavern Charlton, a Licensed Practical Nurse at Westminster Towers.

Charlton found that working with seniors was her calling at a young age, because she was raised by her grandmother. “I love long-term care,” she says. “I love the interaction and the consistency with the same residents. I like to have that relationship with my residents. And I enjoy what I do!”

She said she sought out working for a faith-based community after her previous experiences — and she found it at Westminster Towers. “It’s a better environment for the residents as a result,” she said, “and that has an impact on us. There are a lot of residents who used to go to church regularly, and Westminster has church services to bring their faith to them.”

“Working for Westminster means that there’s a foundation where God is and he reigns,” said Charlton.

By contrast, Nafeesa Parkins, a Licensed Practical Nurse at Westminster Suncoast, is driven by her own personal passion for caring for seniors, which dovetails with the Westminster Mission.

As a non-profit organization, Parkins said she appreciates that our communities and our team members can focus all of our efforts on providing great care for our residents. She said, “The Mission inspires my work because the outcome of my residents’ satisfaction is our foremost concern.”

Parkins received her Licensed Practical Nurse degree with the support of the Westminster Retirement Communities Foundation’s Employee Scholarship Fund, another benefit of working for a not-for-profit organization. Parkins said that she plans to enroll in school this fall to obtain her Registered Nurse degree. (Learn more about our Employee Scholarship Fund in Part III of our series.)

“Nursing is not just the word ‘nursing,’ to me,” said Parkins. “It is a passion, and you really have to have a passion for that. You have to provide your spirit around them.” She added that working at Westminster Suncoast has provided a lot of renewed passion for her work: “I work with great people! The warmth is there, and you see the dedication in your peers. There is a lot of team spirit and a lot of quality in our services.”

Throughout this week, we’ll be learning more about our nurses and why they love serving the Westminster Communities of Florida Mission. Are you interested in joining the Westminster team? Find out more — go to www.WestminsterCommunitiesFL.org/careers!

This week is National Nurses Week, a time when the whole United States offers a hearty thank-you to the amazing people who provide care to us whenever we can’t. In celebration of the 200-plus nurses who serve the Mission of Westminster Communities of Florida, we’re highlighting some of our dedicated team members who care for our residents.

Today, we are especially proud to highlight our nurses who were able to become Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses with the support of our Tuition Reimbursement program and our Employee Scholarship Funds, part of the Westminster Retirement Communities Foundation. As a not-for-profit organization, these funds are provided by our generous residents and friends who want to see our team members succeed.

National Nurses Week: Read a personal letter of thanks from COO Garry Hennis and an interview with Kim Pagana, director of nursing at Westminster Woods on Julington Creek.

“This is a very rewarding job – really, I don’t even think of it as my job. It’s so rewarding to me,” said Louis Lester, a nurse at Westminster Shores in St. Petersburg. Lester is an Army veteran who served for 20 years in combat roles, before deciding that he wanted to heal people and provide support. “I went into nursing as a change of pace from my duties as a soldier. I became a [Licensed Practical Nurse] in 2013, and graduated with distinguished honors from Kaiser College. I fell in love with it and I’ve been doing nursing ever since,” he said.

Lester expects to complete his Registered Nurse degree in December 2018, with assistance from the Virginia Baxter Scholarship at Westminster Shores. “I’ve been blessed to have the support of the residents to pursue my degree. I say thank you all the time and let them know how appreciative I am of it.”

Another nurse, Kyle Budzisz, said that he had always wanted to become a nurse, and receiving a scholarship helped make his dreams possible. Budzisz, who is originally from Wisconsin, became a CNA because Wisconsin required it before he could go to nursing school. “Once I became a CNA and got into the field, started to see how things operate, I was really struck by how much I wanted to be able to continue to do it,” Budzisz said.

“What I like about working at Westminster Winter Park is the interaction that I get with the residents,” Budzsiz said. “They stay around, and you really get to know them – almost like family. You can build connections with them.”

Having the opportunity to grow one’s skills is something that Budzisz highlighted based on his own experience. “I have had a lot of co-workers consider getting their RN!” he said. “You should always try to keep moving forward. For a lot of CNAs, that is becoming a nurse. For an LPN, that’s becoming an RN. It’s a wonderful opportunity to become better at your work.”

To Lester, the nurse at Westminster Shores, being able to apply for a scholarship to help pay for school sets Westminster communities apart from a lot of other places he’s worked. “The scholarship funds are a wonderful benefit, and that’s one of the things I tell other people about why they should work for Westminster. Other companies offer tuition reimbursement, but only Westminster will give you a scholarship,” Lester said.

Westminster Communities of Florida is committed to providing all of our employees with the opportunity to advance and to find a bright future in the career of their choice.

Throughout this week, we’ll be learning more about our nurses and why they love serving the Westminster Communities of Florida Mission. Are you interested in joining the Westminster team? Find out more — go to www.WestminsterCommunitiesFL.org/careers!

Westminster Communities of Florida is so proud of all of our nurses, who work in dedication to our residents. We’re fortunate to have 223 Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses who work in our communities, caring for residents in assisted living and the Health Center and providing health services to independent-living residents.

Nurses are the living embodiment of our Mission of service, as stated in the letter of thanks by COO Garry Hennis. We often say that at the heart of our Mission is a mission of the heart, and the dedicated team members who provide direct care to our residents are at its center.

This week, for National Nurses Week, we’re celebrating their service and learning more about these dedicated nurses. What motivates them about nursing, and why do they love serving the residents of Westminster Communities of Florida?

“It’s all about the residents and being able to have a moment with the residents,” said Kim Pagana, director of nursing at Westminster Woods on Julington Creek in Jacksonville. “They have lived such long, experienced lives, and we have so much to learn from them!”

Pagana, who has been at Westminster Woods on Julington Creek since 2014, realized early on that caring for seniors is her real passion in nursing. She’s been a nurse for nearly 25 years and has worked in long-term care for 19 years. Her aim as the leader of a team of nurses and Certified Nursing Assistants is to always put our residents first — it’s even in our Mission statement. “The Mission creates a different sense of culture: Our mindset isn’t the bottom line – it’s about what’s best for the resident,” she said.

The best part of long-term care, according to Pagana, is that you get to form a relationship with the residents. “They become like your family, your parents or grandparents. You don’t see that in a hospital or a physician’s office or any kind of outpatient setting,” Pagana said. “It is very rewarding.”

“This work is very much about the residents and being able to have a moment with the residents. In other areas of nursing, you don’t get a chance to form those relationships and to make such a difference in a resident’s or a patient’s life. If you think this sounds good to you, you should try it!”

Westminster Woods on Julington Creek has planned a fantastic week of celebration for National Nurses Week as a way of saying thank-you — Pagana is even going to spend some time in the dunk tank! “I try to really show our staff how appreciative I am for their service, and appreciative the residents, family members and staff all are for what they do for us and in supporting each other,” she said.

Learn more about why our nurses love serving the Mission this week as we share more of their stories. Are you interested in joining the Westminster team? Find out more — go to www.WestminsterCommunitiesFL.org/careers!

I’m excited to join the Westminster family and our whole country in observing National Nurses Week, a celebration of dedicated women and men who have chosen the profession of nursing. More than 223 Licensed and Registered Nurses support the Westminster Mission throughout our communities, sharing in our commitment to the quality of our residents’ lives and their wellbeing.

Nursing is a distinguished profession for those who are called to serve. It brings to mind my favorite hymn, for those who are called into service: Here I Am, Lord.

Here I am Lord,
Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night,
I will go, Lord,
If you lead me,
I will hold your people in my heart.

This week I especially want to celebrate the nurses of Westminster Communities of Florida, who Inspire andInfluence all of us. 

Westminster Nurses inspire! During Hurricane Irma and its aftermath, the nursing team’s inspiring dedication amid evacuations and temporary relocations ensured the residents’ safety and wellbeing under emergency conditions. 

Our nurses influence other members of the Westminster family to do our best every day. They also encourage us to consider additional education and training to join the profession of nursing – often at great personal sacrifice. Women and men from all departments have been moved to respond to the call.

This week, we will ask many of our nurses why they love being a nurse and what they enjoy about working for Westminster Communities of Florida. Each has said the same thing, in different ways: They have responded to the call to serve our Mission of the Heart. I look forward to sharing their stories with you.

I am so grateful for the nurses who choose to serve the residents and families of Westminster Communities of Florida. On behalf of all of us, thank you!

Gratefully yours,

Garry Hennis
Chief Operating Officer

Something big is happening in our communities across the state. Residents at Westminster Manor are celebrating with a clamorous drum circle, while residents at Westminster Suncoast are taking group walks along the water. What could be the cause of so much celebration?

Westminster Communities of Florida has unveiled its newest annual lifestyle event—Celebrating Your Life. This exciting initiative introduces a monthly calendar of various themed activities and events to appeal to our MyWLife wellbeing program’s Eight Dimensions of Wellbeing:  physical, nutritional, community, lifelong learning, spiritual, emotional, vocational, and social. Around the state, we’re working hard to facilitate these festive celebrations all year long. 

“Residents will embrace many wonderful memories and learn how to care more for themselves,” said Josh Alfrey, Wellbeings Coordinator for Westminster Communities of Florida. Alfrey provides guidance to program facilitators and judges the monthly competition between employee teams at all communities. “Our goal is to incorporate all departments working together to focus on the Eight Dimensions of Wellbeing and really highlight each aspect every month.”

Celebrating Your Life is different from last year’s very successful Westminster Travels America initiative, which focused on locations around the U.S.  This year’s theme focuses on you! January’s theme celebrated “New Beginnings” as communities across the state planned New Year’s celebrations, learned new traditions, and discussed resolutions. February celebrated “Express Love” as residents organized Valentine’s and wedding memory parties. March was all about “Celebrating You,” encouraging everyone to soul search and date themselves to find what they like and who they can connect with. April was family month, as residents across the state shared the memories and traditions that bring neighbors closer.

There’s an event for everyone. For example, the Westminster Oaks Dining Services team hosted a menu tasting for neighbors and friends to mingle and decide which new flavors would be added to the menus. In Orlando, festive neighbors and friends at Westminster Winter Park danced the night away at a St. Patrick’s Day dance.

What is May’s focus? This month we’re celebrating women, including our mothers, caregivers, and those in leadership.

Here’s the rest of the year’s monthly calendar for an exciting 2018:

June: “Celebrate Men”

July: “Celebrate Patriotism” 

August: “Celebrate Vacations”

September: “Celebrate Sports”

October: “Celebrate the Florida Lifestyle”

November:  “Celebrate Thanksgiving”

December: “Celebrate Holidays”

To learn more about how our wellbeing programs can enhance residents’ and employees’ lifestyles, read more on our MyWLife page.

On Tuesday, April 3, Westminster Communities of Florida threw its 20th annual Awards Banquet to celebrate its exemplary Employees of the Year and Volunteers of the Year. The Creating Legends Program was developed to help managers “catch our employees in the act” of providing Legendary Service to our residents, their family members, and co-workers.

There were more than 900 employees caught in the act of providing Legendary Service in 2017. We also had the help of more than 3,000 volunteers, serving approximately 330,000 hours, which is equivalent to the work of nearly 160 full-time employees. Each recipient received a plaque of appreciation presented by CEO Roger Stevens.

Westminster Suncoast Executive Director Mark Beggs was honored with the CEO Award for his exceptional leadership. We also congratulate Melba Gilbert, AL Certified Nursing Assistant at Westminster Winter Park who has achieved the milestone of 36 years of service in our organization. 

We are thankful and privileged to have so many wonderful employees and volunteers who consistently “stretch” to serve our residents and benefit the greater community. And thank you to the Board of Directors and the Banquet Committee for making this event possible. 

Each of our Employees of the Year and Volunteers of the Year express the heart behind our Mission. We are delighted to shine the spotlight on these exceptional people.

View their stories in the Slideshare below.

Westminster Communities of Florida’s 2017 Volunteers and Employees of the Year from Wes Meltzer

At Westminster Communities of Florida, we’re blessed to have thousands of dedicated team members who are committed to our Mission of service. We’ve been highlighting the contributions of women in leadership roles throughout our organization. Today, we speak with several team members whose role is to ensure that our residents have the best possible experiences.

Ariana Algarin, College Arms Towers Administrator, emphasized that our Mission makes a Westminster community a great place for employees to work. “When employees are emotionally engaged in their work, it strengthens our Mission of caring for older adults,” she said. “Our purpose is to make the residents feel at home, safe, and happy, and the best way to accomplish that is by engaging with the residents and creating a special bond that they can trust.”

College Arms Towers is an affordable housing community for older adults in DeLand and a new addition to our family last year. Part of our Mission and ministry of service to seniors with low incomes, the community provides quality and affordable apartments to more than 200 residents under Algarin’s leadership.

Algarin found that our organization’s dedication to having women in leadership roles makes us stronger. “Women can strengthen an organization by challenging traditional views in the workplace and changing the dynamics. We also show our strength through our passion towards our work which helps drive forward our commitment to the Mission,” she said. Algarin also said she’s thankful for the opportunity to make a difference in the residents’ lives, and to grow as a leader, too: “Westminster gave me an opportunity to make a difference in other people’s lives. I have been given all the tools to succeed, and have been mentored by women I respect and admire.”

Meanwhile, Westminster Communities of Florida’s Director of Therapy, Bot Zantua, echoed the comments of Westminster Oaks Director of Nursing Jill Dean, in Part II of this series. “Being a woman in leadership is really about doing your job!” Zantua said. “People sometimes say, ‘Is it harder for you because you’re a woman,’ and I don’t know what they mean by hard. To me, this is what I do! I have to do the same job.”

Zantua, who has been Director of Therapy for four years, said that by coincidence most of her applicants for careers in therapy are split between men and women. “Women bring compassion to leadership,” she said, “but that’s not a weakness — it’s a strength.”

Above all, Zantua said that the most important thing women — or any team member — can learn this month is to do their best. “Do your best job and you’ll be noticed!” she said. “Your reputation is what you’re going to be known for, not your gender.”

Westminster Communities of Florida is fortunate to have countless team members who exemplify our Mission of service. During Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting the contributions of women in leadership roles throughout our organization. Today, we interview team members who are touching lives through the core of our Mission: Nursing care.

“Women tend to naturally exhibit nurturing qualities, which may be an added value considering our organization’s commitment to caring and promoting the wellbeing of our older adults,” said Marie Desgraves, Director of Westminster Home Care in St. Petersburg. “Women can open new windows by serving as change agents, and by being focused on selective goals for the organization.”

Desgraves worked as a nurse for more than 20 years before she came to our organization. She then served as Assisted Living Coordinator at Westminster Shores, and then as Director of Nursing at Westminster Home Care. Through her hard work and excellent service, she was recently promoted.

She said that she believes that the real value in having women in leadership is to offer diversity. “Diversity in the workplace has a profound influence,” said Desgraves. “Women bring different dimensions to the environment via creativity, empathy and collaboration. In leadership, having various perspectives can lead to better decision-making.”

We asked Jill Dean, Director of Nursing at Westminster Oaks in Tallahassee, why she loves working for our organization — and what impact comes from having women in leadership roles. She agreed with what Director of Quality Initiatives Sandra Knoble said in Part I of this series: “What matters is our organization’s ability to be progressive and emphasize being gender-neutral and move beyond traditional barriers. The bottom line is, if you want to give appropriate healthcare to everyone, you have to give it equally to everyone without prejudice,” Dean said.

As a nurse, Dean is at the front lines of providing care to our residents. She sees how our Mission influences everything we do, each day: “The Mission of the organization and of our community is to provide the best care possible, which involves the best ethics of how to deliver and what to deliver as far as care for those we serve. That’s what was most important to me,” Dean said.

Dean said that she believes there’s a lot of opportunity for team members to make an impact, especially in nursing. “My best advice is: Develop your people skills and your team-building skills, and strive to be ego-free. You have to want for the greater good, you have to be honest at all times, and you have to be passionate. Serve with heart and a smile! That’s the key to success.”

There are many opportunities at Westminster Communities of Florida for our team members to grow and to succeed. Find the opportunity that suits you today — visit our jobs page on LinkedIn to learn more!