When deciding on an assisted living community, it’s important to consider two main components: relationships and trust. Those two factors work in tandem. In short, building high-quality relationships leads to trust. And trust is only maintained as long as the relationship is grown and nurtured.
For us to type those words is a sacred thing, because we know human souls are in our midst here at St. Anthony’s. We see it as the utmost responsibility to steward relationships in such a way that builds trust between our staff, residents, and all families involved. We operate with enough transparency that families need not wonder if their loved ones are getting the best care possible.
We wish we could say every assisted living community operates this way, but sadly that is just not the case. However, at St. Anthony’s, we have a few principles that are our standard operating procedures and allow us to consistently provide the highest quality of care for our residents. Below, you will read about three of those principles and how they fuel our staff’s intentions on a day-to-day basis.
If you have additional questions after reading any of the items below, please feel free to contact us today. We would love to dialogue with you about how our staff raises the bar for one another. We call each other to a higher standard each day because, quite honestly, we don’t think our residents or their families should settle for anything less.
Professionalism
When we talk about “trust” inside an assisted living community, we at St. Anthony’s believe that trust starts with professionalism. How can it not? The two traits listed below this section are without a doubt important to us as well. But if we aren’t EXCELLENT in everything we do, and with whom God has entrusted us, then everything else is all for not. To illustrate our bent on professionalism, we thought it might be helpful to state some qualifications we require of our caregivers upon applying for a position at St. Anthony’s.
This is not an exhaustive list of requirements for incoming staff, but hopefully, these examples convey enough to show how committed we are to professionalism in the workplace. After all, it’s only a “workplace” among staff. For our residents, we do everything in our power to ensure St. Anthony’s is “home.”
- • St. Anthony’s staff must be CNA certified.
- • St. Anthony’s staff must meet qualifications as required by the Department of Social Services for an RCFE Community.
- • St. Anthony’s staff must possess the ability to define problems, collect information and other data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
- • St. Anthony’s staff must be ready to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete as well as abstract variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
- • St. Anthony’s staff must demonstrate a thorough working knowledge and understanding of practices, procedures and policies pertaining to Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly.
To reiterate, these are just a few ways we expert our staff to raise the bar among assisted living community options in Kansas City. The best part? We believe our staff exceeds these qualifications each day—all for the good of our residents.
Patience
Alright. So we’ve addressed the pragmatism of professionals. (Say that ten times fast). These next two principles we abide by are rooted in hundreds of years of Truth. How do we know? Because the bible has been around for quite a long time.
Although we don’t start off each day with our staff reciting the following passage, our leadership team knows the importance of the following “fruits of the spirit.”
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” —Galatians 5:22-23
Each of those words has immense meaning. And we could probably write a blog post on every trait and how each applies to our standard of excellence as a St. Anthony’s staff. But for the purpose of this post, we’d like to focus on patience. Patience is so crucial to possess as an assisted living community staff, it’s worth spending some time to highlight it here. From eating with residents to attending to their needs. From walking with them, spending time with them, encouraging them, dreaming with them, and more.
We never want to fall into complacency as a staff—yet we believe a telling sign of complacency often results in frustration and impatience. Every day we remind one another, as a staff, of the work God has given us. With that in mind, we lead with patience among other fruits of the spirit. The early church knew the importance of love, joy, peace, and patience. So we think it’s a good enough place for our staff to land in terms of a collective vision.
Perspective
While we’re discussing a “collective vision” we thought we’d mention the only real vision that matters: a vision from God’s perspective.
A vision that states “you are fearfully and wonderfully made.” That verse often gets attributed to children and infants—after all, they did just endure months in a womb, where God was forming every fiber of their being. But what about as we age? Does the same not go for the elderly? Not only do we believe so . . .
We know for a fact that every one of our residents, no matter their age, is a living, breathing child of God.
That is why we get up every morning. That is how our employees raise the bar each day. That is what is going on in the minds of our staff—as we look our residents in the eye and get to tell them they are loved by God.
And that is why we don’t just love what we do at St. Anthony’s . . . we consider it an honor. To love those entrusted to our care. To love them with excellence, patience, and an understanding that they are sons and daughters of the God of the Universe.
