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Brought to you by Emeritus Assisted Living
Name: Paula Foard
Title: LPN/Resident Services Director
Company: Emeritus Assisted Living
Location: South Carolina
Monster: What led you to choose a career in nursing?
Paula Foard: As a teenager, I was blessed with helping to take care of a loved one who was diagnosed with cancer. During this time, I realized I wanted to make nursing my career.
M: What led you to your current position at Emeritus Assisted Living?
PF: I started working at another Emeritus community as a floor nurse and social worker. I was then promoted to resident services director. Emeritus is great about promoting and transferring employees within the company to other locations.
M: What do you do in your position?
PF: As a nurse and resident services director, my daily job is to ensure all residents are well cared for. I also teach my staff the proper ways to give the best care to the residents and ensure all policies and procedures are followed.
M: Bring us through your typical day.
PF: I begin the day in the morning department head meeting. Then I make my rounds to all the areas to go over the daily work that needs to be done, and I check on all my residents. If we have sick residents, I call the doctor's office to obtain orders, talk with families about the best plan of action, monitor our medication records for any new orders and ensure the meds are available, complete chart audits, and make sure the physician's orders are up-to-date and signed. Before going home, I make one more round to the units and wrap up any unfinished business.
M: What have been the biggest rewards in your career?
PF: My biggest rewards are the ability to advance and grow within the company and the lifelong friends I've made on the way.
M: What are some of the challenges of your job in which you take pleasure?
PF: The biggest challenge of my job that I take pleasure in would be teaching my staff how to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and ensuring they are following correct procedures. I also have the challenge of making sure all the residents are content and happy while they are staying in our facility.
M: What do you like most about working for Emeritus Assisted Living?
PF: The great support systems in place for Emeritus employees plus the efforts put forth by all to help any of our 186 communities whenever they are in need.
M: What's the best advice you could give someone looking to get into your field?
PF: I would encourage anyone interested in this field to try to get into a good facility that will help them grow. We encourage people to advance their careers with more education and more training. We offer various training programs at our facility that are open to employees who are interested in bettering themselves.
M: What do you look for when you interview people on behalf of Emeritus?
PF: I try to look for the best person for the open position. I look at their past experience in the workforce, their education and their willingness to learn new things. I also look for someone who has a good personality, because they will be dealing with the residents and their loved ones.
