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Section 5
Track #5: How to Pivot to the Positive

Table of Contents | NCCAP/NCTRC CE Booklet

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Note-Taking Exercise

What does Solution-Focused thinking start with?

 

 

What is the real core challenge regarding solution-focused thinking?

 

 

Question 1. What do I want to have happen, or what do I want more of?

 

Question 2:  How can I achieve what I want more of, or what I want to have happen, or what is my ideal outcome?  My step-by-step plan to achieve my goal:

 

Person’s Name:

Time:

1.

 

 

2.

 

 

3.

 

 

4.

 

 

When listing resources that can help you get your residents to the monthly birthday party, what did the speaker suggest could be first on your list?

 

Question 3. What resources do I have?  My resources are:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Question 4. What opportunities does having what I want generate?
What opportunities does this new goal create?  What are the possible ripple effects?

Transcript of Track 5

On the last track we discussed how problem focused thinking can be applied to a situation where the residents from A wing were not transported to the Birthday Party.

Let's see how pivoting to the positive works.  Let’s look at this transporting challenge from a Solution-Focus.  It starts with the ability to have some forethought, having learned from your last month's Birthday party for which A-Wing residents were not transported. 

Now the real core challenge regarding solution-focused thinking is that the responsibility  for taking action is back on you.  In short in solution focused thinking you don’t just get to play the blame game, throw your hands in the air and maybe feel like a martyr, persecuted and unsupported .
Focus on the same stressful situation, problem or difficulty you chose on the previous track, or a different one if you would like.  Rather than stressing reactively, when it is too late as you cut the cake, and notice no residents from A Wing have been transported and your stressor has already happened; start at noon before the 6:30 pm Birthday  party and ask yourself  "what do I want to have happen?"  Let me repeat. Start at noon before the 6:30 pm Birthday  party ask "what do I want to have happen."  

So you go from stating “no residents were transported from A Wing!!!” to asking at noon that day, “what do I want to have happen?”  This of course is the first question in solution focused thinking.  Well what you want is for  Effie, Esther, Earnest, and Henry transported off of A Wing to the Dining Room by 6:30.  Turn the CD player off and ask yourself, “I know what my problem is, and that is what I don't (pause) want to have happen.  What DO (pause) I want to have happen or what do I want more of regarding my stressor at my facility?”  MUSIC

Question two after pivoting to the positive and asking what do I want, is to then ask “How can I achieve that?”  Or “How do I get it?”  Now here is where the rubber meets the road regarding Culture  Change compliance.  It is easy to throw your hands in the air at 6:30 and exclaim in your best martyrdom self-talk chant how activities gets no support.  But it is hard, and I mean really hard, to take responsibility to be organized enough at noon prior to the activity to be proactive to do something about the lack of transported residents.  So who do you go to in your facility?  You know last month residents weren't transported.  What is the chain of command in your facility?  Do you go to the Administrator and pull out the big guns?  The Director of Nursing? The charge nurse? The nursing assistants themselves when they come onto their shift at 3:00?  Turn the CD play off and formulate a concrete plan creating a “how-do-I-get what-I-want” action-plan now. Use staff member’s  names, specific times, and make a step-by-step plan.  (MUSIC) 

Question three in pivoting to the positive after you ask, “What do I want more of?” And “HOW do I get it?” Is to ask yourself, “What resources do I have to begin right now?”  You can see question two and three go hand-in-hand.  Here is a listing of five resources I can think of off the top of my head regarding getting residents transported:
#1.  Your first resource has to be functional desk calendar or computer planning program to remind you at noon on the day of the party to take some proactive steps to get residents transported for the 6:30 Birthday Party.  Or maybe noon is not the best time at all.  Maybe it is in the Care Plan Conference on the Tuesday before the party.  You be the judge.  (MUSIC)

#2.  In addition to a functional desk calendar, your second resource needs to start long before noon the day of the activity. Do you agree?  You may need to build relationships with key staff to get the transporting accomplished.  What is your relationship like with your administrator, Director of Nursing, charge nurse on each wing?  Do you know the names of the charge nurses and CNA’s?   If you don’t even know a CNA’s name, do you think the chances might be higher that he or she will transport A Wing residents if you knew his or her name?

#3.  A third resource is the birthday party itself.  How about asking which staff have a birthday that month?  Is it possible or appropriate to invite those staff working that shift to the Dining Room for cake and a round of applause and name mention at the beginning of the party? 
#4.  A fourth resource is the food itself.  When the party is over, what do you think about bringing leftovers to the both nursing stations and giving left over cake to the staff?  You can catch more flies with honey, as they saying goes. 
#5. A fifth resource in addition to your calendar, building relationships with staff, inviting staff, giving staff cake is your volunteer entertainment.  Give them cake with a slip of paper that contains the name of a resident and the resident’s room number.  Ask the volunteers to go into the resident's room in groups of two's to pass out the cake and briefly visit with the residents who didn’t want to come or were unable to come to the Birthday party.

 I could go on and on regarding resources, but I think you get the picture. Once you and your activity staff break out of the ain’t-it-awful mind set of being problem focused resources are endless.  If you are not a creative person, you might elicit the assistance of all of your activity team with whom to brainstorm resources.

So turn you CD play off in the car, or in this staff training; and brainstorm, regarding resources you have related to achieving “What you want more of” and “How you can achieve this.”   (MUSIC)

The fourth and final question is “What opportunities are created by this new goal of “what you want more of and what you want to have happen?”  Clearly, in my example, if you establish lines of communication to transport residents to the monthly birthday party, you can do the same for other activities.  If you are improving your relationship with nursing, maybe they will be more supportive regarding their attendance at the Halloween party, where staff are encouraged to dress-up and come back on their own time.  Staff involvement creates more of a sense of community in the facility, which is what the Surveyor Guidelines stress.  They are encouraging more of a feeling of community in the facility, with not just activities doing activities with the residents but having all staff involved in doing activities with the residents. 

Turn the CD play off in a minute and daydream about possible future ripple effects of your actions. MUSIC

In close I would like to say.  I hope you replay this track so often that pivoting to the positive by shifting from problem focused thoughts to solutions focused thoughts becomes second nature.   As a review the four questions in solution focused thinking are
#1. “What do I want more of?” or “What do I want to have happen?”
#2.  How can I get this done?
#3.  What resources do I have?
#4.  What opportunities are created by this new goal?

Consider replaying this track if you would like, to review this process further, before going onto track 6 that deals with Defusing your 6 D's. 


NCCAP/NCTRC CE Booklet
Forward to Track 6
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