NS Healthcare Heroes: Vimy Court
“We would like to nominate our co-workers; the entire staff of Vimy Court. Our facility is home to 60 long term care residents. Throughout the pandemic, our team has truly rallied together to make the best of a bad situation for each other and the residents in our care.
Since mid-March, when the difficult decision was made to close our doors to visitors, our staff has truly stepped up to make our residents feel loved, safe, and secure. Under normal circumstances our four household facility would have open doors where residents can come and go to visit their friends on other households. These doors have also been closed since mid-march so not only are our residents unable to visit with family, they are also limited to visiting friends on their households only. As a team, we strive to ensure residents continue to have opportunities for meaningful social interaction throughout this pandemic when feelings of isolation can be all too real for people living in long term care.
We have worked hard to connect residents with their families, either through window visits, video chats, or weekly email updates with photos. Some CCAs have been pulling double-duty as hairdressers, giving much-needed trims to residents to keep them looking and feeling fresh! Our Recreation Programmers and Music Therapist have had to roll with the changes – holding Hymn Sings instead of Church Services, Mother’s Day Teas without children to celebrate their matriarchs, and play beloved games and pastimes with enhanced PPE and social distancing. We took the opportunity when our doors were shut to get a bit silly, and held a “hunting” event where the residents were able to shoot foam darts at staff dressed up like animals! When we began introducing pandemic safety measures, one of the very first changes made was the requirement of all staff to wear masks during their entire shift. One staff member seized this as an opportunity to get a laugh out of the residents by making paper lips and moustaches to stick on the masks!
Throughout the pandemic we have missed some really important milestones. Our facility was set to celebrate its 10 year anniversary in April with a big party, which we had to cancel. One of our beloved residents celebrated her 100th birthday without her family. Our staff went above and beyond in throwing her a big party with her friends on her household, and kept her family connected to the event through Skype, recorded videos and photos. We have helped others celebrate birthdays, milestone anniversaries, and important events by being their stand-in family.
Staff have always gone the extra mile in their duties here and are proud to call themselves part of this team and more than that, a second family to our residents. Every single person at Vimy Court has seen their workload increase exponentially since the pandemic began. From our Site Manager, to our Administrative Coordinator, the Maintenance Coordinator, Licensed Nursing Staff, CCAs, Recreation Programmers, Music Therapist, Wellness Centre Team to our SSAs, everyone has been giving 110%. They have been working overtime, through breaks, and at home to do everything they can to make life at Vimy as normal as it can be. The photo submitted is of our staff at our Nerf hunt!”
- This nomination was sent in by Heather Rowlands & Janine Lahti