The Pennsylvania Association of Directors of Nursing Administration (PADONA) held its annual conference in early April in Hershey, PA, where several Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) staff members gave presentations on its long-term care initiatives. PADONA serves hundreds of directors of nursing who work in Pennsylvania's long-term care sector by providing continuing education courses, scholarships, and more.
Maureen Saxon-Gioia, MSHSA, BSN, RN, nurse project manager, and Anneliese Perry, MS, NHA, CECM, program manager, led a session on the PA Teaching Nursing Home Collaborative alongside two directors of nursing who partner with the initiative, Kim Ratliff, BSN, RN, CNDLTC from Wesley Enhanced Living Main Line and Taylor McMahon, RN from Presbyterian Senior Care The Willows. Their talk focused on how directors of nursing could implement the Age-Friendly Health Systems' 4Ms framework to improve care for their residents and enhance clinical rotations for nursing students to bolster workforce recruitment. JHF's COO and chief program officer Nancy Zionts, MBA, held a similar panel on Age-Friendly Health Systems and the work of the Teaching Nursing Home.
Zionts also participated in a panel discussion about the Pennsylvania Long-Term Care Learning Network with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Service Office of Long-Term Living's Chief Medical Officer Larry Appel, MD, SFMH, and its Director of Quality Assurance and Program Analytics Jill Vovakes, MHA. The Learning Network is managed by JHF and provides weekly, 1-hour webinars to help advance nursing home staff's knowledge and improve the quality of care.