Selected Podcast
Reflections on COVID with Senior Leaders
Featuring:
Maureen Reardon, RSM, PhD
Maureen Reardon, RSM, PhD is Chief Mission Officer, The Mercy Community, Trinity Health Senior Communities. Transcription:
Trevor Bonat (Host): Hi, my name is Trevor Bonat and I serve Trinity Health as the Chief Mission Officer for Trinity Health Pace and Trinity Health at Home. I'd like to invite my guest for this podcast to introduce herself.
Maureen Reardon, RSM, PhD (Guest): I'm Sister Maureen Riordan, a Sister of Mercy, and I serve Trinity Health as the Mission Leader for the Senior Communities in New England.
Host: Well welcome Sister Maureen. Thank you for joining us. I'd like to begin by asking you what brought you to your current role at Trinity Health?
Sister Maureen: I had been in education all my life, both as a teacher and administrator. And then a time came when the Sisters of Mercy who sponsor the St. Mary Home Skilled Care Facility were in need of a Mission Leader. And this particular ministry is located on the college campus. At that point in my career, I was an Administrator at the college. And I felt drawn to the skilled care element of healthcare and working in a senior community with people who in so many ways were vulnerable.
Host: Well, thank you for sharing that. I too come from education. So, I imagine we could talk whole nother podcast about transitioning from education to mission work. So, for more than a year now, all of us have been living through the challenging time and coping with the challenges of a global pandemic caused by the coronavirus. In your role as a mission leader, I'm certain that you've experienced the impact of COVID in many ways. I'm wondering if you'd be able to share with us a story from your COVID experience, the highlights how COVID has impacted your ministry and perhaps the way that you responded to that situation.
Sister Maureen: Yes. We have a nursing home here. And as you probably know, from the national attention given to nursing once one of the residents or a colleague developed the COVID-19, it spread rapidly. We were really unprepared for the overwhelming dimension of impact that the virus would have on our ministry. And we work with individuals who are very anxious. They're lonely. Many of them have outlived all their friends and family members, and then to be isolated in their unit for months on end, really created situations where pastoral care stepped in, in a phenomenal way. Pastoral care focused on the spiritual dimension of life for each of these residents. And also for the staff, while the medical was being handled by your clinical experts. Together, we worked to provide opportunities for the residents to know we valued them and to know that basically all of this would at a given time, come to an end. We had musical concerts for them, where we brought the musicians outside the windows and they would go to their window and watch it. We had many meals given by wonderful restaurants in the area to our staff. We are concerned and continue to be concerned about the impact that it's having on our residents. We also got very creative. We had the Stations of the Cross in each of the corridors. We also had a Memorial service on each unit where we remembered the resident who had died. For some of them, in some of our double rooms, they had been neighbors and living in that same unit 15, 16 years. And they took the loss very hard as you can well imagine.
Host: Gosh, that's a really powerful story. Sister, Maureen, I, you all were in the thick of everybody's hearts and prayers as the pandemic began, as it swept through nursing homes and those facilities, I'm so grateful to you for your pastoral care and the team and their pastoral care well, how are you'all doing now? And what are some of the challenges that you think we might be facing moving forward?
Sister Maureen: Right now, we have been a couple of months without a positive test. We're testing, still colleagues who have not completed the vaccine, every week. then residents are being tested regularly, also. I will say that the virus really drained, whatever contingency funding was in the budget. So, we relied heavily on foundations and grants. People were extremely generous. And go along with that particular dimension, we put an appeal on our website for cards and messages, not to name the resident who would receive it, but we called it our Special Person Mailing and we received just under a thousand special person cards and distributed them. The cost of the PPE as you know, the government and the state were extremely helpful. But it still continues as we are trying to adjust to this new normal and some of our colleagues, the positions were eliminated due to a lower roster of residents here to be served. Going forward, looking to the future, the pandemic made us aware and surfaced concerns, that we knew existed, but it gave these concerns a very high priority. Some of the areas that we are looking at would be since the virus and who knows, if there will be another virus, spread so rapidly in nursing homes, we are looking to be prepared for another virus. What are we doing to prepare? We are creating more private rooms. We are also looking to some of the safety features on our grounds. It would be the lighting and the camera service that we have. You may say why? Well, some of our residents love the outdoors and they're outside on the benches enjoying themselves. And when they can have visitors meet with them out there. And so we just want to make sure that we are fully equipped.
We also are looking at some of the ways we did getting away from a lot of meetings, doing a lot virtually, using and incorporating music, both liturgical and popular, more and more in the lives of our residents. As far as our colleagues, through the pandemic, we got to know through our resilience program, aspects of their lives that we never would have known before. As an example, one of the men working in laundry, lost two members of his family within a week. I don't know that he would have come forward and shared that had we not developed such powerful and caring relationships with our colleagues and our residents during the pandemic.
Host: Gosh, thank you, Sister Maureen. That's really insightful and powerful stories. And also, as both mission leaders, we can see how our core values weave into some of the things you said. I, was thinking initially about reverence, when you were talking about, your residents and how, you know, they were in a difficult place in their lives as it is, many of them anxious, lonely, outliving so many family members. So, reverence was the core value that came to my mind quickest, but really, as you kept on speaking and the idea of a little deeper into our Catholic sensibilities, the understanding of the common good and solidarity, almost a sense of justice where, you turn to accompany them through that difficult time and establishing, an accompaniment, which was really powerful to hear. I wonder if you have any thoughts the core values and how they wove into what you all did over this past year and continue to do in the care of residents.
Sister Maureen: yes, you touched on reverence. believe in every way we could, we emphasized the value of each person. The value of the resident, the value of the colleague, and the value of the family members who were distraught because they couldn't come in to visit with their loved one and justice. Each person was treated in the same way. Integrity. We have our core values up on the wall and we would frequently refer to them and say, it's not any good to have them on the wall, if our general operations are not reflecting in the core values. In terms of being resourceful and being careful in terms of the use of our resources, we stewarded them very carefully. And stewardship was not only of things, but stewarding our people here.
Host: All of those things you just said really drove into the commitment to those who are poor, right? You were actively committing to those who are most vulnerable. I mean, in, and taking all of those things and not just doing it interpersonally, but putting in policies and procedures and even physical changes to make sure that those core values are structured into how you do things, rather than, something that was just a choice by one person or another. And that's great to hear. Any final thoughts, Sister Maureen?
Sister Maureen: I'm very optimistic and I am thoroughly convinced that the mission and core values that we have, and we share with all the Trinity Health Ministries will thrive and that we will find new and exciting ways of providing care and support to our colleagues using our core values as our guide.
Host: Thank you so much, Sister Maureen. That's absolutely wonderful and so grateful for your service And our ministry. like to thank you, again and again, my name is Trevor Bonat and I'd like to thank everyone for listening this week.
Sister Maureen: And thank you, Trevor.
Trevor Bonat (Host): Hi, my name is Trevor Bonat and I serve Trinity Health as the Chief Mission Officer for Trinity Health Pace and Trinity Health at Home. I'd like to invite my guest for this podcast to introduce herself.
Maureen Reardon, RSM, PhD (Guest): I'm Sister Maureen Riordan, a Sister of Mercy, and I serve Trinity Health as the Mission Leader for the Senior Communities in New England.
Host: Well welcome Sister Maureen. Thank you for joining us. I'd like to begin by asking you what brought you to your current role at Trinity Health?
Sister Maureen: I had been in education all my life, both as a teacher and administrator. And then a time came when the Sisters of Mercy who sponsor the St. Mary Home Skilled Care Facility were in need of a Mission Leader. And this particular ministry is located on the college campus. At that point in my career, I was an Administrator at the college. And I felt drawn to the skilled care element of healthcare and working in a senior community with people who in so many ways were vulnerable.
Host: Well, thank you for sharing that. I too come from education. So, I imagine we could talk whole nother podcast about transitioning from education to mission work. So, for more than a year now, all of us have been living through the challenging time and coping with the challenges of a global pandemic caused by the coronavirus. In your role as a mission leader, I'm certain that you've experienced the impact of COVID in many ways. I'm wondering if you'd be able to share with us a story from your COVID experience, the highlights how COVID has impacted your ministry and perhaps the way that you responded to that situation.
Sister Maureen: Yes. We have a nursing home here. And as you probably know, from the national attention given to nursing once one of the residents or a colleague developed the COVID-19, it spread rapidly. We were really unprepared for the overwhelming dimension of impact that the virus would have on our ministry. And we work with individuals who are very anxious. They're lonely. Many of them have outlived all their friends and family members, and then to be isolated in their unit for months on end, really created situations where pastoral care stepped in, in a phenomenal way. Pastoral care focused on the spiritual dimension of life for each of these residents. And also for the staff, while the medical was being handled by your clinical experts. Together, we worked to provide opportunities for the residents to know we valued them and to know that basically all of this would at a given time, come to an end. We had musical concerts for them, where we brought the musicians outside the windows and they would go to their window and watch it. We had many meals given by wonderful restaurants in the area to our staff. We are concerned and continue to be concerned about the impact that it's having on our residents. We also got very creative. We had the Stations of the Cross in each of the corridors. We also had a Memorial service on each unit where we remembered the resident who had died. For some of them, in some of our double rooms, they had been neighbors and living in that same unit 15, 16 years. And they took the loss very hard as you can well imagine.
Host: Gosh, that's a really powerful story. Sister, Maureen, I, you all were in the thick of everybody's hearts and prayers as the pandemic began, as it swept through nursing homes and those facilities, I'm so grateful to you for your pastoral care and the team and their pastoral care well, how are you'all doing now? And what are some of the challenges that you think we might be facing moving forward?
Sister Maureen: Right now, we have been a couple of months without a positive test. We're testing, still colleagues who have not completed the vaccine, every week. then residents are being tested regularly, also. I will say that the virus really drained, whatever contingency funding was in the budget. So, we relied heavily on foundations and grants. People were extremely generous. And go along with that particular dimension, we put an appeal on our website for cards and messages, not to name the resident who would receive it, but we called it our Special Person Mailing and we received just under a thousand special person cards and distributed them. The cost of the PPE as you know, the government and the state were extremely helpful. But it still continues as we are trying to adjust to this new normal and some of our colleagues, the positions were eliminated due to a lower roster of residents here to be served. Going forward, looking to the future, the pandemic made us aware and surfaced concerns, that we knew existed, but it gave these concerns a very high priority. Some of the areas that we are looking at would be since the virus and who knows, if there will be another virus, spread so rapidly in nursing homes, we are looking to be prepared for another virus. What are we doing to prepare? We are creating more private rooms. We are also looking to some of the safety features on our grounds. It would be the lighting and the camera service that we have. You may say why? Well, some of our residents love the outdoors and they're outside on the benches enjoying themselves. And when they can have visitors meet with them out there. And so we just want to make sure that we are fully equipped.
We also are looking at some of the ways we did getting away from a lot of meetings, doing a lot virtually, using and incorporating music, both liturgical and popular, more and more in the lives of our residents. As far as our colleagues, through the pandemic, we got to know through our resilience program, aspects of their lives that we never would have known before. As an example, one of the men working in laundry, lost two members of his family within a week. I don't know that he would have come forward and shared that had we not developed such powerful and caring relationships with our colleagues and our residents during the pandemic.
Host: Gosh, thank you, Sister Maureen. That's really insightful and powerful stories. And also, as both mission leaders, we can see how our core values weave into some of the things you said. I, was thinking initially about reverence, when you were talking about, your residents and how, you know, they were in a difficult place in their lives as it is, many of them anxious, lonely, outliving so many family members. So, reverence was the core value that came to my mind quickest, but really, as you kept on speaking and the idea of a little deeper into our Catholic sensibilities, the understanding of the common good and solidarity, almost a sense of justice where, you turn to accompany them through that difficult time and establishing, an accompaniment, which was really powerful to hear. I wonder if you have any thoughts the core values and how they wove into what you all did over this past year and continue to do in the care of residents.
Sister Maureen: yes, you touched on reverence. believe in every way we could, we emphasized the value of each person. The value of the resident, the value of the colleague, and the value of the family members who were distraught because they couldn't come in to visit with their loved one and justice. Each person was treated in the same way. Integrity. We have our core values up on the wall and we would frequently refer to them and say, it's not any good to have them on the wall, if our general operations are not reflecting in the core values. In terms of being resourceful and being careful in terms of the use of our resources, we stewarded them very carefully. And stewardship was not only of things, but stewarding our people here.
Host: All of those things you just said really drove into the commitment to those who are poor, right? You were actively committing to those who are most vulnerable. I mean, in, and taking all of those things and not just doing it interpersonally, but putting in policies and procedures and even physical changes to make sure that those core values are structured into how you do things, rather than, something that was just a choice by one person or another. And that's great to hear. Any final thoughts, Sister Maureen?
Sister Maureen: I'm very optimistic and I am thoroughly convinced that the mission and core values that we have, and we share with all the Trinity Health Ministries will thrive and that we will find new and exciting ways of providing care and support to our colleagues using our core values as our guide.
Host: Thank you so much, Sister Maureen. That's absolutely wonderful and so grateful for your service And our ministry. like to thank you, again and again, my name is Trevor Bonat and I'd like to thank everyone for listening this week.
Sister Maureen: And thank you, Trevor.