Foulkeways’ Mary Knapp speaks at PALTC22 Annual Conference

Photo from left: Emily Nicoli, David Grabowski, Ph.D., and Mary Knapp, RN, speak during a session Thursday at the PALTC2022 annual conference. Credit: Kimberly Marselas

Mary Knapp, RN, NHA, Foulkeways Director of health services, was recently on a panel and spoke at The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term care Medicine – AMDA 2022 Conference.

Speakers suggested instituting changes that could give certified nurse aides and floor nurses more time for bedside caregiving. Mary Knapp said empowerment is critical.  In addition to allowing CNAs and other frontline caregivers to make more decisions — without a punitive attitude for minor mistakes — she suggested they get a greater voice in patient care.

She urged medical directors to include CNAs in rounds on a regular basis, where they should be encouraged to share their observations about patients they know well.

Knapp also encouraged medical staff in corporate-controlled buildings to push back against organizational policies that infringe on building the kind of workplace culture employees want. In some cases, that may mean letting beds remain empty to ease the per-worker load.

“We are in the driver’s seat in some respects now,” she said. “We’re the workforce on the ground level, you’ve got to listen to us. If It means that we don’t have every bed filled but we reduce risk and reduce litigation and the families and the residents are touting us in the community as the place that their parent wants to go, we have to be able to tell that story to the people that are holding the money.”

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