Category Archives: Health & Wellness

Pamela Rubis is Leading Safe Care in Fairmont

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Pamela Rubis at Goldfinch Estates in Fairmont

Vista Prairie Communities (VPC) has named Pamela Rubis as the Executive Director of its Goldfinch Estates Senior Living Community in Fairmont. She is responsible for all operations, contact with residents, staff and the community — in short, assuring Safe Care at Goldfinch Estates.

A veteran human service executive, Pamela brings 20 years of experience in leadership and marketing positions with senior care, a nursing home and homes for people with developmental disabilities. Her experience includes service in care communities in Adrian, Hutchinson, Lakefield, Luverne and Worthington, Minnesota. She assumes leadership of VPC’s largest community, with 92 one and two bedroom assisted living apartments and 41 memory care suites.

“We welcome Pamela to the Vista Prairie family of senior living communities,” said VPC Chief Operating Officer Kim Webster. “Pamela is known for her high quality care and her excellent communication, customer relations and interpersonal skills.”

Pamela obtained her Human Services certificate from Rochester Technical & Community College in Rochester and completed additional training in Project Management from the United States Geological Survey’s Data Center for Earth Resources Observation & Science in Sioux Falls, SD.
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Live 2 B Healthy

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Florence and Mary Lou for web

Florence and Mary Lou are two of the early adopters, joining an exercise program started July 1 at Vista Prairie’s Windmill Ponds community in Alexandria. It’s one of the latest locations for Live 2 B Healthy – where a certified instructor brings vitality to seniors, three days a week.

“I’ve always exercised,” says Florence who is 90, but she says this program is more comprehensive. “They go all over your whole body, your arms and your legs and your shoulders.” The innovative program starts with a professional assessment, uses low-impact resistance bands rather than weights, and includes regular progress checks.

Ten to fifteen participants are already program regulars and benefiting in general wellness. “The residents have worked hard their whole lives,” reflects program founder Cory Czepa. “We believe it’s now time for them to enjoy life. Working side by side with each and every resident, Live 2 B Healthy® helps improve balance, coordination, flexibility, muscularity, stamina. As the body becomes healthier the spirit can soar.”

Mary Lou, 87, signed up with the encouragement of her daughter who is an RN. “She was so happy when they started this new program,” Mary Lou recounts. “She said that’s just what you need.”

The program is free to Windmill Ponds residents, but plans are to share the program with the community, starting in September.

“We’re inviting the public to join us at Windmill Ponds to participate, for a small monthly fee,” said Windmill Ponds Executive Director Chris Carter. Even before that, community members are invited to stop by and check it out. Dates and times for sessions are posted in the Windmill Ponds newsletter — and on the Live 2 B Healthy website.

Mary Lou sums it all up, “Once we’re through with a session, I can feel my muscles have had a workout.”
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Freedom

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Ginna-Calvin-promotes-Trio-Bike-at-Copperleaf

A trishaw bike is a three-wheeled vehicle for two passengers, pedaled from behind.  Ginna Calvin, left, is the Staff Development Nurse at Vista Prairie’s Copperleaf Community in Willmar, MN. The picture within the picture shows Ginna giving a ride to residents Barb and Thea on a loaned trishaw bike. At a recent Copperleaf open house, Ginna was enthusiastically raising funds for Copperleaf to get its very own “Cycling Without Age” trishaw.  Why?  Freedom.

“We want our residents to experience, again, the freedom of being on a bike, like when they were kids,” Ginna explains. “Copperleaf is just across the road from a trail system that serves Destination Playground and Robbins Island Park. It’s Willmar’s central park and connects to one of the largest fully accessible recreational areas in the country.”

You’re invited to help make Copperleaf’s dream a reality! Please click here to contribute to the cause at Copperleaf. Designate your gift to “Cycling Without Age.”

We appreciate Ginna’s dedicated service and that of Staff Development Nurses in most Vista Prairie communities.  They work with residents to complete health assessments, provide employee orientation and training, conduct on-going education to existing staff, and offer great bike rides!
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Hail to Our Nurses

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GG nurses - Marlys Skoblik, RN, Amber Demuth, LPN, Sandy Lund, LPN Bottom left to right Courtney Rohlik, RN, Lynn Buckley, LPN, and Jenn Panitzke, RN

We recently celebrated Nurses Week for 2019. Marlys Skoblik (upper left corner) is an example of the longevity and dedication of the 25 nurses employed at all Vista Prairie Communities. Marlys has been a nurse for more than 40 years. In the photo, she’s pictured with her nurse colleagues at Garnette Gardens in Redwood Falls, where she has served since 2012.  Together, these six nurses have 146 years of experience in caring for patients in a variety of settings.

Next to Marlys is Licensed Practical Nurse Amber Demuth and LPN Sandy Lund; (bottom left to right) Registered Nurse Courtney Rohlik, LPN Lynn Buckley, who manages Garnette Gardens Memory Care, and Registered Nurse Jenn Panitzke, who is Garnette’s Director of Health Services.

Marlys serves primarily in the 15-unit Memory Care area, where the community’s highest level of care takes place, and in the Care Suites. She describes how they ask the families of Memory Care residents to complete questionnaires to help learn what has been important in their loved ones’ lives. In the nine Care Suites residents can generally converse about their histories, but each has unique physical challenges.

“We assess everybody very individually with the ultimate goal of making sure that we can meet their needs,” Marlys added. “They have lived a long time and during all those years, they had experiences and they had relationships and they had everything that makes a life.  Just holding a hand, being with somebody, shows them they have value.”

She also emphasized the importance of getting to know residents’ families and how grateful they are for the compassionate care provided for their loved ones.

Our Organizational Director of Health Care, Melissa Plachecki, a 25-year nurse herself, summed up the profession well, “To answer the call of nursing is a true vocation. Few careers offer the holistic opportunities that nursing provides. To be a nurse is an honor and a privilege.”
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Safe Care For Seniors

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BOD taking the Safe Care for Seniors Pledge

We have joined with LeadingAge Minnesota and other senior care organizations to implement a new initiative called Safe Care for Seniors. It’s our way of reinforcing how we safely serve in the course of caregiving, and it starts with this pledge, which the Vista Prairie Communities Board of Directors took at its most recent meeting. I pledge to do my best every day to increase the safety of the people I serve, and my fellow team members, by:

  1. always treating the people in my care with respect and dignity and  taking steps to get to know  them as a person
  2. speaking up if I see something that may be unsafe or makes me feel uncomfortable.

While the initiative started in Minnesota, the spirit will permeate throughout all eight of our communities, including those located in Iowa and Ohio. A specific action plan accompanies the pledge at every level of our organization, starting with our board. It includes leadership training; the designation of champions at each community; participation by our entire staff in learning and improvement opportunities; partnering in new ways to improve communication, safety and quality; and generally strengthening our safety culture.

When you see a member of our staff wearing a “Safe Care for Seniors” lapel pin, you know they have made a public commitment to do all that we can, however they serve in our organization, to address the priority for safety in our settings.

Want to join us? You will have opportunities to Make the Pledge at a Safe Care for Seniors event in one of our communities. These events will celebrate all we do today and renew our commitment to treating people with respect and dignity, always. They will highlight doing all we can to ensure safe and joy-filled environments.
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