OHCA The Oregon Caregiver Spring Summer 2021

The Oregon Caregiver SPRING/SUMMER 2021 www.ohca.com 8 FEATURE missed certain freedoms from before the pandemic. “We would do a lot of things in the city of Hillsboro like going to the movies or bowling or going downtown to shop to the farmer’s market. Our residents miss all of that so getting vaccinated means a lot to them,” said Hernandez. Getting the families of residents onboard also helped with the high uptake rate. Hernandez says keeping families informed through constant communica- tion throughout the process helped ease the decision for residents to all get vaccinated. “We have family members who are so dedicated to our residents and they just want to be able to come back and have actual one-on-one physical contact with their loved ones. Humans crave physical contact; it’s something we crave from the moment we’re born, so to be without physical contact has just been a really hard thing for everybody,” said Hernandez. She says getting the staff excited about the vaccination clinics improved their uptake rates. After the first and second vaccine clinics, 90 percent of the staff at Rosewood Memory Care got vaccinated. Hernandez admits not all of them accepted the vaccine right away, but after seeing their colleagues experience little to no side effects following receiving the vaccine in the first clinic, the number of staff who signed up for the second clinic doubled. Ultimately, Hernandez says her staff want to do what they can to protect the seniors in their care, as well as their loved ones at home. For Hernandez, she says she got vacci- nated for her mother, who lives out of state and has several health issues. “Getting the vaccine means I can see her. I haven’t seen her in a year and a half now, so knowing that she’s vaccinated and I’m vaccinated means that I can see her and still keep her safe,” said Hernandez. For John Frederick, the community relations coordinator for The Springs at Greer Gardens, the decision to get vaccinated was easy. Like many leaders in long term care, the priority through- out the pandemic was delivering on the promise of keeping residents safe and protected—a priority that required a great deal of personal sacrifice. “We stopped going to public places early on before things were closed down, and we stopped getting together with our friends,” said Frederick. When he received his first shot, Frederick said, “I actually teared up, not because the shot hurt, because it was pretty painless to be honest, but that weight of the last year was just kind of released. I was just so thankful that I was amongst some of the first people to get that vaccination.” Knowing most of his staff and residents were eager for fewer restrictions and more group activities, Frederick assured his team received reliable information about the vaccine. He attributes the high uptake rates at The Springs at Greer Gardens to the transparency and support from his leadership. Fee Stubblefield, the founder and CEO of The Springs Living, made sure to be onsite at the first vaccine clinic to answer any questions. “That meant a lot to me. That meant that my company believes in this vaccine. I had already made the decision to go » FEATURE, CONT. Cook Catalina of The Springs at Greer Gardens is happy to receive her COVID-19 vaccine. Victor Barredo, a nurse at The Springs at Greer Gardens, was eager to get his vaccine shot.