Shahbazim,” Edna Hess told the senators at a July 23 U.S. Senate
Special Committee on Aging hearing.
Hess worked for years as a CNA at the Lebanon Valley Brethren Home
in Palmyra, Pennsylvania, becoming a Shahbaz (the Green House® name for
direct-care workers) when the home converted to the Green House®
model nine months ago. Since then, she told the committee, not a single
Shahbaz has left. “This a big improvement over my facility’s 23 percent
annual turnover rate for nursing assistants, and an even bigger
improvement over the national turnover rate for nursing assistants,
which I understand to be slightly over 70 percent per year.”
“The working life we now enjoy is very
demanding, because we do cooking, cleaning and activities in addition
to nursing care, but it is so much more fulfilling,” Hess added. “We
are now able to do all of the ‘extras’ that we rarely had time for in
the traditional nursing home. We can let an elder linger in a luxurious
whirlpool bath because there is no time pressure to get onto the next
bath. We can sit with the ladies and do manicures, or just chat on the
patio with them while enjoying afternoon iced teas.”
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