Paul Szmal: Good morning 749, it's FLX Morning brought to you by Enstac Automotive and Trailer, your go-to destination for hauling and vehicle services, 2567 Edwards Road, Waterloo, online at enstacautomotive.com, we're Zooming with Tori Perron from UR Medicine, Thompson Health, I bet there's a job fair coming up, good morning.
Tori Perrin: There sure is, good morning. So before we talk about this one, let's talk about the last one. We talked in November, you had all kinds of different jobs open, how did that go?
Paul Szmal: It went great, so we had I think 25 people come and they were all amazing candidates and we've offered and had people, 10 people accept from that job fair, so that was amazing.
Tori Perrin: That is fantastic. So coming up, this next one is a little more specialized, it's next Wednesday the 18th from 2 to 4 at MM Ewing Continuing Care Center Lobby, that's 350 Parish in Canandaigua. So this is for long-term care jobs, specifically CNAs and LPNs, so talk about those two titles and what you do at Ewing.
Paul Szmal: Perfect, so we refer to the Continuing Care Center as the CCC, just makes it easier to say and it's a very special place, it's attached to the hospital and those two particular positions that we're looking for, licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants, are really the folks who do most of the care of our residents and notice we call them residents because these are folks who live at the Continuing Care Center. We also call the five different units avenues because we really want to make it sound like a home versus a nursing home. This is the place where they live and we help thrive and the CNAs and the LPNs are really the folks that do most of the care day-to-day with these residents. They get to know these residents, they know when something's off with the residents and they become part of their family really, so they are our frontline workers in our Continuing Care Center.
Tori Perrin: This must be a huge growth area, I mean I turn 65 next week, we boomers are getting older every day.
Paul Szmal: Yes, we have 178 beds in our Continuing Care Center and they are almost always at full capacity. Unfortunately, since COVID has been a nursing home bed shortage, not only in our area but across our whole state, so it is a very busy place. And I will put in a plug, several years ago we had a loved one stay at MM Ewing for, I don't know, maybe a year or so and the care was spectacular.
Tori Perrin: Well that's excellent to hear. The team there does such an amazing job, right down from our Vice President and Director of Nursing all the way down to our CNAs, our resident assistants, they have a recreational therapy group and they just do an amazing job with these residents. They do a lot of spirit weeks where they'll have different themed days and the residents and the staff participate. They do things like, you know, silly pattern days where everyone mixes and matches their clothing patterns. They do jersey days to support your favorite team. So they do a lot of amazing, fun things. In the summertime, they do an outside fair where the residents and their families can go just enjoy some fun outside time. They have an ice cream truck come and just really fun things.
Paul Szmal: And like you said earlier, there's been a real push in the industry to change and be much less like a medical facility and, like you said, more like a home.
Tori Perrin: Exactly. We really want this, because these folks live here, we want this to be comfortable. You know, a lot of the residents will have recliners in their rooms or just things that bring them comfort. The room is decorated by their families to make them feel comfortable. And one of the other neat things that I'm always impressed with when I go over there is the CCC outside of each resident's room has a little picture and a little like tidbit about their life, because these people have lived entire lives before they've come here. And it's just fun to look at those and read those and learn about the residents.
Paul Szmal: So these CNAs and LPNs, are they sometimes coming over from other disciplines? Like maybe somebody's an LPN at the hospital and they've had enough of that and want to try something different?
Tori Perrin: That is the case sometimes. The other thing is a lot of times, folks, that, you know, we have kind of two different buckets of CNAs. We have CNAs who this is their lifetime career and they love it and it's all they ever want to do. And it's amazing, because like I said, they are the frontline workers with these residents. But also, if we have CNAs who are working in the CCC and want to grow their career and maybe go on to LPN school or RN school, we can support them through that as well because we want our own to grow and we want to help them get to their goals. And so we see that a lot as well, people who've been CNAs here and are now LPNs in our Continuing Care Center.
Paul Szmal: So I assume, again, like the last job fair we talked about, bring your resume and prepare to interview on the spot?
Tori Perrin: That would be fabulous. We can give them a tour of the facility. We're going to have some treats. We're going to have some door prizes. So we want to make it fun like it is over there. And this is next Wednesday. It's the 18th from 2 to 4 p.m. the M.M. Ewing Continuing Care Center, the CCC Lobby at 350 Parris Street in Canandaigua. And of course, you can go to ThompsonHealth.com slash job anytime, because even though this job fair is specific for Continuing Care, you have positions open in all different kinds of disciplines all the time.
Paul Szmal: That's right. You can hire on our website for this job fair specifically, but yes, that is exactly the place to go to look at any open positions that we have. And then you would work with a recruiter, and we would take you through the process. The motto is Be Valued, Be Inspired, and Be Thompson. I know you talked about this last time. We've talked about it a lot, but it bears repeating. Just tell us, for you, what makes UR Medicine Thompson Health such a great place to work.
Tori Perrin: And I do say this every time, but it's because I truly mean it. It's the culture. There is a culture of family here, of community. There's friendliness. We walk through the halls, and everyone you encounter is friendly. It's just a warm, lovely place to work. And again, ThompsonHealth.com slash job is the website to look over all kinds of different jobs. And again, this job fair is specifically for the MMU and Continuing Care Center. It'll be next Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m. in the lobby at 350 Parris Street in Canandaigua.
Paul Szmal: So, Tori, thanks as always. You're a very eloquent spokesperson for Thompson Health, and good luck. That's great, the numbers from that first job fair, and I hope you get some people into these rewarding long-term care careers soon.
Tori Perrin: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you having me, and happy holidays.
