Questions to Ask When Visiting Nursing Homes

If you think choosing a nursing home for your loved one can be as easy as a few clicks online and reading a couple of reviews – think again. 

Visiting nursing homes may not be your idea of quality time, but it’s something you absolutely must do. That is, if you want to make sure the person that’s going to live there can actually live their life and not just survive. High ratings are an excellent place to start, but they aren’t enough.

The point is to find a place that will feel like home, and you can’t do it without going to the facility, checking it out, asking some questions, and getting to feel the vibe of the place. Get a checklist, grab your things, and let’s see what to ask when you visit nursing homes. 

Questions on Daily Care, Safety, and Health Protocols

The way to start is to hop online and find nursing homes with a 5-star CMS overall rating. Now that you have a couple of choices, jot down their information (contact number, address) and schedule a visit. 

Then, here’s what you should ask the staff once you’re there. 

1. Daily Routines and Activities

Ask about the residents’ daily routines because older people like their consistency. For example, you can check whether breakfast is always served at a certain time or whether residents can choose. 

If you know your loved one always has breakfast around the same time, this might not be so important, but if you know they like to sleep in sometimes, make sure to get information like this. Also, see how much staff there is in general to check whether there’s enough of them to provide personalized care and attention to all residents. 

As far as activities go, think about what your loved one likes; if they like group exercise, crafts, or music sessions, see what the nursing home offers. 

1. Safety and Emergency Care

Since it’s a nursing home, you want safety protocols to be top-notch, nothing else will do. There are a lot of people there so ask about how they control infections, how they keep the place hygienic, and what’s their policy on vaccination. 

Are there sanitizing stations and do the staff wear gloves and masks during flu season? Another important category is emergency procedures; how quickly can they handle emergency medical situations and who do they contact first? 

1. Staff Qualifications

You can’t just grab somebody off the street and make them a caretaker, so make sure to ask questions about how qualified the staff are. Do they have certifications? Did the nursing home run a background check on all of them? Do they have special training, like what you would need for emergency care or dealing with people who have dementia? Do they bring in specialists to train their staff? 

Basically, ask whatever you can think of, especially the questions that are relevant for caring for your loved one. 

1. Respect for Privacy

No matter the age, we all need our dignity, and privacy is crucial here. Ask how the staff respects the residents’ privacy during personal care routines. Do they knock before they enter the room? Can the residents have family visits in private spaces? Are there private spaces of that kind? 

Also, see if the residents can bring their own furniture, trinkets or decor to decorate their rooms and make them feel homey. In addition to all this, check how the nursing home protects personal information. 

1. Involving the Family

Next up, you have to check how the facility involves the family and how they keep them up to date on important things. 

Ask if they offer regular family meetings and do they provide updates on how the resident is doing frequently. Visiting hours are important to check, too, and you’ll also want to see how they’ll notify you in case of emergency. 

If they like the family to be as involved as possible, it’s a good indicator of transparency, and they probably really do care about their residents’ well-being. 

1. Emotional and Mental Health Support

Physical health is important, but so is mental. People in nursing homes can feel isolated or depressed, especially those that have just arrived because it’s a big change and they might see it as giving up their independence.

This is why mental health support is so vital, so you need to check whether the facility you’re thinking of choosing has counseling, support groups, or even therapy sessions. 

You want your loved ones to participate in activities that interest them as well as connect them on a social level with others. Things like walks, some light sports (if possible), social games, crafts, TV entertainment, and news (we want them to know what’s going on in the outside world). All of this is very important for their mental well-being.

You want your loved one to be safe, but you ALSO want them to be happy (being safe is super important, but there’s no point in someone being safe inside of a “bird cage”, really).

Conclusion

Checking into a nursing home can be a very stressful, even sad, time for everyone, not just the senior who’s going to be living there. But it doesn’t need to be that way. 

Of course, there may be some rough patches along the way; that’s just the nature of significant lifestyle changes. Selecting an appropriate nursing home would ensure their wellness and utmost happiness, enabling them to live their life to the fullest.

In addition, should you feel that the nursing home, all of a sudden, isn’t performing to the level that was previously represented; or perhaps there are other types of concerns that aren’t being properly addressed. Then, it’s wise to seek counsel from a law firm that handles those types of matters in your area. If nothing else, you’ll at least see the issue resolved in a swift manner.