On Being a Nurse
Kathleen Rosa is Registered Nurse with FCS Home Care Services, part of a team of four registered nurses who oversee the daily care needs of our nearly 200 Home Care clients. As part of National Nurses Week, we asked Kathleen, whose nursing career has spanned five decades, to share her thoughts on being a nurse.
This week is National Nurses Week -- a significant week for me as this year marks 50 years since I finished nursing school and began my nursing career!
I graduated from the Central Islip State School of Nursing, a hospital-affiliated nursing school, in 1968 and landed my first nursing assignment at New York Hospital in the pediatrics unit. A second pediatrics assignment followed at the Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospital in Manhattan, (now the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center, an affiliate of the New York Medical College School of Medicine). I enrolled in the Baccalaureate program at Long Island University, and soon after, was inspired to change my focus by one of my nursing professors. She taught Public Health and had a newspaper photo of herself at work in Brooklyn on a bicycle with her nursing bag in a basket in the back. What could be better than that?! Read more
Our CHHA Graduates, Top of the Class
Yvette Gary was unemployed when she received an e-mail notifying her of a free training offered by FCS to become a Certified Home Health Aide (CHHA). “I thought, I am a caring individual. This is something I could do,” Yvette recalled. Just a few months later, a very proud Yvette and 15 other women filed into a classroom at Keyport High School to cheers from their friends and family as they received their provisional licenses after successfully completing the CHHA training course.
Restoring Human Dignity with a simple Donation
Sometimes it is the little things that make a big difference.
When members of the FCS Navarumsunk Auxiliary donated more than $700 last year to purchase adult diapers and pads for our Home Care clients in need, they had no idea the impact their donation would have on our client's lives.
"When I first heard of the gift, I was overjoyed," says FCS Director of Nursing Kathleen Vourlos. "That may seem like a strong reaction to receiving diapers, but when you think about the inability to toilet independently, you can understand why having enough diapers is so vital to those in need."Read more
Congratulations to our 2016 CHHA Graduates!
It’s not often that a graduation brings so many tears, but the students enrolled in FCS’s first free Certified Home Health Aide (CHHA) training class have formed a very special bond. The group of 17 men and women proudly paraded in cap and gown into a Keyport High School classroom on Tuesday, July 26th, in front of family and friends to receive recognition for passing the exams need to become CHHAs. The students came from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, but they brought a mutually-shared enthusiasm to learn.Read more
Celebrating our Extraordinary "Aides of the Month"
The choice to hire a Certified Home Health Aide (CHHA) to care for your loved one may actually save his or her life! Recently our CHHA Maria Anchietta used her in-service training to identify symptoms of a stroke in her patient. Maria immediately called 911 and the patient was transferred to the hospital before further stroke damage could occur. Outstanding service and caring professionalism are two of the many reasons Maria and several of her colleagues were recently named “Aide of the Month” by Family & Children’s Service (FCS) Home Care Services.
Preparing for Life's Storms
As I write this, the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management has posted coastal flood watches and warnings due to the impact of Hurricane Joaquin on our area. All up and down the Jersey Shore, residences and businesses are busy boarding up windows, lying sandbags and restocking emergency supplies in the event of possible flooding and power outages. Television news stations have set up live trucks in flood-prone towns and everyone is monitoring the forecast on their mobile devices. It’s an all too familiar scene. With memories of Superstorm Sandy still fresh in our minds, we know the potential damage a hurricane can wreak on our homes, our livelihoods and our communities. Even as we hope for the best, we prepare for the worst.Read more
This Aide of the Month brings Empathy to her Work
Larissa Frenkel knows what it’s like to experience loss. At 62, she has lost two parents and two husbands to terminal illness. She also has had to say goodbye to her only daughter after leaving her homeland for a new home, thousands of miles away.
Growing up in her native Ukraine, Larissa was just 11 years-old when her mother died, leaving her to care for a grieving father and siblings. Running a household at such a young age forced Larissa to grow up quickly and leave childhood behind, but she says, "I did what I had to do."
Celebrating Four Months of Outstanding Service
Family & Children’s Service recently honored four outstanding FCS Certified Home Health Aides (CHHAs) during a special staff recognition ceremony. Donna Moody, Venicia Louissant, Georganna DiPierro and Lydia Rivera were each selected as “Aide of the Month” for the months of March, April, May and June respectively. FCS CEO Delly Beekman presented the aides, all of whom have more than a decade of service to the agency, with award certificates and recognition pins.Read more
Honoring Older Americans
Happy Older Americans Month, and Happy Birthday to the Older Americans Act! Fifty years ago President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Act into law, creating and funding a nationwide network of services for the aging that help older adults live with dignity in the communities of their choice for as long as possible. At Family & Children’s Service, these services include home care, caregiver support, respite care, elder abuse prevention, and much more. While our services are designed to help the client, in many cases, they also help the family. FCS Board member Brian Duffy explains how the agency's intervention and care more than a decade ago profoundly affected his family.Read more
With a Song in her Heart
When Norma Whiskey was a little girl growing up in Trinidad, she dreamed of becoming a doctor.
"I was a good student, very bright, and I always loved taking care of people," Norma recalls. "When I was just 8 years-old, the neighbor would ask me to help her and I would go. My mother did not always like it, but I would go. It was something I was called to do."
Norma, like many from her island nation, was forced to leave school at an early age and abandon her dream of becoming a doctor. But Norma's desire to care for others never faded.