Becoming a Nursing Home Administrator

As an Accounting Clerk within the nursing home there are many things an employee in the office may not see. There are also many rewarding times which an individual may want to see more of and be able to have a greater participation within the organization. This writer wants the opportunity to become a nursing home administrator. A nursing home administrator can wear any hat within their organization. This may include nursing administration, budgeting, financials, social work and possibly even stockroom. Being a nursing home administrator can be a huge job. There are many aspects to daily life in a nursing home that need to be dealt with. Delegating work can relieve some of the burden, but a nursing home administrator is ultimately responsible for the health and well-being of the facility they are in charge of. Even though a nursing home administrator can delegate certain daily activities, they are in charge of the quality of the care at the facility, making sure the facility complies with state and federal regulations, and budgeting considerations among other things. Since a nursing home facility never closes, the hours a nursing home administrator keeps can be long. Some days there may be an after hours crisis that needs attending to. There are many requirements of becoming a nursing home administrator, which the State of New York requires. Using the eight stages for successful change by John P. Kotter, you will be able to see how someone can go from an Accounting Clerk to an Administrator of a Nursing Home in New York State. There is an increased urgency of nursing home administrators because the demand for nursing homes are increasing as the baby boomer generation is getting older and the need for long-term care is growing. The Accounting Clerk’s increase for urgency is knowing that becoming a nursing home administrator is going to take a lot of planning and hard work. The first step is to spend a day in the life of a nursing home administrator and to get a copy of the licensing and educational requirements in the state you want to become an administrator in. The second step is to build the guiding team which will help to become a nursing home administrator. One of the New York State requirements is to do an internship with a nursing home administrator. The Administrator which the Accounting Clerk currently works for is one of the team members which will play a role in the success of acquiring a nursing home administrator license. Other key members will be the professors whom will teach, the advisor which will make sure all credits are taken that are needed and also the support from many family and friends as there is a lot of hard work involved. Getting the vision right is the third step in Kotter’s model. From working in a nursing home and in the future job shadowing a nursing home administrator there are many aspects an individual needs to be familiar with. This includes organizational skills, financial savvy and, above all, a talent for interacting with people. Spending a day with an administrator will show the accounting clerk many of the jobs to be done and if this is something that is not doable then the vision should be rethought. Every day is totally different for a nursing home administrator. A normal day starts with a morning round to visit with residents and staff, and to assess any current needs. A morning meeting follows with department heads and staff. The rest of the day is filled with financial matters—budgeting, purchasing, accounting; clinical reports; monitoring the quality of care give by the staff; checking on kitchen and housekeeping; responding to at least 50 emails; or overseeing admissions and departures. The fourth step is to communicate for buy-in. Making sure that everyone knows what your plans are and that no one whom the accounting clerk needs is left out of the plan. This means keeping your professor informed with the work being done. Telling the plan to the advisor is a must so they are able to make sure all the classes are taken and if any more are needed so student is able to fit them in and the change can be made into an administrator’s role. The current administrator has to also be in the loop to know what progress has been done and to see if more roles can be taken on during the internship and to help the accounting clerk progress to fulfilling all the roles needed to sit for the New York State exam. Empower action is the fifth step in Kotter’s model. This step means to effectively deal with obstacles that may come into play while trying to become a nursing home administrator. A set back may be that the accounting clerk has fallen behind in their current job and cannot continue the internship until the work is caught up. New York State Qualification #4 is that an individual must have at least 12 months of Administrator-in-Training. To avoid this set back, the Accounting Clerk may be able to work extra hours so they can continue the internship at an acceptable pace. To becoming a nursing home administrator the biggest and most important step of Kotter’s model is step 6 which is to create short-term wins. New York State has six qualifications a person must fulfill before being able to sit for the administrator exam. Each qualification has to be done in order, but it is possible to do two at a time. Finishing each of these qualifications is going to be a short-term win for the accounting clerk. The first qualification is that an administrator must be over the age of 21 years old. The second qualification is that of having a moral character and being suitable for licensure. A moral character issue which could affect being a nursing home administrator would be if the person applying has a criminal record. This means that there must not be any information of the exam takers background which would affect the ability to carry out the responsibilities of an administrator of a nursing home. Moral character is an evaluation of an individual’s qualities. This concept of moral character includes having virtues of integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty and even loyalty. Moral character refers to the qualities that distinguish an individual from another – a set of behaviors which our society adheres to. Currently the accounting clerk already created two short-term wins. Both qualifications one and two have been fulfilled and the individual is in the middle of qualification three. The third qualification is the educational requirement. The accounting clerk must have a Bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited institution. This must include or be supplemented by 15 credit hours of coursework related to long-term care/health care, gerontology and personal management. There is also an alternative to qualification three: possession of three or more years of qualifying experience. This may include the internship and could be used in two qualifications. This brings us to qualification four, experience. As previously stated an applicant must have twelve months of an Administrator-in-Training program which must be approved by New York State. Fulfillment of qualification 5 is successful completion of a 3-credit-hour course in Nursing Home Administration given at an accredited institution, completed at or above the 300 level. An alternative to this qualification is possession of a current 5-year certification from the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA). The last qualification is the exam requirement. A passing score must be attained on the exam to receive a license to be a nursing home administrator. There are many short-term wins to becoming a nursing home administrator, but from working in a nursing home personally, it is worth the hard work. The seventh step is do not let up. The accounting clerk has realized what to do with her degree and nothing should be in the way from becoming a nursing home administrator. The clerk has to keep going and not let up. If something doesn’t have to be done right away, then put it on the back burner to deal with what is in front of you and attainable at the moment. Show the guiding team which was put together all your short-term wins and how you went about them so they can cheer more and more for the victory about to come. The final step in Kotter’s model is to make change stick. Once the accounting clerk has fulfilled all six qualifications the State of New York has, receiving a job as a nursing home administrator would be the last task for this individual. This newly licensed nursing home administrator must keep up on all new materials as laws and financials are always changing. This change won’t only stick with having a license but also going to seminars and keeping up with everything going on with other nursing homes and the demographics of the area the nursing home is in. The need for long-term care is growing as baby boomers reach retirement and elder years. The demographics point to on ongoing need for more nursing homes, and in challenging economic times, the need for administrators remains strong. With that increase, the demand for nursing home administrators will increase as well. Every nursing home will require its own staff and perhaps most importantly, a good nursing home administrator to keep an eye on the entire facility.