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Summary
On this episode, host Peter Murphy Lewis talks to Maria Hudson, Senior Lead Administrative Assistant at the Good Samaritan Society. Maria shares how community involvement, frontline advocacy, and powerful resident experiences are reshaping perceptions of long-term care. From fishing trips to policy discussions in Washington, Maria highlights both the challenges and the joys of senior living today.
Key Takeaways:
(00:00) Introduction.
(02:52) Sitting with senators to share frontline stories of long-term care.
(04:52) How COVID reshaped the workforce and made hiring in rural care difficult.
(06:42) Why community and staff are equally responsible for elder care.
(07:38) The joy and excitement of a 98-year-old’s first fishing trip.
(09:37) How showing the docuseries changed local views of nursing homes.
(10:47) Using storytelling and visuals to reassure new residents and their families.
Resources Mentioned:
Good Samaritan Society website
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Transcript
Maria Hudson: Something that we have tried at least at the nursing home from 10 years ago is making sure that we bring community in. We want to change that perception of what people think an older person is, or what getting old looks like.
Peter Murphy Lewis: The world does not run on headlines, it runs on people who care. I'm Peter Murphy Lewis, and this is "People Worth Caring About." Alongside my co-host, Jalene Carpenter, we sit down with the unsung heroes, caregivers, healers, helpers, the ones doing the real work even when no one is watching. These conversations are not polished, they're personal, because behind every act of care is a story worth hearing. New episodes drop regularly. Get updates at peopleworthcaringabout.com.
Maria Hudson: Hi, my name is Maria Hudson, and I'm the Senior Lead Administrative Assistant of the Good Samaritan Society in Auburn, Nebraska.
Peter Murphy Lewis: And what award did you win today?
Maria Hudson: I received a scholarship award, provided by the Nebraska Health Care Association, to attend a trip to Washington D.C.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Are you excited?
Maria Hudson: Yes, I actually already went.
Peter Murphy Lewis: So, Maria, welcome to the podcast, "People Worth Caring About." It's not your first rodeo with "People Worth Caring About."
Maria Hudson: It's not. I was one of the lucky ones that got to be part of the amazing docuseries.
Peter Murphy Lewis: What episode?
Maria Hudson: It was episode six, Good Samaritan Society, Auburn.
Peter Murphy Lewis: And you got to show off your amazing community skills with high schoolers and your residents. What's new? I haven't seen you in a year.
Maria Hudson: Well, it's been amazing. We continue to do the same thing since the last time you visited us was last year in April, and we have continued to bring community members, school members, back into our community. Since you've been there, we have celebrated different events. National Assisted Living Week is coming up and Nursing Home Week. So it's been a busy time at Good Samaritan Society in Auburn.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Any new activities that you've invented this year?
Maria Hudson: Well, we just took some residents to the Kimmel Orchard, we went to a hayride. We have an orchard that's about 40 minutes from our facility in Nebraska City, and we had the residents, they were able to pick some of the produce and we were able to have apple cider, and it was just an amazing time for them to be able to get on top into a hayride and go around the orchard.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Tell me what you learned in D.C. with your scholarship.
Maria Hudson: Well, I learned that I enjoy politics a little bit.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Really?
Maria Hudson: Yeah, I did. Actually, my first major in college was political science, with emphasis in international relations. I thought that I could make a difference when I was younger.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Tell me what you like about politics.
Maria Hudson: I like to have a voice. We went there to talk about different things that we are facing in the world of long-term care, and it was nice to sit down with people that help make some of those decisions and for them to be able to hear our side of the story, our feedback from people that are in the front line every day. And so, I really enjoyed just networking and meeting some of the senators, and just meeting some of the other scholarship recipients that were with me.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Can we imagine you being a mayor or governor one day?
Maria Hudson: My mom says I'm going to be the mayor of Auburn someday. I tell her no because I'm way too outspoken for politics.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Oh yeah, I feel the same way.
Maria Hudson: I think that they-
Peter Murphy Lewis: I don't have skeletons in my closet, my skeletons are in my front yard.
Maria Hudson: That is true too. No, I respect politics, but I don't think I would ever be involved. I think I'm just getting to a point in life that I don't want to... How do I say it? I guess I want to say just there's too many challenges when it comes to politics, too many opinions, too many perspectives, and so I don't know.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I have a question for you around politics. What is a political opinion or stance that you have today that is the biggest change that maybe you had a decade ago?
Maria Hudson: Regarding, you mean?
Peter Murphy Lewis: Anything in politics. I'll give you an answer to give you a little bit of time, which is whenever I talk to senior-living leaders and I try to convince them that we don't have to sit here and just deal with the negative public perception of our industry, we can change it, and they don't believe me, I say, "Well, why don't you say that to the HIV/AIDS community in 1990 and see if we changed the opinion by 2000?" Or, "Why don't we ask how the gay community feels from 1980 to where they feel today?" Or abortion or marijuana. What is something that you've changed on?
Maria Hudson: In long-term care, well, and I guess that would be fair, back 10 years ago, we weren't using as much workforce pool or agency in assisted livings and nursing homes. We did not have so many issues like we do now with the workforce. And not even 10 years, I'd say more five years, since 2020 when COVID hit, we have still been facing all the challenges that we face. We have a lot of staff that left the health care field, and so we're still picking up our pieces from 10, five years ago. From all those five years ago, where I remember not being difficult to hire an RN 10 years ago. Now, it's taking months to find an RN even to apply for a job in a rural nursing home, and that's something we did not face 10 years ago.
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Peter Murphy Lewis: I want to talk about some of your helpers, whether they be high school volunteers, whether they be CNAs, and it's a theme that I've talked about a lot this year, which is people who do things, who deliver dignity in the darkness. So do you have any special teammates who you find out once in a while they're doing things, and they don't tell anybody, and they're making either your job easier or the quality of life of your residents easier, and you're like, this is amazing? Can you think of any examples?
Maria Hudson: So many people, Peter, because this job is not just done by one person, there's so many people involved in caring for an elderly person. You have to really trust your team, and I'm saying from staff to even community. The community is just as responsible for the elderly people as we are, we need their support.
Maria Hudson: Something that we have tried at least at the nursing home from 10 years ago, is making sure that we bring community in. We want to change that perception of what people think an older person is or what getting old looks like. I want them to see, and not just through the doctor series you made, that it can be fun to work at a nursing home. It can be fun. Is it challenging? Yes. Is it difficult? At times. But it's also fun.
There's still memories that residents are making every single day, and we have a very important role in their lives, and it's trying to bring quality care to them, even if you're 95. And I can give you lots of examples, and I know you were going to ask me about that.
Maria Hudson: I have a lady, her name is Harriet, love her. She was 98 years old last September. She had never been fishing. Never, in her lifetime, never had been fishing. A very successful woman, owned many businesses, over 400 businesses that she had with her family, but she had never been fishing.
So she decided last minute that she was going to go fishing on our fishing trip. We got together with the Conservation Department of Nebraska, JAG, it's a group of graduates at Auburn Public Schools, and then we got our staff, and we took about 30 residents fishing. Five minutes before it was over, she was waiting, waiting, never caught anything, five minutes before the trip was over, you hear her screaming, you hear just a group of people yelling, screaming, and I run over there and she has caught a turtle. The biggest turtle you have ever seen.
Peter Murphy Lewis: A snapping turtle, I bet. Oh my goodness.
Maria Hudson: And it was this big with beautiful colors on the back. But what got me was the excitement, and the excitement not only of the residents around us, but of her and the staff. We cheered. Let me tell you, later on, I find out, I'm reading the newspaper, a local newspaper, and I see Harriet's story, "My First Catch."
She published her own story in a local newspaper, and I actually sent it up to our national campus, because that is how people connect, by saying, "Look at this lady who's 98, never caught a fish, and look at her now." And when I tell you that she got on the bus, and now everybody calls her the turtle catcher. So anyways, that's one of the reasons I do what I do, for those kind of experiences.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I love it, I love it. After you saw the documentary, what kind of impact did it have inside of your community, with your volunteers, with your students, with your residents? What did you hear, how did it impact you?
Maria Hudson: It was amazing, it has been amazing, it's been amazing. I've had a lot of people that have watched it. We were lucky enough that our local movie theater ran it, so we invited residents and families. And so, to tell you that I still continue to show it, I really enjoy showing it to the young people, because I want to say, look, look at the opportunities you have in the health care field. It's not just working at... There's so many opportunities in the health care field, and not only in nursing homes, but everywhere. I like to advocate for the whole health care field, because we need staff everywhere. And so, it's been a wonderful positive impact. I think it's changed the view of nursing homes and assisted living, because you see people smiling, you see people having fun, it's not just struggling or struggles.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Yeah. I interviewed a gentleman about two or three hours ago, who wasn't featured in the documentary, but he uses episodes to send it to residents who are hesitant to do their first transition into AL or SNF, to show that it's different than what they think. Isn't that cool?
Maria Hudson: It is cool. So that's funny you said that, because I had a new admission last week on Friday at the assisted living, and the daughter came and she noticed all the photos that we have. We put photos from the docuseries up at our assisted living, and she was mentioning, "What are all these photos about?" And I said, "You haven't heard?" Because I just thought everybody knew. So I got to sharing and I still had a flyer, and I just told her, "We're on national TV now." I said, "We're on YouTube and we're on Hulu and Netflix." I said, "So you can actually go in there."
And so, she says, "I'm going to go home and I'm going to watch that." And so, exactly, I think that's something that we'll start doing, sharing that with people.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Wonderful. Maria, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. I'm excited for your big award ceremony today, it's a big deal. It's great to see you here, and let's make it happen next year as well.
Maria Hudson: Thank you so much, Peter.
Peter Murphy Lewis: That's a wrap on "People Worth Caring About," born from the documentary, built to keep the stories going. Shout out to Nebraska Health Care Association and Jalene Carpenter for helping launch it, and to Ohio and New Mexico for making future seasons real. Watch the docuseries online or at peopleworthcaringabout.com. And if this episode meant something to you, leave a review, it matters. Take care of yourself and the people worth caring about.
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