.webp)
Summary
In this heartfelt episode, Chris Moninger of Brookestone View shares his journey as a medication aide, his experiences living with disabilities, and how those challenges helped him build meaningful bonds with residents. Chris discusses mentorship, emotional resilience, rural community life, and receiving the NPV award for exceptional care. He offers practical advice for young caregivers starting in long-term care.
Key Takeaways:
(00:00) Introduction.
(02:30) Early mentorship helps shape lifelong values in care.
(04:50) Personal challenges create deeper empathy for others.
(06:14) Overcoming adversity can bring a renewed perspective on life.
(06:53) Everyday acts of service provide lasting fulfillment.
(07:50) Teamwork and recognition motivate consistent improvement.
(09:01) Listening to stories helps form meaningful connections.
Resources Mentioned:
Thank you for listening to “People Worth Caring About.” If you found value in this episode, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating to help others discover these important stories.
For more information and to connect with our guests, visit PeopleWorthCaringAbout.com.
Listen on Apple | Listen on Spotify | Watch it on YouTube
Transcript
Chris Moninger: I wear a hearing aid. I'm 53 years old. I wear a hearing aid. I have been through the visual issues with life. So I can really sympathize with residents.
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.
Chris Moninger: I am Chris Moninger. I am a CNA.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Chris, welcome to the podcast, "People Worth Caring About." It's not your first time on "People Worth Caring About."
Chris Moninger: No.
Peter Murphy Lewis: So tell me, you were in the first season in Nebraska, and you just found out on stage in the room how big of an impact you had on me. I shared with the audience, 500 people, that you were one of the most important characters in the relationship that you'd built with an old wrestling acquaintance from college or from high school, and how you woke him up and made him happy and made his day. How did it feel to be in the spotlight today?
Chris Moninger: A little bit emotional. Very proud. Hope everybody feels like that.
Peter Murphy Lewis: You told me before we turned on the podcast that you had an important person in your life. Tell me a little bit about Paul. Tell me how you met him. Where were you?
Chris Moninger: So I turned 19 years old and started my first nursing home facility. And this fellow named Paul. He probably 45 years old. Big, burly guy. He takes me under his wing. We're going to do residents together.
We're going to do the heavy haul together. Back then, we didn't have so many lifts. So we were lifting residents a lot more. And anyway, he was just a person that told me, he says, "I come here till the grass is green." And 25 years later, he's still there working. And I can't think of anybody that the residents were more attached to than Paul.
Peter Murphy Lewis: What made him special for you? What did he teach you?
Chris Moninger: He just taught me how to care, how to care for residents and make residents happy. Their lives matter. And when you're a young person, you come in there, you're just going through life. This is just a stop.
He's showing me the touching sides of life. I mean, these people matter. The residents, they have feelings, and they want to be heard. Paul, just he brung the best out of people, put a lot of smiles on a lot of residents' face. Best guy you could ask for.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I know that it's probably not common, middle-aged men in the middle of America, you probably don't share words amongst each other. He's not probably a gentleman that you got to say, "You taught me so much. I care for you. I love you." Did he know how important he was for you?
Chris Moninger: We became very, very close friends. He always, later years, he treated me like his own son. We ended up doing a lot of family bonding times together outside of facilities. And, unfortunately, he passed a few years back. I was a pallbearer. But yeah, we live in rural America. It's kind of a manly community we're in. And Paul and I, we were not fitting the norm, but that's okay.
Peter Murphy Lewis: You told me that you didn't get your driver's license till you were how old, and why?
Chris Moninger: I did not have a driver's license until I was 24 years old. I was legally blind. I received a cornea transplant at age 24, and life was really bright again.
Peter Murphy Lewis: What was that like? Do you remember the first day? Do you remember who you were with? What's the story? We just talked about story. What's the story that you remember?
Chris Moninger: I just remember the next morning, he took that patch off my eye, and it was literally like going from night to day. I worked for five years with a fuzzy vision. I couldn't see faces. Maybe I couldn't see a smile down the hall like I could up close. Now, all of a sudden, I'm seeing most everything. It was amazing.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Does that early childhood, adolescence, young man experience, impact the way that you take care of residents? You had a disability for the first half of your life, and now know... how does it feel to take care of people who have the same thing, but the second half of their life?
Chris Moninger: Absolutely. I mean, I wear a hearing aid. I'm 53 years old. I wear a hearing aid. I have been through the visual issues with life. So I can really sympathize with residents with needs. A lot of times I'm showing new staff, we sit down at the table, resident at mealtime. I'm like, "Okay, we got peas at 12:00. We got meat at 6:00." Most people just don't think about those simple things, but if you can't see things, you're going to get altered.
Peter Murphy Lewis: This show is powered by AAG Health, the team behind the teams. If you're building a care team that actually cares, nurses, doctors, techs, admin pros, AAG doesn't just fill jobs. They find people who show up and stay. Visit aag.health, and see how fast the right people can make all the difference.
You work in Broken Bow, right? What do you do? What's your title, and what do you do?
Chris Moninger: I am a med aide. I help get people up. I pass meds. Once in a while, I drive the facility van, take people places, help out with a little bit of everything.
Peter Murphy Lewis: And today, during my talk, I talked about have you ever felt like you're just something or have you always known that what you do is really, really important?
Chris Moninger: Being in a small town, like I said, with the manly thing, there was a lot of years where it was not the popular thing. And you just got to keep believing you're doing the right thing. I have had the privilege of over my 30, almost 35 years now, I bet I've worked with 30 or 40 males that have come through the facilities, and some have been there quite a while. As time goes on, I realize how much I do matter, how much the guy next to me matters that's helping.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Now that you have that self-awareness and that emotional maturity, do you take it upon yourself to make sure the younger generation understands their calling?
Chris Moninger: Absolutely. Yes. I try to highlight all the good stuff. We want to keep people. We want to have people come do this, have fun teams. We want to make our residents happy. We want to put smiles on their face. Residents like when they know who comes in and gets them up in the morning. They like that little joke [inaudible 00:07:45]. They might give it right back.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I just had Glenn tell me that you won an award. What's the name of the award that you won, and what are they doing?
Chris Moninger: The NPV award. So our staff nominates somebody every month, and then at the end of three months, then you got those three people to choose from to nominate to see who goes to home office.
Peter Murphy Lewis: And what do you get to do? Do they pamper you?
Chris Moninger: I haven't been there yet, so we're about to find out.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Are you excited?
Chris Moninger: Yeah, I kind of am. Yeah.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Were you surprised when you won?
Chris Moninger: I've had some peers that have nominated me for several things in the last couple years, and it's an honor. I try to lead by example. And I feel like if you lead by example, people are going to see that, and they're going to appreciate you. They're going to put you out there.
Peter Murphy Lewis: You discovered long-term care coming back from college, not knowing what you were going to do. What advice would you tell your younger self, your 19-year-old self or 20-year-old self, about what awaits you, what you're going to find in terms of purpose and meaning? Looking back on it, what would you tell your younger self?
Chris Moninger: Embrace it a lot more early on. Because sometimes I feel like people don't quite understand. Some do, but we have a lot of people that come through, and they're just on their way to their next stop. Embrace it, enjoy it. There's a lot of stories out there. Residents, I've heard 1,000 stories that I would love to have written every one of them down.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Chris, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for coming. I told you, you had a big impact on me in the way that you just kind of march ahead every single day. You create a connection in rural America, in a world where sometimes, men, we struggle with that communication skills. And you did it without words, your relationship with your residents, and kind of what I learned from you. And I'm so happy that you got to play a part, and we get to leave a living legacy, a visual legacy of who you are. I'm so proud.
Chris Moninger: It's an honor. Thank you.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Thank you, Chris. 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.
#HealthcareLeadership #WasteManagement #SkilledTrades #PeopleWorthCaringAbout
