Summary
On this episode, host Peter Murphy Lewis talks with Greg Ernst, Vice President of Operations at Dial Senior Living and Chair of the Nebraska Healthcare Assisted Living Association. Greg shares his path from an uncertain start in healthcare to finding lasting purpose in senior living. He reflects on the daily rewards of connecting with residents, the importance of authenticity in leadership, and the impact of often-overlooked frontline caregivers. His story highlights the heart of long-term care and why people matter most.
Key Takeaways:
(00:00) Introduction.
(02:40) Discovering senior living through an unexpected internship.
(05:10) How a resident’s gratitude for housekeeping revealed a daily impact.
(09:23) Residents carry wisdom, vitality, and life experience.
(12:42) Senior living offers unmatched daily career satisfaction, often in simple ways.
(15:41) Overnight and dining staff often go unseen.
(18:15) Leadership values are shaped by the memory of a grandmother’s selflessness.
Resources Mentioned:
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Transcript
Greg Ernst: The feeling of being able to positively impact somebody's life every single day and just again, that gratitude that you receive, it's an incredibly rewarding career.
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.
Greg Ernst: I'm Greg Ernst, chair for the Nebraska Healthcare Assisted Living Association and the Vice President of Operations for Dial Senior Living. Take one.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Love it. Greg, welcome to the podcast, People Worth Caring About.
Greg Ernst: Thank you for having me.
Peter Murphy Lewis: So you just dropped an interesting fact, which is you have a unique career path and you didn't think you would be here in long-term care, sitting at a convention in Kearney, Nebraska on August 27th, 2025. Where were you 10 years ago? Why didn't you think you'd be in long-term care?
Greg Ernst: Well, 10 years ago I did, I thought I would be in long-term care. It was a little bit further than that. I went to... coming out of high school, going into college, I've actually only worked professionally in long-term care. Growing up it was not my dream to work in long-term care. I originally thought I wanted to be a pharmacist, of all things, and went to the University of Iowa and did everything other than study and go to class, and realized you have to do a little bit of that to be a pharmacist.
Honestly, I was lucky enough that when I graduated high school, I was actually a sophomore going into college, so I had a little bit of leeway to figure out what I really wanted to do. Went to the University of Iowa, wanted to be a pharmacist because, I mean healthcare has always interested me, and quickly found out chemistry and math, maybe not my strong suit.
Then went into business, just follow in my father's footsteps as a businessman, possibly accounting, realized that that just wasn't me either. It was boring. So I burned a semester on accounting, still hung up on the whole healthcare component, I kicked around being a nurse and went through a semester of nursing school and then also quickly found out that I don't like bodily fluids, which ruled that out. And finally had a heart-to-heart with my advisor and suggested healthcare administration. And even at that point I was not thinking healthcare administration and long-term care. At that point in time, I was also working and volunteering at the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics, and thought that I would work, be an administrator at a hospital. I graduated from college and so I pursued that path, as going to be an administrator in a hospital setting.
I graduated during the collapse of 2008, 2009 and couldn't find a job. And so I decided to go straight into grad school and get my master's in business administration with an emphasis in healthcare administration. And throughout that process I ended up doing an internship at a long-term care facility and I just fell in love. It was one of the best experiences that I had or that I had had so far. And as I started thinking about it , in a hospital setting, to me it's just more transactional. I mean, if I were to be an administrator at a hospital, I would likely be behind a door, not necessarily in an office, not necessarily interacting with people.
And I just fell in love with the interaction that you get every single day with a number of different people and the fact that it's not short, it's not just your checkup was great, we'll see you in six months. It's figuring out what they're doing tomorrow, what they're doing over the weekend, figuring out, checking in to see how their weekend went and everything. Just more the relationship component of it really stuck with me. And from that point on, I just decided I wanted to be in long-term care.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Do you remember something in your first week in that long-term care facility that resonated with your soul, with your bones, that it seems like you spent three to six years trying to figure out what you wanted to do and rather quickly something slapped you in the face and it said, "This is for you"? Do you remember any moments or any emotions or any conversations going home?
Greg Ernst: I mean, I was young and I can't really remember what I did yesterday, but I would just say it wasn't any particular resident that I interacted with. It was more just that feeling of... So the internship that I did, the gentleman that was my preceptor ended up making me work in every single department.
I think the first department that I worked in was housekeeping and it was hard work and don't get me wrong, it was hard work and just the fact that the resident thanked me afterwards for what I did, and I just looked at it at that point in time is just, well, that's what I was brought to do here, was to clean your apartment. But just the gratitude that I made an impact on her day and the same just trickled into every single department that I went in and spent some time in, was just that same appreciation that the residents had for us. And as a bonus, you're hanging out with a bunch of grandparents, which is cool. And they took just as much interest in me as I took in them and it was just different.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Yeah. Is there anything about your personality that lined up with the skill set needed for your job that allowed you to excel at it with your team, with your residents or the way that you approach business or operations or HR, that this specific place, this type of people worked for you?
Greg Ernst: I don't think I have any special attributes or anything that would make me different than anybody else. The only thing that comes to mind is that with me, what you see is what you get. I'm not going to fake anything. If I feel a way, I am going to let you know about it. There's no faking in me.
I like to think of myself as being very authentic. I may not know something, I might act like I know and then I'll eventually tell you that I really don't know it. But I think it's just more just being genuine, just being a person, realizing that... I mean the whole series that you're putting together is People Worth Caring About,
I mean, it's on both sides. I mean the people, our team members who are people and our residents who are people are both worth caring about and it's just people taking care of people, which is just awesome.
Be genuine, be yourself, be authentic. I don't think there's... there's no business acumen or skillset that I think that I have, that makes it unique or has made me more successful than anybody else. I really think it is just that authenticity.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Do you have anything, do you have any opinions that have changed, since you started long-term care, about what you thought of the industry, what you thought of the care or even aging adults, that 20 years ago you think differently today?
Greg Ernst: I would say going into that initial internship that we just talked about, I didn't, at the time, did not view it as the ideal internship. I was reluctant to go into a senior living community with, well, I don't know, I guess your perception of what a senior living... At the time, my only experience in a long-term care setting was visiting...
My grandmother was a CNA her entire life, working at a nursing home. And my only experience was visiting her at work when I was very young. And at that point in time you're thinking sterile hallways, everybody's in wheelchairs, those types of things. And so at the time I didn't view it as the ideal internship mainly because of that. But then after being in there and realizing that these people are far more than just, I don't know how to say this nicely, they don't view it as just their last step.
I mean, there are people in the communities that, sure, they may have lost some of their physical abilities but are far sharper than I am and have done way more in their lives than I could ever imagine doing. Or there's people that are struggling with some cognitive impairments that are more physically fit than I am. I mean, I don't work out. I've got a little bit of a gut on me and all of that. And so just finding out that they are people, again, at the end of the day, and they have a lot to share, they have a lot to give, and they deserve that.
Peter Murphy Lewis: To that point, yesterday at the award ceremony here at the Nebraska Healthcare Association, there was a gentleman, I think it was the Resident of the Year, was it George? who got up and he was in a wheelchair and was the funniest person in the room of 471 attendees and just had everybody rolling. And he doesn't think that this is his last year. I feel like he's still perfecting his craft of gab and jokes. And I've done stand-up comedy. He was funnier than anything I could do. He didn't have a script in front of him.
Greg Ernst: He was just winging it. And I don't know if you heard him say that he is a retired pastor and still preaches every Sunday to the residents. That's amazing. Absolutely. There's still a ton of life left in our residents and we need to help them get that out.
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To even double down on what you've learned in that time is, or from previous to work in a long-term care, somebody might see him the first time and say, "Oh, long-term care, that inspires me because when I get older, I don't have to just give up." Right. Well, I'm 45 and I've given up more than he has, so I don't have to wait until I move into a skilled nursing facility for him to inspire me. Get off my butt today. Right?
Greg Ernst: Absolutely. And that's one of the things that I often tell people, whether it's an interview or you're new to the industry. This never comes out right, but I'm going to give it a whirl. This industry is, I don't know if it's a self... It's weird. Yes, we get a paycheck to come to work every day, but find me another job that gives you that satisfaction.
The feeling of being able to positively impact somebody's life every single day and just, again, that gratitude that you receive. It's an incredibly rewarding career so long as you do it right, so long you give that love, the same love that those residents want to give back to you. As long as you give it to them, you're going to receive it back and it's very rewarding.
Peter Murphy Lewis: That reminds me of a question, Greg, that I used to ask frequently on this podcast, and it's been a while. I'm bad at this type of memory-type thing, so I'm not going to remember who the football player is. I think he played for the Ravens and he used to say something along the lines, I'm paraphrasing, "You pay me for practice Monday through Saturday. Sunday, I work for free." And it's because he loves the game so much. If I ask you the same question in long-term care, but I take away your option to say, "working with people," something that might seem less glamorous, but you absolutely love it, what is it that you would do for free?
Greg Ernst: What would I do for free? I mean, I would volunteer my time in a senior living community for free.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Is there something in your day that you love so much, you look forward to that, to me it seems like, oh, why is that interesting, but you absolutely love it.
Greg Ernst: So sticking with my day-to-day now?
Peter Murphy Lewis: Yeah,
Greg Ernst: Sitting down and having a cup of coffee with the residents is one of my favorite things. When I was in a community was how it started my day. Every single day I would go into, I love coffee, there's a cup of coffee sitting right next to me.
As I come in the morning, I would grab a cup of coffee and just sit down at a table and with some of the residents and just have that cup of coffee and just chat. That was the highlight of my day. I mean, just hearing about what's going on in their life, how excited they are that maybe their grandkid is coming this weekend, or even having them ask me about my children and being able to tell them about my kids or what's going on in my life.
It really, you become family working in a community and with the residents. So the highlight of my day every day is having a cup of coffee with the residents and just being able to chat.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Love it. Do you take your kids into the community?
Greg Ernst: I do. I do occasionally. They're five and a half and two and a half. So we typically just go to events like Easter egg hunts, and a lot of our communities have petting zoos on occasion during the summer just to get families out and whatnot, and absolutely, and they love it.
My daughter's in a stage where she wants to know if everything is important. She knows that firefighters are important and that police officers are important and teachers are important. And the other day she was asking me about my job and what it is that I do. And so I told her, "Well, I work in the senior living industry and we have apartments that residents live in, like your grandpa and grandma might live there."
And she just asked me, she goes, "Well, daddy, is that an important job?" I said, "Absolutely, honey. It's an important job. There's a lot of people depending on daddy every single day, and the people that are living there need a little bit of help with some things and daddy gets to do that." And she goes, "Wow, that does sound important. I think I want to do that when I get older." And it was the coolest thing.
Peter Murphy Lewis: We need a video clip of that and get your wife to sign off on it and put that on Dial's Facebook. Tell me a little bit about your community, Dial Senior Living. And the way that I'm going to ask the question, and you'll hear it if you're coming to my talk in about an hour, is a concept called 'Dignity in the Darkness.' Who is a person on your team that works really, really hard, doesn't do it for accolades or for praise, does it behind the scenes and really makes a difference for your residents or for your team?
Greg Ernst: A single person? I don't know that I can pin down a single person. I think I would argue that we have an overnight team of CNAs that do not get the praise that they deserve. They're there for the most part unsupervised, caring for the residents, taking care of everything. I mean, it's a much smaller staff or a much smaller team because obviously people are sleeping and should something happen overnight, they really need to wear multiple hats overnight.
So I would say every single one of our overnight teams, every single one of our servers. I mean, I go out for a meal just with my family and there's always something messed up with a meal. I mean, I don't like vegetables, I don't like sauces and whatnot, and I can't tell you how many times, I mean, that's not how most people order their food, but I can't tell you how often I have to send that back.
And our dining staff is serving... I have the option not to go back to that restaurant if they screw my order. Our residents don't have that option. And so they're dealing with that every single day. And we're humans, we're going to make mistakes, and being able to just roll with that. So I would say every single one of our... I mean it's every one of our frontline team members, that I think that don't get the recognition that they deserve and that are doing a very difficult, yet rewarding job that goes unseen, unpraised.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Do you have any words of advice that you've heard throughout your life from somebody that you repeat in your head and you just remember it? Maybe it's from a mom or a grandma or a neighbor that resonates with you and you still continue to use it to motivate you?
Greg Ernst: I would say it's my father. He always just said, "Just do the right thing and the rest will follow." No matter what it is. I mean, follow your heart. If it feels true to you, then just do it and the rest will come. And that's something that I apply to everything. I mean, if it's any sort of issue that comes up, whether it's a billing issue, a resident concern, how would I want this handled? And then if it's something that I would be comfortable with having that same issue resolved or that same action or whether or not I'm going to do something, if it's something that I feel is right and is the proper way, I just follow it.
It doesn't matter the cost, sometimes it matters, some of the other impacts, but I would just say, just do the right thing first, then the rest will follow.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Love it. Greg, as we start to wrap up, I ask you if you have a healthcare influencer? Somebody who maybe now, maybe 10 years ago, maybe tomorrow, impacts how you approach care?
Greg Ernst: Well, I hinted at it. My grandmother, which, I didn't know, it didn't really dawn on me while she was working, that she influenced I think some of my decisions in life and my career path and whatnot. But my grandmother, she was a single mother, my grandfather passed away when my father was 12 years old, and she ended up raising five children on a CNA's wage and worked her entire life, and again, I didn't notice it or I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back, it was definitely her.
I mean, she was the type of person... I mean, it had to be tough raising five kids and on a CNA's wage, and she was just the most... She always thought about everybody else. I mean, I look at the cost of going to different sporting events for my children right now, and my grandmother never missed an event of mine.
I'm not talking about my parents. I mean, my parents didn't miss them either, but my grandmother didn't miss them. When she ended up moving into one of our communities and lived the end of her life in one of our communities, she actually lived in one of our communities for 13 years. And just talking with her, visiting with her often. Side note, that community that my grandmother lived in was the first community that I got my start in, which was kind of cool. So I got to bounce ideas off of her. I mean, she had lived her entire life in that same setting where she was caring for people, but then in turn now had people caring for her.
And so I would ask her, "Well, hey grandma, well, what do you think about this?" She would give me a little bit of biased opinion if it involved her, but she gave me advice on different things and, again, how she lived her life, it was always about caring about other people. She always put everybody else first, and she always came second and it's just amazing. And she was salt of the earth type of person. So she influenced me.
Peter Murphy Lewis: On that story, it sounds like you started to internalize those lessons that she was teaching you through acts of service, through doing later in life. If you had to say maybe in one sentence, the before and after who you are, who were you before you realized what she was teaching you and now who you are today, the after? How would you summarize that? What's the one lesson that you take away when you mention her as your hero.
Greg Ernst: Well, the before would be that, I mean, I was about myself. After I was all about other people.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Wow. That's lovely. Greg, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast, People Worth Caring About. It's a pleasure meeting you, and love your story.
Greg Ernst: Yeah, thank you.
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 Healthcare Association, 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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