Summary
In this episode, Aimee Middleton, Chief Operating Officer at Good Samaritan, shares stories from her journey into long-term care, lessons learned through leadership transitions, and her vision for the future of senior care. From evacuating an entire campus during a hurricane to reducing agency reliance by over 40%, Aimee offers insight into what it takes to lead with heart, grit, and clarity in a challenging industry.
Key Takeaways:
(04:54) Discovering a love for customer service and people.
(09:46) Realizing long-term care is about more than business.
(10:56) Learning from front-line team members.
(13:44) Bringing 500+ leaders together each year to align.
(15:24) Preferring the “dollar tour” of facilities.
(18:01) Creating super teams to reduce agency staffing.
(19:55) Flying into a hurricane to protect residents.
(24:16) Winning others over is less about sales and more about building authentic connections.
(32:26) Fighting to remove documentation burdens through AI.
(35:37) Advice for younger professionals: enjoy each stage, and it’s okay to make mistakes.
Resources Mentioned:
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Transcript
Aimee Middleton: There are not as many people to be able to care for the people that we're going to be so lucky to care for and to help age. And so, I have a dream of team members being able to work very efficiently to the highest scope of their work. And we're going to be able to do that through AI and new technology and tools like this.
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.
This is "People Worth Caring About." I'm Peter Murphy Lewis and and joined today with my co-host Jalene Carpenter. Today we are talking to Aimee Middleton, the COO of Good Samaritan Society, one of the largest, and I must say best long-term care organizations. Aimee and Jalene have known each other for quite some time, so I'm going to let Jalene kick it off.
Aimee, welcome to the program.
Aimee Middleton: Awesome. Thanks, Peter.
Jalene Carpenter: Oh my gosh, Aimee. So you and I have known each other for a long time. Thinking about getting the time to talk today, I was super excited, but I actually went back to when I very first met you. And I don't even know that you remember it.
Aimee Middleton: Oh boy.
Jalene Carpenter: I know. So I was a young administrator running a nursing home. And at that point in my life, I don't even think I had kids. And I was very competitive. And there was an open house at South Lake Village, and they were introducing you. You were with your mentor, and they're like, "This is Aimee." And I was like, "Who does she think she is?" I was like, immediately, there's this other driven female. It was an immediate reaction of like, "I must be better than she is." And now you're one of the most amazing people that I know. And I have this horrible, sickening feeling that that was my first reaction to meeting you. But I think initially it's because I could tell, like, "Oh, this lady, she is here. She is dedicated. She's not messing around."
So I don't know if you remember the first time you met me, but that was what stuck out when I first met you.
Aimee Middleton: I can't say that I remember you from that event, but I can say I remember that day. And I remember being there, and I remember being really nervous. I had had a career before I came over to long-term care, but I didn't know anybody in the industry. And so, at that point, I'd been introduced by the Nebraska Health Care Association there at South Lake, and I had the opportunity to be there for that opening. And I remember networking and trying to meet as many people and being in awe of a lot of different people. But I do remember that day. But that is really funny that you picked up on my competitiveness too, probably, and thought, "Okay, here's somebody that's going to have some fun with me."
Jalene Carpenter: For sure. And I know, Peter, I don't want to steal thunder, but to me, Aimee, I think we became friends over time. And the more I've gotten to know you, the more your story of just grit and resilience, not just in this industry but as a whole, has just always stuck with me. And I even talked about it with my own kids of, like, you can grind and you can do some amazing things. But I don't know if you're comfortable to share sort of your story of even before you got to our industry.
Aimee Middleton: Yeah. Thanks, Jalene. I appreciate that. I've had a fun life. Everything that has happened to me in my life, I can go back, and even my parents and I laugh because I might've been a bit of a stinker a little bit through my high school years. And I had a little bit of fun and I really pushed. I'm the oldest child. And I really pushed in a lot of ways, but something my parents, and I would say my grandparents, instilled in me is that you have to work for whatever you want. And my husband and I share that philosophy. And so, we were willing to both have three jobs to have what we want and to do things differently.
I'm also a fair amount of competitive as Jalene mentioned. And so, when I met my husband, initially, we met, we were both working at a restaurant, and I needed a business job. I was going to school for business, and I really needed to figure something out. Here's this gentleman that owned this lawn and landscape company, and he was a mess, a hot mess of a company. He's my husband now, so I can say that. And I was like, "You need me." And I was not interested in him romantically. I wanted to work for him and help him build his business and do things. And I saw that as my gateway into doing a lot of the things that I was learning in school. I've worked as a waitress for a really long time. I learned that I was really good at customer service. I really loved people. And I thought, I can apply all of that, all this business stuff, and really help him grow his business.
And then we did. We started it. And we all had to do different things. We had kids, and we had to be even more creative and work a couple different jobs. I went back to waitressing for a little while to be able to stay home with my kids longer. And then, at some point, Todd would say, Todd's my husband, he would say that he fired me. I will tell you that I quit to find my own thing, but it took me a few stops along the way. One of my strengths is WOO. And so that can come off in a lot of different sales people. So I tried a couple different sales positions. I worked for a staffing company. I tried a few different things before, ultimately, I had a personal experience that led me to long-term care.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I want to go back to this first moment of competition because I envisioned you all immediately playing paper-rock-scissors, and then I imagined arm-wrestling.
And, Aimee, as the COO of a very important company, I want to ask you about imposter syndrome. I have noticed the further, that as I get older, the more important people I meet, nobody can escape imposter syndrome. Aimee, where does your imposter syndrome come up? And then, what do you do to remind yourself that you can do it?
Aimee Middleton: All right, I'm going to need you to define imposter syndrome. Really explain so I don't get this question wrong.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Yeah. I don't know if I'll be able to find... I'll do my best, which... it's when you feel that you're not up for the challenge, that you have taken on something that you're not good enough for or you are around people that are much better at what they are than you are or what you are and you shouldn't be there.
Aimee Middleton: Oh man, I have imposter syndrome every day and didn't even know it.
Peter Murphy Lewis: We do. We do.
Aimee Middleton: It is all over in me. And sometimes, I would say, Peter, even I get irritated sometimes when people say, "Oh my gosh, you just did a fantastic job." And I think, "Really? You thought that was a fantastic job? Because I feel like I messed up my words. I said really funny things." I have a grammar issue. I'm not always really good at grammar. And sometimes I make up words. I get up, and I have that complex, and I get really nervous before things as well.
And so, it always is interesting to me to see it from other people's eyes, and they'll say, "Oh my gosh, you're such a natural speaker." No, I'm not. Even before this podcast, my hands are super sweaty. I get nervous about everything, and I'm just talking about myself, which should not be all that hard. And Jalene and I's relationship and long-term care, which I love dearly. So I would say it shows up every day, in everything that I do. And I just keep trying to power through. And I would say I also just try and be me. I try and be as real as I possibly can.
Jalene Carpenter: Aimee, I know for me it's always about accountability partners. Who can I trust to ask, "Hey, how does this sound?" You've been an accountability partner for me in the past, practicing presentation. Who do you have? Do you feel like you have those accountability partners or the people who can be real, like Aimee now?
Aimee Middleton: Absolutely. Well, Jalene is really good at it. Jalene also happens to be the person that I'll send an outfit to and check my 'fits. Sometimes my 21-year-old daughter doesn't get it quite right for what I'm looking for, so Jalene's a good second there.
I have some amazing people that I work here with at the Good Samaritan Society, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Kara Nelson who works for us. And she's really great at understanding or saying, "I think maybe you want to tweak how you're saying that."
The mirror's probably my best friend, Jalene. I rehearse and rehearse in front of the mirror, to the point that my husband won't even travel with me if I'm speaking because I have to practice so much.
Jalene Carpenter: We have to go back. Peter, Aimee and I have this thing where if either of us have something important or big, there's at least six text pictures of outfit A, B, C, D, or E. And it's like that's how we decide. We're like, "Okay, I have the seal of approval." And then I feel confident because Aimee has cleared my wardrobe.
Aimee Middleton: Yep, absolutely. The same.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Aimee, tell me about one of the first stories that you remember when you got into long-term care. You mentioned that you've had some careers before that, so I want to kind of dive into maybe that first week or that first month or that first quarter that's really impact how someone, I guess, perceives this new job, this new industry.
Aimee Middleton: When I first started into long-term care, I would say that I was very naive. I don't know that I had really any idea of what I was getting into. I really thought, "Okay, I'm going to be the administrator." And I'd been a manager of a staffing branch and things like that, run a small company, so I thought, "Okay, I'm going to do business things. I'm going to do the marketing, and I'm going to interview people and things like that."
When you get into long-term care, it's not that. All about the people. And it really changed when I really realized what that really meant. This is somebody's home. They live here. Yes, there, of course, is a business side to it, but there's so much more. My family would probably all tell you that they would've never seen me working in a nursing home either. But it was fantastic. And I'll never forget one of my very first days, I'm walking down the hallway. And I hear a resident needing some help and the call light's on. So I walk in the room, and I ask the lady, "Can I help you? Is there something that I can get for you?" And she wanted a drink of water and I said, "Oh God, I'm so excited I can do that."
I know how to do that. And so I went, and I grabbed some water and I'm walking down the hallway. And Kay, a CNA, approaches me, and she said, "You're not going to Mavis's room, are you?" And I said, "I am. She wants some water." And she said, "Oh, you're just going to come with me. And we're going to walk down the hallway and I'm going to teach you something. And you see this resident needed thickened liquids, but she always asked for water." And just smart residents. She picked out new people real easy. And so, Kay taught me a huge lesson, but I'll never forget the moment because it showed me also how much I needed to depend on my team members and how much I really could count on them to show me the ropes and to teach me the things that I didn't know about long-term care. And Kay really emphasized that for me. And I'll never forget her because of it.
Jalene Carpenter: Aimee, you talked about you were so confident, right? And I think when I first met you, that was probably what you exuded, is this level of confidence. It's probably why you got to where you are today. How do you feel like that's been misperceived, or, like, in your example there, you were taking that water back, man, where has maybe that strength been a barrier at times?
Aimee Middleton: I think it is a barrier sometimes in that maybe I don't seem approachable or that I have it all figured out. And I would say probably in a couple of different leadership roles. So when I went from being an administrator where you're in your building, people got to see the goofy side of Aimee. They got to know me, and they knew that they could trust me. But when I got into that next role of leading leaders, maybe that did not come off the same way because I was so confident, and I was with the same company I was with Good Sam. And so when I moved, I went from being their peer to being their supervisor. That was hard in the beginning because I probably was really confident. I knew what I knew, and I knew how I ran my buildings. And so, that was a hard barrier to work through.
But I've made a few mistakes. There's a couple administrators on that team today. You even know one, Cassie Green. Oh actually, Peter, I think you know Cassie too, from Auburn.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Yeah.
Aimee Middleton: She called me out on it. And she let me know people were having a hard time coming to me. It was great. It was really good for me to realize that. But sometimes I can be so confident or carrying examples of things that worked well for me and not letting people be part of the conversation to what their next step is. So sometimes that can come off in my personality, for sure.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Aimee, you said before we hit record that you just got out of a three-day event with a bunch of your direct reports all in the operations. I guess, what did you learn or what's something from those three days that has you excited about the direction of you all's organization?
Aimee Middleton: Yeah. Thanks, Peter. We do. Once a year, we bring in about 500 leaders from our organization, and it's the administrators and the director of nursing. And I learn something every year. This is my third year of leading annual operating conference. And I learned something every year.
One of the first years we made a huge investment to bring in the director of nursing. The mistake I made that year was not focusing enough on clinical and really that director of nursing role. And so, the next year, we really focused on that clinical piece and the administrators. And then that year I learned a little bit about, well, we also have home-based services and senior living and skilled nursing. A few of them were brave enough to say, "Hey, don't forget about me." And so we talked about it.
And I would say this year I learned the balance of all of that and that you can't hit everything, but as long as we could hit pieces of everything, I think was really good. Last year's conference, I had a lot of takeaways like, "Hey, learn this and then take this back to your building." And the feedback we got was, "Whoa, that was too much." And then I left with a to-do list. So this year we tried to focus maybe just a little bit less, but I learn every year. I can't wait to hear the feedback from this year's conference so that we can adapt and think about what does next year look like.
Peter Murphy Lewis: What does your learning process look like? How do you stay prepared for these big conferences to lead your team? Are you reading books? Are you going to conferences for COOs? Where do you find your knowledge and inspiration at the same time?
Aimee Middleton: I would say from my buildings. I love to be in our buildings and just witness and see things. I don't want you to just give me the nickel tour. I want the dollar tour. I want to see that break room. I want to know what your outside looks like. I want you to show me who your very best team member is and introduce me to them and help me thank them as well. I want to talk to your leaders. I want to be real with them. I want to sit down at the table, I want to share a meal with them, maybe a beverage. And I want you to be real and talk to me.
I also have an administrator's council that I meet with every single month. And so, there's an administrator from every single region. And our chief nursing officer also has a nursing one as well. And we really use those councils. So a lot of the decisions that I make, I'm putting in front of them. Well, I've told them to be real, but they are a really real group, and they will tell me, "That doesn't feel right. We got to rethink that. Or you at least have to rethink your messaging, Aimee, as you take that out." And I think those things help me stay very, very connected.
I give everybody permission. You can call me at any time. My cell phone's out there anywhere. You'll call me and we can have a real conversation about just about anything. And that does help, I do believe.
Peter Murphy Lewis: One last question before I pass it back to you, Jalene, because I love to talk to, I think, two types of people in my life, engineers and COOs, just because the way they approach problems is so much different than anything that I'm familiar with.
So I want to ask you, Aimee, outside of COVID, what is the hardest thing that you've ever had to face? And walk me through something specific. What was challenging about it? What mistake did you make? How did you come out?
Aimee Middleton: I would say the workforce challenge has been probably the single most. And it's not gone. It's still very, very real. But I would say even more, maybe balancing the workforce challenges with financial stability. Those were some of our hardest times coming out of the COVID pandemic. Not having the people, our reliance on agency, that was tough. It was really tough because we couldn't afford it. So we had to think about how can we come out of this, and what does that look like? And how can I help leaders understand that? Because I think they felt very overwhelmed and like nothing that they could do could change that.
And so we worked really, really hard on investing in our leaders initially and saying, "We are here to walk alongside you. Let us help you with some of those tools." We had a lot of fun with it in developing super teams in every building and really having them find the people in their team that were going to help them. Grassroots efforts. How do you connect? How do you retain your employees? We had each of them develop their own 90-day bubble wrap.
And that, I think, it was so hard for me. And Jalene can probably attest to this, but it was so hard to not be the doer because I could do it. I could probably go into any building and I could woo it up and really have a lot of fun, but I'd have to be there every single day. So I think for me, that was challenging to help leaders through that and not just do it for them or create everything for them. But I'm really proud to say that we've reduced our agency significantly, by over 40% in just two years. And so just, I know that that it's working, right? We still have some work to do, but that it's definitely working.
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Jalene Carpenter: So many questions, Aimee, that comes to mind. But going back to you said being in the building is how you really stay connected. You have been in the building in some really difficult situations. And can you tell the story, I believe, that you actually flew into a hurricane to go and hunker down at a facility? And what was that like? I mean, what did that all entail?
Aimee Middleton: Oh, the hurricanes, they're so fun. When I took this job, and it sounds great, you're over 22 different states, and I thought, "Oh, this would be great. I could travel to all these different states." But you don't realize when you're from Nebraska, you don't realize what a hurricane means. I'm not a Floridian by any means, so I wasn't prepared for that. But when we got the call and we knew that a hurricane was headed right towards our Kissimmee campus, it became evident really fast, like, "This is going to be a lot." The county was saying things to us like, "You're probably going to have to evacuate your campus."
The campus that we have there is very large. It's a very large campus with senior living, independent living, assisted living, and then a very large skilled nursing facility as well. And when you think about it, it's almost like evacuating a small town. And we're talking 800-plus people that we're evacuating from this campus potential for flooding.
And so, we hopped in a plane. I had about a two-hour notice. I called my family. It was the weirdest phone calls ever, but I just felt like I'm literally flying into a hurricane. I want to say I love you to them and that I got to go. And I remember people asking me, "Why do you have to go?" Because that's what they need. They need people that are going to be able to come on site, help them make decisions, and get through this.
And so we did. We went on site and we evacuated that entire campus. That included going door to door for independent living residents that don't have to evacuate, but it's highly suggested. So I had a team of individuals that went with me. I'm so proud of the team that went and had those conversations. And in a skilled nursing facility, when you evacuate that, it's really hard. And we were going to a facility that was not set up for us, right? It was a big, open room. And so I thought, "Okay, I got to do this, but I want to do it in a dignified way for the residents." And so we did move over a hundred skilled nursing residents to another locations. I negotiated with a supply company to drive, mind you, in a hurricane. He drove down from Atlanta with partitions so that all of our residents could have some kind of privacy.
We ran a shelter that year for our independent living residents. So I talked some of our team members into running that and housing them for a short amount of time. But it's a lot going on. It's crazy to even think back to. Now I gave several media interviews. Only time in my life that I had to wear a hat on a media interview, but my hair was out to here. You can't see my hands, but out to here because of the humidity. It was crazy. But everybody was safe, and we didn't have any injuries. Everybody got to go back home after the flooding went down. It was all worth it. Absolutely.
Jalene Carpenter: You talked a lot about your leadership style. And I hear it there too, but you talked about going and wooing it up. One of the things that I see most in you is that you lean into your strengths. Can you talk about how has that made you a successful leader that you do... you don't try to shy away from who you are?
Aimee Middleton: I took the StrengthsFinder, I think, for the first time in 2005 or around that time. It really stood out to me. It was the first time I'd ever had a gut check like that. "Oh, that's who I am. Oh, that basement, that is me, for sure." And it did really help me think about it.
The organization that I was working for made our whole leadership teams go through it. And I think the biggest other thing that I learned is if I know somebody else's strengths, I can go to the section in that book and just look at what their strengths are compared to mine and reread my strengths from somebody else's perspective. But it is something that I've leaned into. I would say it has also gotten me jobs. It's the very first thing that I list on my resume. And then I walk through the success that I've had and how those strengths can help me in whatever job that I'm applying for or something like that. But I have leaned in because it is a great tool that does really, I think, a nice job of helping you understand who you are.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Oh, I have a follow-up on that. So I don't think I've taken the StrengthFinders test. I bought the book and tried to figure it out on my own to save the $50 or whatever it was. I think I bought the book for 50 cents on Amazon.
So I want to hear, Aimee, let's do a real live session. You're applying, let's make up a job that you're applying for right now. Tell me what your strengths are and how you would line that up in the application.
Aimee Middleton: Well, we could say I'm applying for my current job. WOO is my number one strength. WOO stands for winning others over. And what I've learned over my career is that I love people. In the beginning, I didn't know what that really meant, and I thought it really needed to be in sales. I was very successful in sales for my husband's lawn and landscape business. I had worked for a staffing company, and I would say I was successful there. And so, I really thought I needed to be in sales.
In the staffing company, I learned that I didn't really like selling something that I couldn't always guarantee. And that was really hard, but I really, really like people and learning about them and then helping them succeed. And then, I did sales for a background screening company and a couple other things. But at the end of the day, what I really, really learned about that strength is that I'm really good at learning people, winning them over, and helping influence them to be the very best version of their selves and to help them accomplish the goals that they want to accomplish and maybe the goals that we need to accomplish together.
Competition is my number two. Competitive goes right with everything that I just talked through because if you make things a fun little competition, boy, you can really get people to have a lot of fun and do the things that we want to accomplish together, right?
Communication is my third strength. And again, it has helped me so much to be able to think through how people want to communicate, that people communicate differently. People have different styles. So I use all of those strengths and all that I do, but I'm also very real that other people's strengths are very different. And so I have to think about their strengths and how I work with my strengths and working with them.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Aimee, where do your strengths hinder, create problems for you in other parts of your life that might not be your job? So where do those strengths either challenge you in your community, in your house, as being a mom, as being a wife? I want to see the opposite when you can't run from those strengths.
Aimee Middleton: Right. I would say my family thinks it's highly annoying that I'm so competitive. I am competitive about anything. Who can get to the car first?
Peter Murphy Lewis: Jenga?
Aimee Middleton: Yes. But I would say my family knows it. And my kids would say I'm hard on them. I have a 26-year-old son, a 21-year-old daughter. And I am hard on them because I'm so competitive, not just for me, but for them to give their very best always. So they probably would all tell you that I'm super annoying because I just keep telling them, "Oh, come on, you can do this. You got this. You can do better" kind of attitude. My whole family hates that I'm a WOO. Probably most my husband. He hates to be my plus one. So I have to negotiate my WOO events every year with him and say like, "Okay, this is really, really one you do really need to come with me." And then I have to promise that I won't just WOO away from him.
Jalene Carpenter: This is why Aimee and I got along great as peers because we would go to a conference together. We would be giddy to be at a conference because it would be like, "Okay, these are our people. These are our thing."
But one thing I can remember, Aimee, is that you and I would've been classified as potential troublemakers. We like to push the envelope on some things, right? And we probably both still do.
Aimee Middleton: Yep.
Jalene Carpenter: But I want to flip it a little bit. How do you handle your troublemakers? How do you handle those who want to push and maybe want to go faster than what you can go, or they want to try something different? And it's hard when you're part of a big organization to have some like-minded troublemakers. So how do you handle that being a former/current troublemaker out-of-the-box person?
Aimee Middleton: Karma. Man, does it gets you sometimes. I think, yeah, I remember being on the other side of this conversation. But you're right, Jalene. And I guess I would say that I do try and be as real as I possibly can. And I try to really meet them where they're at. And I do try to remind them we really have to take our setting into consideration. So you and I can have this offline conversation. I understand why you made the decision you made. I understand why you don't want to do the new thing that we just implemented, and we can have a real conversation about that, and I will take your solutions, and we'll think about that. But I do have to ask you to make the change.
And here's the why. I really, really try and frame the why from their perspective or help them frame the why the way that I think that they're going to need to help carry that message to their team. But I am firm, and we do work for a large organization, and sometimes I don't get to make the decisions because I would call us a little bit of a sandwich generation because we're part of the Sanford family. And so, as I think about that, I try and be very, very real that I am hearing you, I understand, but we're going to need to get there. And I do try to see myself in the other side of the seat and think of like, "Well, how would you react to this, Aimee?"
Peter Murphy Lewis: Aimee, one of the questions that I sent you beforehand kind of speaks to what you just talked about, which was the message. And I asked you, how do we go about changing the public perception of long-term care? The first thing you said is the messaging, and it's the stories, sharing the stories. You and your organization and Cassie were part of that story. We tried to do it with the documented People Worth Caring About. Tell me about how it was when you saw it, what you heard from your team, your leadership team, and Cassie.
Aimee Middleton: Oh my gosh. They loved being a part of that and telling their story. And I think it's so important that we take all of that and be able to... I mean, Maria, she's just great.
Jalene Carpenter: Great.
Aimee Middleton: She's always been one of my favorite.
Peter Murphy Lewis: We're having her on soon.
Aimee Middleton: Yeah, you are? Oh, I love that for her. She's going to be so nervous, but she is going to love it. But people like that. And we're an organization of several team members, right? We have so many of those special team members that go above and beyond. And we got to get those stories out there.
We want to tell the seniors that we're so lucky to serve, we want to tell their stories of how they're actively aging. They are not... this generation that we're serving today and the generation of the future, they want to live. They want to play pickleball. They want to do everything that they can. They want to be able to do their knitting and sell their products online, and they want the technology to do it and all of the things.
And so we have to find those ways to meet people where they are, what are their unique things that they want and need to do, and how can we be a part of their actively living? And I loved the Auburn story with the kid coming in. And that is so very real in so many of our communities. We do serve 70% of our locations in rural location. And so, it really becomes about the high school kids coming over and just being part of that. And that interaction with our seniors, and they get to tell their stories, and we need to keep doing more and more of it and getting that out there as much as we possibly can to change the perception.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Jalene asked a question earlier that I really loved, and I'm going to steal it from her, which is, when you dream big, what do you think of? What do you want in five years, 10 years for our industry, for you, for your organization?
Aimee Middleton: I want caregivers to be able to do the care that they want, but I'm also very realistic that we are looking at a workforce shortage that is going to continue. There are not as many people to be able to care for the people that we're going to be so lucky to care for and to help age. And so, I have a dream of team members being able to work very efficiently to the highest scope of their work. And we're going to be able to do that through AI and new technology and tools like this, but I want to remove the burden of documentation. And I will fight as hard as I possibly can and share those stories and share that message to be able to do that.
I think technology, we have to be careful about it. We have to be smart about it. But it has an opportunity to help us do those things, to listen to a nurse and a family have a conversation, and be able to create the progress notes so that nurse can do that or take the time to sit down and have tea with the resident instead of going to document that note in that conversation to prove that she had that conversation, right?
So I think there are lots of opportunities. I think it's an exciting time in our world right now with the generation coming in. They want more. And we're going to have to find, but the technology is also there. So I'm really excited for what that future holds for us.
Jalene Carpenter: So one thing that stuck out to me when Peter said, like, who is somebody that fits for you on, like, "People Worth Caring About" and the relationships of people that you have, and obviously, you came to mind just because there are certain people that you became to depend on in those hard times. Who can I call? Who can I help commiserate with or celebrate with? And I think it always comes down to those relationships.
And I'm just curious, do you feel like that's an industry thing or do you feel like that's applicable to anybody in any job? And what advice would you give maybe to people who feel like an imposter or people who feel like I'm struggling in my day?
Aimee Middleton: Yeah. Great question, Jalene. I'll go back to when I was in sales. So when I was in sales, I just thought, "Okay, I'm going to join all these associations because I'm going to meet all these people." And I was just trying to do it from a point of having sales and having people to call. But what I learned is I could create communities, and I could create areas and people that I could lean on that would be experts.
And so, getting involved is really my answer to your question of finding your people and getting really involved. Being on the Nebraska Health Care Association board for many years, it really helped me get to know other providers. And I could bounce off like, "How are you guys doing this? How are you meeting this regulation?" And today, I still call those same people up and say, "Just check me here. This is something that we're really considering. How is this going for you?" And so, my advice to anyone needing that would be find an association of similar peers or just go tour other locations. And maybe it doesn't even have to just be our industry, but maybe you're doing something else, but asking another similar company. People are usually very willing to just have that conversation and have somebody else to bounce things off. But that would be my advice.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I want to wrap it up, Aimee, by asking a question that I ask myself a lot, which is, what advice would you give to your younger self?
Aimee Middleton: Advice that I would give to my younger self? I would say, "Enjoy every stage, Aimee. And it's okay to make mistakes." I've had some points in my career where I've doubted myself. I've made some mistakes. I was pretty hard on myself through some of those times, so I would go back and say... Because I know it today so I can sit back and look at my experiences today and say, "Oh, you were so silly to just be so worried about that back then."
But back then, I really was really, really hard on myself, and I was really stressed. And so, I would say just learn from everything. Enjoy every single moment. And just know you're learning, and you're building your future self. And I would say it to myself today so that I can continue, because my future self is still in five to 10 years, to just enjoy every moment and to keep learning because it just keeps getting better and better.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Appreciate your time, Aimee. You are one of the reasons that we started this project, the documentary, and this podcast, "People Worth Caring About." You're one of those people. Tell your team, Cassie and Maria, that we appreciate it and thank you for your time today.
Aimee Middleton: Absolutely. 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 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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