Summary
On this episode, hosts Peter Murphy Lewis and Jalene Carpenter talk to Traci Haglund, Licensed Nursing Home Administrator of Wakefield Health Care Center. She shares an unfiltered look at the realities of rural long-term care — balancing limited beds, unpredictable Medicaid rates, and staff recruitment with deep community commitment. From leveraging association leadership to shaping workplace culture that attracts teens and retirees alike, this conversation offers timely insights for anyone navigating the pressures of rural health care leadership.
Key Takeaways:
(00:00) Introduction.
(03:49) Small-town care requires managing relationships over decades.
(05:38) Blended care models improve flexibility in rural settings.
(08:45) Staff retention grows when the team knows resident preferences.
(10:47) Community excitement about job recruitment is high.
(16:36) State association engagement shortens the leadership learning curve.
(20:24) Limited bed availability affects care access and strategy.
(21:23) Volatile Medicaid rates undermine financial planning efforts.
(32:15) Long-term leaders must schedule non-negotiable recovery time.
Resources Mentioned:
Wakefield Health Care Center website
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Transcript
Traci Haglund: People want their kids to be working here. I do not have enough jobs for the kids that want to come work here, which is so fun. And then people that are planning their retirements are like, "I want to come fold laundry for you." I'm like, "Maybe I will keep you in mind."
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. Their personal. Because behind every act of care is a story worth hearing. New episodes drop regularly. Get updates at Peopleworthcaringabout.com.
Hello everyone. This is "People Worth Caring About." I'm your host, Peter Murphy Lewis, here with my co-host, Jalene Carpenter. Jalene, say, hola!
Jalene Carpenter: I'm going to say hello, Peter.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I'm excited because today we have a special guest. She's a unique leader. She got into her role in a unique way. She was part of the documentary series "People Worth Caring About" that we did with Jalene a little over a year ago, that is now on every smart TV. Jalene calls it Roku, Roku. She's figuring it out, even though she's younger than I.
Traci Haglund, Administrator at Wakefield Care Center in Nebraska, and she is the star of the show of one of the most beautiful episodes from this documentary, that I get the most amount of feedback from where people cry and laugh. Traci, welcome to the program.
Traci Haglund: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Tell us about your week.
Traci Haglund: No, you guys weren't supposed to bring it up.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Okay.
Traci Haglund: Well, we're always pivoting in long-term care. Our auditors were supposed to come on Thursday, so that was going to be all of our fun for the week. But then the state surveyors came on Wednesday and Thursday. And of course, with state survey comes the fire marshals, and so he was here on Thursday, also. And then I also had to do my annual insurance renewal on Thursday too. But I'm still here to talk about it, so we're good.
Jalene Carpenter: What did you do before Wednesday and Thursday?
Traci Haglund: I took my kids to the pool, just prepped for auditors, I think.
Jalene Carpenter: Yeah. I'm pretty sure you shared a story of covering the night shift.
Traci Haglund: Oh yeah, sorry. Yep. I ended up covering half a night shift on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning. So surveyors showed up. I slept for about an hour and a half, and I showed up and said, "Hey friends, how are we doing?" And it's going okay, so we're fine.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I feel like, Jalene, I feel like the follow-up question for everything around Traci could be, what were you doing before? Because if you watch the documentary and you see right at the beginning, Traci, what were you doing before you were Administrator?
Traci Haglund: Oh, well, I was a nursing services manager at a critical access hospital. We delivered over 110 babies a year, had busy ER, a good amount of outpatient surgeries. So, different kind of management.
Jalene Carpenter: I want to know when you transitioned from acute to long-term care, what were some of the comments made? What were some of the people think what are you doing?
Traci Haglund: Yeah, people always know that I have a huge heart on me, everywhere I go. So they weren't... I don't know. I don't think they're that surprised for me just to jump in and take on a task. I think it was later, and they're like, "Are you sure this is what you want to do?"
And I'm like, "Yeah, I love it. This is great. My staff are great. I'm taking care of residents that I've grown up with my whole entire life in my community, and making other new friends that aren't from Wakefield." So I think they just... they're like, "You can do anything you put your mind to," and it's kind of what we've been doing.
Jalene Carpenter: Can we back up a little bit because even in the docuseries, we highlight Wakefield and some of your residents, but we don't really talk about where Wakefield is, how big it is, the type of community that it is. Tell us a little bit about what is Wakefield and what... and your facility.
Traci Haglund: Wakefield is a very diverse community. We're about 1,600 people. We have our art factory, or business is called Michael Foods, so it has chickens, egg byproducts, like potatoes, and all that stuff. That's what keeps your small town alive.
So they're the biggest employer. We're probably the second-biggest employer, being in the nursing home in town. And then we're also the baseball capital of Nebraska, so we're about a half an hour from Sioux City, which is Iowa, or 10 miles from Wayne State College, half an hour from Norfolk.
Jalene Carpenter: So, people who aren't familiar with Nebraska, a lot of people claim that they understand what rural means, but I always like to define rural as how far from a Walmart you are, and then even better, how far from a Target are you?
Traci Haglund: We're about 30 miles from both.
Jalene Carpenter: Okay, so in the scheme of rural, you're not crazy rural?
Traci Haglund: No. I like living the high life. I got a Dollar General a couple of blocks away for quick and urgent needs. Otherwise, it's not a big deal to drive to Target or Walmart.
Jalene Carpenter: I love it. Tell me more about your facility. Tell me about who you serve, how many residents, your staff.
Traci Haglund: Well, we just had our 50th anniversary last year when you guys were here, so we're now 51. We are a 40-bed skilled nursing facility. We have 19 assisted living, and there's also like five independent apartments because there used to be the old hospital that our community hospital was attached.
So now those are independent apartments, and they can kind of pick and choose what they want to do. They kind of really live the best life. They're not regulated. They're going to come do activities, eat the food, and come get whirlpool. So they have it made.
Jalene Carpenter: I love it.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Traci, you sent us an email this week that somebody important in your life, your family, our greater Nebraska community has gone. Tell us how it was, what happened, and how your team's handling it.
Traci Haglund: Our friend Myrna, she made her way to heaven this week. You guys weren't supposed to make me cry.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I'll give you some time to think about your next words. For anyone listening who doesn't know who Myrna is, she is one of the two or three most memorable residents in our docuseries. And I think she was... if she wasn't the president of your community, she had the personality to be the president of our country.
Jalene shared with me off-camera about two weeks ago when I was with her in Nebraska. She said, "Peter, I remember the very first time I saw the scene where Myrna fed you some cake." I'm like, "I don't know if we can show that." And then she goes, "Yep, we got to show it. Who cares?"
Traci Haglund: Oh, the best. The best.
Peter Murphy Lewis: What was your reaction?
Traci Haglund: I just loved it. I was like, "What an organic moment." And honestly, yes, you were a visitor. She would've done that to everybody. She was just the best lady ever. I sent a text to one of her granddaughters. I'm like, "You know what I love best about your grandma? She treated me like I was her granddaughter, not that I was like the administrator of the facility."
When my kids were at the nursing home and acting kind of crazy, she would be like, "They're just kids. Let them be. Your kids are wonderful." I'm like, "Thank you." You need to hear that from people sometimes. But she took care of everybody. She made sure her tablemates were well taken care of, that everybody at resident council was heard, that new residents were greeted. She just... such an amazing lady.
And I don't know if we told you, she used to run a bar in a smaller town called Coleridge, and she's about 5'1", 5'2", and not a big lady. And she would always tell stories about how she would just kick out these drunk guys, and she wasn't putting up with anything. She was just a little pistol through the end, and she just advocated for everybody. Just the best.
Jalene Carpenter: I love it. And I think the moment with Myrna in this series is just so... everything about it was just touching, but to hear you talk about how much love there was for Myrna, that's the story, Peter, I think you and I were trying to tell was there's so much life and so much purpose. You just talked about all the things that she did, and I hear how much purpose you gave her in life, and that the fact that she lived with you in a nursing home really wasn't the factor, right? She still had a lot of purpose.
Traci Haglund: Yeah. Yeah, the nursing home is a place to live, but not... I don't know. That's, like, hindsight. When you're in a community like this, everybody is just, I don't want to say family because it's cliche, but really when you get to taking care of each other, those dietary people, they know what they do or don't like when it comes to a meal, or they know that they need help cutting up their meat if it's a roast versus turkey. It's just so interesting, this minute detail that everybody knows about each other to help make sure everybody has a good day.
Peter Murphy Lewis: One of the stories about Myrna, I don't think you've probably have heard this, Traci, is Jalene and I were honored and privileged to present "People Worth Caring About" at an important convention a couple of months ago, and we had a limited amount of time to explain what the concept was. And one of the clips that Jalene and her team chose was the clip with Myrna, and it was working... I think, was it with Mary Jo?
Traci Haglund: Oh, when they did restorative?
Peter Murphy Lewis: Mm-hmm. And the reason they chose it, I think that they were spot on, is that it shows the unique relationship that caregivers receive, that it's a win-win relationship. And Myrna is an exception as a human being, where she's not an exception. That it's more regular than people would think is the resident becomes much more than a job for the caregivers.
It becomes a family member, and it becomes a friend. It becomes somebody who's sharing wisdom with you, every single day. And she showed that in the documentary, so that was really special. And I'm glad, even though that your family's lost her, your community and Wakefield and her family has something visual to show her legacy because she is important beyond just Wakefield. We showed her in Naples, Florida, at a convention.
Traci Haglund: Yeah, she's worldwide.
Jalene Carpenter: Tell me, what has the impact been after we launched the docuseries? Has it had an impact in your community, at your facility?
Traci Haglund: I was trying to prep myself for this. I kind of laughed because people want their kids to be working here. I do not have enough jobs for the kids that want to come work here, which is so fun. And then people that are planning their retirements, they're like, "I want to come fold laundry for you." I'm like, "Maybe I will keep you in mind if we need help on the weekend and stuff."
So I even have a teacher planning her retirement. She's like, "Now I know eventually I'm going to have to get out of teaching, but can I be a CNA?" I talked to them about it, and I talked to them about know the hard parts of the job, and I was like, "Honestly," be like, "You could have be a CNA." She's like, "I think I might take a class. It's going to be in the next couple of years." I was like, "Okay, just let me know when you want to do it."
She's like, "At some point, I'm going to get out of teaching, and I need... what's going to be my next thing to do?" Because she's never not done anything. So I think I have a future CNA retired teacher coming, and she'll probably be like in her late 50s because she's put in all of her years teaching and stuff. So it's very entertaining the conversations that you have about the excitement to come and work here and to be a part of this community.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Wow. I could have not expected 20% of that answer.
Traci Haglund: Yeah, it's very funny. The random texts I get from friends and stuff, and whether... I mean, there'll be people that don't live in Nebraska, and they're like, "Oh my gosh, we just saw you." Or my dad's cousins twice removed are sending me Facebook messages that they saw the video and that it's so awesome, and it's sweet.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Jalene, did you have any idea that it was helping with staffing? That was the starting point of the dream two years ago.
Jalene Carpenter: Yeah. No. That is... I'm so excited. I'm so excited to hear that. And I don't want to take away from that awesomeness, but Traci, I think we haven't hit on some of the most important parts of you outside of the fact that you run an amazing community and facility. You're a mom of four, yes?
Traci Haglund: Yeah.
Jalene Carpenter: So tell us a little bit about you, and tell me for the listening audience that don't know, Traci is on our Healthcare Association Board. I'd love for you to tell a story of the multiple babies you've brought to board meetings.
Traci Haglund: Well, I had two kids before I came to this job, and then we needed to have two more because I'm not busy enough. But let's see. I have a nine-month-old baby next week, and then our soon to be three-year-old, and then a seven and a nine-year-old. And we're busy. My kids love to come up here for ice cream, but they also like to come up and talk to the residents and read them stories or play games.
All of our kids here beg for the game Whac-A-Mole. So if you guys remember that, you stick your head up in a hole and they hit you with the fun noodle. The kids are the ones that beg for the residents to come hit them with noodle. It's very fun. Everybody laughs until they cry, but the kids are asking for it probably every month that they could, but we limit it to quarterly.
Jalene Carpenter: Oh, I love that. So you have a grid that they're... they just randomly pop their heads up and they whack them with pool noodles?
Traci Haglund: Our activity instructor, her husband was... he used to be on our board, but then she always signs him up to do stuff, and so he made a big table out of 2x4s and they cut cardboard, big pieces of cardboard, and put it together.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Traci, I have a great idea for the next fundraiser charity event for Nebraska Health Care Association. We're going to take that table, and we're going to do highest bid gets to hit Jalene with noodles.
Jalene Carpenter: Whac-A-Mole. Whac-A-Jalene.
Traci Haglund: There's other people we should probably be whacking, but maybe we could include you, Jalene. I don't want you to be left out.
Jalene Carpenter: Oh, no, wait. Peter will be at conference. I think we could do it with him too.
Traci Haglund: Oh, perfect. Yeah, Chris [inaudible] for [inaudible], I mean-
Jalene Carpenter: I love it.
Traci Haglund: We could do big things with this Whac-A-Mole.
Peter Murphy Lewis: What's the funniest question your kids have asked about coming into a nursing home?
Traci Haglund: Funniest?
Peter Murphy Lewis: My son asked me six months ago if it was hard to find a wife. I'm trying to think of what else. Have you got any cute three-year-old...?
Traci Haglund: I don't think there's anything funny. Even when I was in the hospital, my clinic and hospital were in the same place, so if they needed to come for a well child visit, they hung out in my office. I think when Kellen was little, we had a... I have a picture of him in a baby gate looking out the office window, trying to find somebody to come get to him to play. So being in a medical environment is nothing where they're like have a funny question.
But, I mean, I think explaining dementia and how dementia is different has maybe been some of our tougher conversations, especially with Kellen being older. He is nine, very inquisitive, also thinks he knows everything. So, just trying to explain to him how everybody's brains are different and how they can't necessarily control how things come out and stuff. So it's been unique.
He did take a little bit of a break after a lady yelled at him in Vietnamese. But I don't think she yelled at him. She was just very excited that he was there, and she was excited. When she gets excited, she gets really loud, and he was like, "Ah, I'm out." But he's now, and just say we had the talk about it, and he's fine, and he's back, whenever we get him here, and it's just another day, just like everybody adapts.
Jalene Carpenter: You hit the nail on the head of a difficult conversation. I mean, we have a hard time explaining dementia to families, let alone to kids, so that's fascinating.
Traci Haglund: Yeah, they do really well. I think the more kids are around it, the more kids are with their grandparents, all those things are so important to understand life and compassion and...
Peter Murphy Lewis: Traci, I want to talk about state associations. There are people who are not as active as you, not as active as Nebraska. Why do you give time to be on the board? What do you get back for being a member?
Traci Haglund: Well, I started getting involved, or I was recommended by one of my peers, like, "Hey, you need to be on the board." They're like, "Make sure that you're involved just because it will help you with the learning curve." And when I came here, I didn't really know how to lead 90 to 100 employees. I knew about emergency preparedness, and we were in the middle of a pandemic, so I had that covered, and the rest I needed to figure out.
And so that's where I made sure I was on the reimbursement committee and the regulatory survey-type stuff, just so I can learn and kind of try to get ahead of the ball as much as I can. But also, just then being on the board, you just see the bigger picture of how the healthcare association supports us individually as facilities, and then how we need to work together to preserve what we got going because Nebraska really has a good thing going.
When I did Future Leaders, listened to other nursing home administrators throughout the United States, they definitely don't have what we have here in Nebraska, like our support system. And from [inaudible 00:17:38] to Jalene, that transition was amazing. So I don't know what I would do without the support of Nebraska Health Care Association, and I probably wouldn't be successful as I am without them.
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I like how you explained that it was almost like leveling up or was shortening the learning curve. I've done something similar when I got into long-term care. I'd never worked for a company that sold software, so I signed up for a consultancy thing where I just had access to sales, software, marketers, and salespeople, and just every single day I was talking to them. It's not the same as being on the board because I wasn't making a difference like you. Where I'm going with that question is, you have your hand in everything, right? If you could, I think you told us, on Tuesday night you worked a shift. So you're a mom, you're board, you're in compliance and regulatory, you're in direct care. What is the area that you feel weakest at, and how do you cover your weakness? How do you find somebody to support you?
Traci Haglund: Well, that's the easiest question. It's financials. When I started, the old administrator's like, "You need a class in accounting." I'm like, "Not sure I'm going to have time for that." So I still bring it up.
I still haven't taken that class. But without my business office manager and my accounts payables and receivables ladies... We have a very good team to make sure those things are... those ducks are in a row, and then just staying on top of what's going on in reimbursement and have a plan for our future, and just be thinking of ways to preserve what we have.
I'm so scared about the financial part of this world. I don't know if I can say it like that, but it's a little scary. I'm glad that we're in the position that we are in personally, but the future of where are we going to be at in 20 years' time when I'm ready to retire is, I don't know, might get kind of scary.
Jalene Carpenter: In Nebraska, you have a reason. We've had a lot of rural closures, and so when you — help me unpack that a little bit, Traci — scared. Are you scared for the survival of our industry or access?
Traci Haglund: All of it. I feel like right now, when we get to... we're preparing for a construction plan, which we can talk about later, or a remodel, but when we get to 35 residents, all of a sudden, I can't just admit whoever needs to come in. You have to be very strategic. I need to have a Medicare bed open, or maybe somebody in your community is battling some things, maybe have to keep a respite-type bed available. But when things get tight, you don't have that room to flex your senses to meet the needs of your community.
So that in itself, for me, I feel like with the communities closing, which it's okay that some close, but we still need to be able to give high-quality care. So I can't just accept everybody and still give the level of care that I want. I'm a little crazy too, I guess you guys should know that. But so, just the access of beds is there. I really worry about our rural Nebraska, out in Bassett, Mullen. I mean, they're already driving 60, 90, 2 hours to go to a doctor. I worry about those guys a lot.
We're more urbanish-rural than other places. And then, just financially, with Medicaid, I don't know, we're trying to... We're working towards having a structure that is not so up, down, up, down. We want it to be predictable, for the simplest way to say it. And right now things aren't predictable, and there's always things changing that plan too. But if we can't figure something out, it just makes uncertainty, I don't know, just increases it. I don't like that.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Jalene, how do you manage the bad news, right? As President / CEO of Nebraska Health Care Association, Traci might be the second person to hear the bad news coming your way from politics, or regulation, or compliance, or financials. You're the first. How do you process that as a human, as a professional?
Jalene Carpenter: Well, I am pretty much an optimist of all things, and so...
Traci Haglund: You have to be.
Jalene Carpenter: ... I probably approach it always trying to find the positive. And I think a couple of things. I always look at things in our industry, as we cannot overreact in the short term because we are looking for success in the long term. And so we might have short-term hurdles, but we cannot absorb our energy there. We have to keep looking forward.
And so, Traci, like what you said of having predictable reimbursement that isn't fluctuating, it's hard when you're trying to talk policy and talk to legislatures and really advocate and try to explain to them that we run a business where we are going to take care of 35 people this month and I'm going to take care of 35 people next month, but I might get paid a completely different amount next month.
And how do you plan? How do you run a sustainable business when that's the model? So I probably don't ever look at anything as bad news. I probably look at it as, "Well, how is this an opportunity for us to leverage what we need to get done for our space?"
Peter Murphy Lewis: You are an optimist.
Jalene Carpenter: I am.
Traci Haglund: You have to be.
Jalene Carpenter: I think that's everybody in long-term care, don't you, Traci? That we...
Traci Haglund: Yeah, if you want [inaudible 00:23:26].
Jalene Carpenter: You can't see it as negative because, yeah, you have to only see it as opportunity. Even when, Traci, you know, any event that happens in a facility, you do a root cause analysis and you don't say, "Oh, well, that happened."
Peter Murphy Lewis: I remember four years ago, it must have been my first year working in long-term care, somebody used that concept, root cause analysis. I had no idea what it was. And you know me, Jalene, when I don't know, I just ask, what is it? And I look stupid, and I'm fine. I remember it was just going around the industry, root cause analysis. I felt like everyone was using that as a buzzword. Can you give me a 30-second or 45-second definition?
Jalene Carpenter: Traci, you're the... I guarantee your definition is better than mine.
Traci Haglund: Well, I think Peter's method of going, "Why are we doing that?" That is actually a lean concept in itself, is asking the Five Whys, which is by far the easiest thing. But root cause analysis, basically, you look... you try to find what really happened here in this fall.
A lot of times, when they write down everything that will happen into a fall, they don't ever... You fill out the paperwork, you give your homework in, but you don't take the time to really understand the homework, to understand, "Well, what was the root cause of this fall?"
Maybe it was that their glasses got taken off when they shouldn't have, and then they decided to get up and walk to the hallway to ask for help, and they couldn't find the hallway. It's amazing when you do root cause analysis, when you step back and look at all the answers that they provide you, to actually find that minute thing that really was the root cause of that fall.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Did you do that in acute as well?
Traci Haglund: Yep. We would do it for, maybe there's process errors like order errors, like processing pharmacy stuff. Or falls is an easy thing for all healthcare-type things. But I worked in quality for a hot second, and we just... having standard work, making sure everybody does their work the same way, is something that I have really tried to push around here because then the residents know what to expect.
The families know what to expect, and then you guys also know what to expect of each other. And that's just a really good way to show respect for your co-workers and for your residents that you're caring for in their families.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Jalene, not all of our listeners know that you were a caregiver as well, right? You're a administrator. You didn't just come through the ranks to be an executive and dream for this job. You're in this because you love the industry. So, my next question is for the two moms in the room. How do you use root cause analysis when you go home and you're being a mom?
Traci Haglund: I won't get upset right away. I don't do it here. I don't. I'm not going to give you... I'm not going to waste a bunch of energy getting upset about something. My husband might come in and be like, "Blah, blah." I'm like, "Calm down first of all."
Peter Murphy Lewis: "Let's go through the Five Whys."
Traci Haglund: I won't go through the Five Whys with him. I just let it dissolve, and then I say, "Okay, just FYI, like, this is what the real problem was." But Eric has caught on because now he will catch me. I see him doing it with the older boys fighting. "This is what's actually going on." I said, "Thank you. I appreciate that."
Jalene Carpenter: Yeah, I would echo that completely. You just don't over... Well, number one, I usually don't believe what's in front of me. We ended up here for a different reason, right? There might be a hole in the wall, but there's what led to the hole in the wall was probably farther back than just the fact that something went through the wall.
So, yeah. Being in long-term care, I think every administrator, anybody who's worked in this industry, can easily tell you about the craziest thing that's ever happened in your facility, or the funniest thing, or just the most awesome thing. So if you... do you have one off on the top of your head? And if not, I'll tell you one of my favorites. Okay. So I once had a resident, they conspired during bingo. There was a resident who missed his girlfriend in South Dakota, and he partnered with another resident to cause a distraction.
So she spilled coffee everywhere. And while we were attending to this spilled coffee, he slipped out the side door and found a truck that had its keys in it. And somebody simultaneously happened to call me and say, "I think there's a resident in the parking lot." By the time I got to the parking lot, the resident had backed the truck up and was driving, and I had to run and open the truck door as it's driving away. And I'd be like, "What are we doing?" So, stories like that.
Peter Murphy Lewis: That's a good story. Good thing you're a runner.
Traci Haglund: So the truck reminds me of a story. I was coming in to help teach some CNA classes on a Sunday, on a Saturday morning, and I just had these, they're like, "Did you see this pickup in the parking lot?" And I didn't park in that parking lot. So I'm like, "What are you talking about?" So I got the CNA started, and then I went and did a walk around, checking the parking lot. And here I have this red pickup of one of my assisted living residents, pulled up on the grass, and I'm like, "What is going on?"
But it was like 6:07, so I wasn't going to go wake him up yet. And he had just transitioned to assisted living, was not happy about being in assisted living. So I was like, "Okay. Well, let's go check the cameras and see what happened because it had also rained. It was kind of icy the night before. So was it a hit-and-run? Is this a police report type of thing? What happened?" So I'm watching the cameras and he came home that evening, parked his pickup, and all of a sudden it goes rmmm and went over the curb and up by this tree.
But I was like, "Okay, was that intentional? Not intentional?" You still couldn't tell yet. And then he got out, he looked at the pickup, was like, "Okay." Walked inside. So he was fine. No reason to call the police. So then at breakfast, I kind of walked over there. I said, "Hey, [inaudible 00:29:26] parking job." And he goes, "Oh, I knew you would be here." But I was like, "Well, why did you park like that?" And he just said, "Well, there was a storm coming through and I thought if I parked closer to the tree, I wouldn't get any hail on my pickup."
And I was like, "Oh." Then he stops me, said, "Now, Traci, don't you be going to tell my nieces about this." He said, "Don't be telling the girls." But they're like my mom's best friend and her cousin, or her sister, who lives in Las Vegas. He's like, "Don't you be calling them." I'm like, "Nope, not going to tell a soul." I had already told one of them because I texted the picture. I'm like, "Hey, I don't know what happened here, but there's got to be a story." So he was fine. He was just protecting his pickup. No grass was harmed. But it just had me cracking up.
Jalene Carpenter: I love it. We had a... We were talking about root cause analysis, Peter. So, my root cause analysis, and Traci, I'm sure you do this, with falls you have to include all disciplines. You think about when there's a fall, that you talk to the nurse aides and you talk to the nurses. We had a resident who was falling every single night, same time every night. And we were talking to everybody, trying to root cause, and it took us pulling... So she's falling at night.
So we've been talking to everybody at night. Well, we ended up asking the whole neighborhood, housekeeping, dietary, everybody, the next morning, this is after four days in a row of falls. And the housekeeper chimed up and she's, "Well, do you think it's her daughter has been bringing her those mini bottles of wine?" And we're like, "She had wine?" And she's said, "Well, yeah, when I take out the trash every day, there's a couple of bottles of the wine in there." And we're like, "Okay, figured it out."
Traci Haglund: You just have to smile and say, "Okay, well, we'll do it differently next time.
Peter Murphy Lewis: That's the red wine root cause.
Jalene Carpenter: It is. Anyway, Traci, you are just such an inspiring leader to me. And you have the best attitude always. How do you keep it going between four kids at home, a 24/7 job? How do you stay so upbeat?
Traci Haglund: That's a hard question this week. Sometimes I just have to make sure I take time for myself. So starting with something really small, I started... I used to never make my hair appointments. I'd always push them off or whatever. So I started getting my nails done. And so I have to go every three weeks. And honestly, that's something super small that I've done since November, and it has... something about having my nails done has just been keeping me floating.
Being a mama of four and rocking and rolling at work and home. But you have to take time to do those small things, or you can't... you have to give work a timeout and take your kids to the pool and invest in that. Or if work's not fun, you take a timeout from that not fun, and you go talk to a resident, and your life, your perspective gets back on track, and you're ready to go again.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Traci, do you have a piece of advice that you've heard most in your life, or a proverb or saying maybe from your mom or your dad or your grandma? And then I'll tell you mine as I thank you for joining us. My mom's, and she's probably said this to me 200 times in my life, was, "The only thing you can control in your life, Peter, is your attitude." And why I thought of this question leads into my thank you because you have such an amazing attitude.
When I hear my mom, how it makes me want to tear up on this Friday afternoon. When I hear that right now in my head from my mom, you line up with that. Thank you so much for sharing your energy on our documentary, being a part of why long-term care is special, stealing people from acute care. You are a lesson learned of root cause analysis and how we can do this and why, why, why. And thank you so much. Now tell us what saying has influenced you and you've heard so much in your life.
Traci Haglund: When I was in nursing school, one of the nurses, she was a non-traditional student, but she was just talking about life and raising kids, and she just talked about, "Something might make you really upset right now, but is it going to matter in a year? Is it going to matter in five years? It's not. So don't waste your energy."
So I mean, we've hit on that a couple of different times, but that's honestly something that really carries me through every single day in, like, what I do. It can frustrate you and make you mad, but then you have to take a step back with your employees.
How can you educate them? How can you look at the process to make it make sense? Because sometimes I might come up with a great idea, but it's really not a great idea. You need the employees' feedback to make it better. But sorry, I've changed the answer and the question here on you.
Peter Murphy Lewis: It was good. Thank you so much, Traci. I appreciate it. I look forward to seeing you in August at the convention.
Traci Haglund: I'll be there. See you guys later.
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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