Senior living is a thriving industry with projected growth in the coming years. With the growth of the industry, there is an obvious need for staff to maintain operations. Senior living is unique with different nuances that team members have to learn in order to thrive in this industry. When someone steps into senior living, it can be like entering a new culture with its own language and customs. That’s why Solinity Leadership has developed the Senior Living Bootcamp program to help team members acclimate to this new environment.

A Splash into Senior Living 

Like learning a language, Senior Living Bootcamp immerses team members into the culture and allows them to learn through hands-on interactions. Started by Solinity Founder and CEO, Josh Crisp, Senior Living Bootcamp is an opportunity for team members to place themselves into key roles within a senior living community to see firsthand how day-to-day operations are executed. This also creates an opportunity to learn the nuances of the industry to better equip team members for success in the industry as a whole. This 5 day program strives to give each team member a working knowledge of how senior living communities operate from every angle.

The Week Long Experience

Each of the five days during bootcamp will be devoted to a different facet of the community. 

Day 1: Admin - office management, shadow tours, respond to resident or family inquiries.

Day 2: Clinical - spend time with the DON; learn what med passes are like; shadow CNAs and caregivers. 

Day 3: Dining - assist the dining team with food preparation, distribution, clean-up, and planning. 

Day 4: Maintenance - shadow maintenance team members and assist with jobs around the community, learn what tasks and responsibilities they have daily. 

Day 5: Activities - assist activities director and CNAs with the preparation, execution, clean-up, and planning of activities. Learn about all the details and decisions that go into choosing and planning activities. 

‍

Each day is broken down into different segments designed to be devoted to specific tasks. The strategic design of each day puts the team member in contact with key members of the community as well as residents to fully immerse them into the community experience – team members will even sleep at the community. Throughout the week, team members will journal their experiences and lessons learned by answering a series of questions in their Senior Living Bootcamp Journal.

A Look Inside the Bootcamp Journal

Each team member will answer the following questions each day to reflect on their senior living experience. 

‍

1. What department did you shadow? (admin, clinical, dining, maintenance, activities, etc.)
2. Who did you meet? What did you do? 
3. What surprised you while shadowing? 
4. In your opinion, what was the hardest part of their position? 
5. From the residents perspective, how does this position help them beyond the obvious? 
6. Recall one (or more) moment(s) that stood out to you the most today. This could be a conversation you had with a resident or team member, an interaction you saw between a CNA and resident, or something you learned. 
7. If you could change something about the position you shadowed, what would it be?
8. What does this position as a whole bring to the senior living industry?

These questions are designed to help team members think critically about their experiences and how they can pull applicable lessons from their time at the community and utilize them in their day-to-day lives within senior living as a whole. 

‍

What Do Team Members Have to Say?

As our graduates complete the program, they walk away with a better understanding of and greater appreciation for our senior living communities and their teams. See what our graduates had to say:

Hear about Audrey’s bootcamp experience here

Hear Chase’s full story here

Hear his experience here

‍

Listen to the stories of our bootcamp graduates and learn how your own team members can be impacted by this unique opportunity. Set your team apart by giving them the advantage of working boots on the ground with a real senior living community team. Give them the emotional knowledge of what life is like for our residents, so that your team can work with empathy and understanding of the people this industry exists for. Sponsor a team member today and see how it can change everything.