Headliners

Resident of the Month:

Kenneth Davidson

Service Excellence Honoree:

Jill McKissick

Community Pictures

Calendar Highlights and September

Birthdays

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www.brooksideks.com

September 2017

SUPPORT TEAM Scott & Susan Averill,

The Owners Tracy Dunnaway,

Administrator Allison Lyda,

Director of Nursing Tammy Conklin,

Human Resources Kim Wilson, MDS Coordinator

Sharrell Davidson, Business Office Manager

Denise Hoback, Billing Specialist Karen Peters, Social Worker

Shelley Branch, Rehab/Therapy

Ranea DeShazer, Dietary Manager

Quality of Life Coordinators Joy Schmidt Sharri Allred Ciara Walter

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Brookside Retirement Community is a skilled nursing

home unlike any other. Our rural location and private fam-

ily ownership make for a unique setting that you can’t find

just anywhere. Another component that makes Brookside

special is that we pride ourselves in giving resident-centered

care and do our absolute best to make as much of the day

as we can all about the resident. We practice giving the

residents as many choices as possible. These choices include

but are not limited to what time to get up each morning,

what time to go to bed each night, at meal times we offer a

variety of food choices, the residents can choose different

bathing options and times of the day to bathe and they

have choices of different activities that they may like to at-

tend and if not that is ok too. We encourage our staff to

get into relationship with our residents and their families to

find out what they like and then we do our best to deliver.

Sometimes, however, we can get complacent or ‘stuck

in a rut’ per say. It is not our commitment to perform this

way and that is why we request feedback from both the

residents and their families. If there is something that we

can do to make your stay or your loved ones stay with us

better please do NOT hesitate to say something. You can

let the CNAs know, the nurse know and of course Susan

and I’s door is always open. We really are committed to

giving our residents the best care possible and we can only

do that if you let us know what else we can be doing.

-Tracy Dunnaway

Request Feedback

Pictured to the left are

Bill and Janis York

celebrating their

62nd Wedding Anniversary.

Congratulations!!

Page 2

Traveling was September Resident of the Month, Kenneth Davidson’s fun in life. “My wife and I did a lot of traveling before kids and even after kids. Our favorite place was Branson,” explained Ken. “Once we went to 14 shows in one week!” Ken explained they liked visiting the “big three”-- Eureka Springs, Osage Beach and Branson. “We liked short trips, not big long ones,” Ken laughed. “People said take a cruise but I said I had enough of that when I was in the Army.” Ken’s roots began in Whiting, KS, a small town about 40 miles northeast of Topeka. “I grew up there on a farm,” he said. “After I graduated from Whiting High School, I worked for a farmer for five years.” Then after two years in the Army, he briefly re-turned to farm work but made a career change to DuPont where he ended up retiring after 34 ½ years. Through mutual friends, Ken met his true love, Arlene Nickell, a Wet-more girl, and two years later they began a marriage that lasted, according to Ken, a total of 64 years and 184 days. The couple had three children: Steve, Dean, and Janet. One of Ken’s favorite activities is spending time with his 3 kids and his 13 grandchildren and his 26+ great-grandchildren. He also liked running a chain saw and cutting timber. He planned to do more woodworking after he retired, but that didn’t work out due to his failing vision and taking care of his wife when she became ill. When his wife became a Brookside resident two years ago, Ken became familiar with the facility. “I visited my wife every day,” he said. “The staff was a great help to me then, so I knew it was a good place.” Ken knew when he wrecked his pickup a cou-ple months ago, that his life was changing and he moved into Brookside’s Assisted Living. “My life be-came completely different,” he said. “I went from inde-pendent to dependent, and that is tough. But I enjoy the staff, residents and family here.” Ken explained that he is a people person. “I like to come to the manor and people watch,” he said. “I enjoy being with people and I am happy as I can be at this point.”

Lots of work experience and schooling de-scribe September Service Excellence Honaree Jill McKissick’s life so far. After graduating a year early from Lyndon High School in 1998, Jill moved to Topeka and earned her Certified Nursing Certificate. Jill used her CNA and worked for both St. Francis and Stormont Vail Hospitals while simultane-ously, taking classes each semester, preparing for nursing school. “I worked on my prerequisites for-ever,” Jill laughed. As if she wasn’t busy enough, Jill gave birth to

son Noah in 2000 and as a single mom she added taking care of her son to her busy schedule of working and schooling. Prior to becoming a nurse, last summer Jill was encouraged by a friend to apply at Brookside. “I had NEVER considered working at a nursing home as a CNA,” Jill said. “I thought they were stinky, awful and just a place where people got a pay-check, but I decided to give it a try.” Jill became a CNA on Cot-tonwood a year ago and she totally changed her view of nursing homes. “I fell in love with Brookside,” she

said. “I love the residents and enjoy getting to know them.” Persevering through it all, Jill finally earned her LPN in nursing last December from the Washburn Tech School of Nursing, graduating with high honors. Since then she has been working as a weekend nurse at Brookside. “I like what I am doing and I’m learning all the time,” she said. Jill has been accepted into the RN bridge program at Neosho County Community Col-lege in Ottawa and will begin taking classes in Janu-ary. “Eventually I would like to be a traveling nurse,” she said. “I would like to work all over the world at some point in my life.” But for now, Jill enjoys her family time with her 16 year old son Noah and her mom and her 7 nieces and nephews. She likes going on vacations with her family to places like Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, California and her most favorite place Nashville. She also loves country music and most recently, as a birthday gift from her grandma, she enjoyed going to a Luke Bryan concert.

KENNETH DAVIDSON JILL MCKISSICK

Congratulations Kenneth and Jill!!

Page 3

Each month

residents enjoy

many

activities

Top left: Country singer,

Rusty Rierson entertains

staff, residents and family

members while Sharri and

Frank B dance to his ren-

dition of old popular

country songs. This

month’s visit Rusty did

his ‘Rockin’ Rusty’ act,

where he dresses in

leather and wears a wig

and starts the gig with

‘Achy Breaky Heart’….

which him and Anna Lee

are singing in the pic to

the left. A great time was

had by ALL!!!

Pictured to the left are

Jerry, Hutch and Chloe’

on a gator ride, enjoying

our mild weather.

Pictured to the far left

with her trophy is Pat

Morgan, she won 5 Card

Throw Down. Next to

her, Mary Wright enjoys

herself at “Senior Dinner’

that residents can attend

each month at the Legion

and eat with other seniors

from the community.

Skeeter the clown came to

visit and got to meet Mil-

dred, who was a

clown herself

back in the day.

Bottom left: AL resident

Lois Harris with her

granddaughter, who brings

her 2nd grade class from

Appanoose in to do crafts

with residents.

Inside Brookside Page 4

Brookside Retirement Community 700 W. 7th Overbrook, KS 66524 (785) 665.7124

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

2nd: Dan Rukes 2p AL & 3p Manor

***5th: Rusy Rierson 1p Manor***

9th: Andrea Davenport 2p AL & 3p Manor

11th: Odds & Ends 2p AL & 3p Manor

13th: Senior Bam Players 2p Manor

16th: Allan & Rance 2p AL & 3p Manor

19th: Terry Baldridge 3p Manor

23rd: Allan Cunningham 2p AL & 3p Manor

25th: Rob & Snickers 6p Manor

27th: Fall Festival with Gary & Elsie 3p TBA

30th: Geri Vanover & Friends 2p AL & 3p

Manor

SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS

16th Lois Harris

19th Janis York

27th William Bevan

28th Betty O’COnnOr

29th Anna Dawson