If you work in the wonderful world of long-term care you bump into a lot of regulations.

There are federal regulations for certified Medicare and Medicaid nursing homes and other services like Hospice.

There are state licensure regulations for nursing homes.

There are state licensure regulations for assisted living, memory care and day programs.

There is OSHA.

There is Life Safety Code.

There is the Food Code.

I don’t even mean to imply I even know them all. I know I’ve missed plenty and thus my point….

Do you know the regulations you are held accountable to?

There are many myths out there.

Why? Because there are so many requirements its hard to keep track and then we hear something and repeat it but maybe don’t double check it.

I recommend if anyone says “you can’t do that” or “you have to do that” to always double check it. Ask that person what makes them say that and ask them where it is stated. That’s the key. Knowing them is foundational to each of us as professionals and as a team if you are part of one. when you know regs there is freedom.

Having been around regulations my whole career now, as a state surveyor and then a federal surveyor and teaching regs all the while… I have actually learned that regs are good. If you or I lived in a nursing home or assisted living we would be glad for the regulations. And they don’t hold us back.

I’ve also been involved in the national culture change movement for a couple decades now and have come to realize and am happy to report…

“Regulations aren’t in the way; they are the way to change institutional culture.”

From Guardians of Normal Life a new eResource, 2024, http://www.edu-catering.com, part of a new eResource series called Using Regulations to Reject & Replace Institution with Home & Normal Life.

Please join me in guarding normal life and we can do it with the current good regulations.

I love how Dr. Hayley Moseley, ACC, CADDCT, CDCS activity consultant and educator, kindly responded to this eResource and these points by saying: “I no longer feel chained to regulations but freed by them! “