John and Natalie

Photo from CIO from IDG

John and Natalie are two people with whom I work.  They couldn't be more different than one another.  But they are both significant to me.  Let me tell you about each of them.

John is in his mid twenties.  He's Filipino. He came to this country right after he finished college and has worked at Fidelity Health Care, where we all work, since then.  He started out as a maintenance assistant and now he is the business office manager. His English is super good but sometimes he misses out on cultural inferences that American born people take for granted.  Since more than half of the facility staff were born in another country, it presents less of a problem than would be expected. He lives with his family and walks to work.  Once I said something about how I wish I were Asian so that my kids and grandkids would live with me and he looked kind of excited and said yes that's how they do things. He is smart, motivated, and efficient.  At first I found him resistant toward me but now he seems to have gotten over it; I'm not exactly sure why. After I was there a few weeks John and his office mate Kristine (who I  think is his girlfriend) came to me.  They said they wanted to try marketing to increase the facility census.  They knew I'd been interviewing marketers but they said they were willing to take on the additional duties.  We talk together but I've ultimately let them do it their way and go out marketing whenever they want.  I've made sure that they have all the money they need. I've supported them extensively; praised their efforts, told the team that we have to work harder with more difficult patients to increase our census, and pushed the DON to take most referrals. In the past two months they've worked together with the team and our Medicare (the most desired insurance) patients have increased from 9 to 16. Payment level HMOs have increased from none to 3 patients. About 2 weeks ago they came and asked for a raise.  I appreciated that they showed me their marketing results prior to asking for more money.  I was able to get each of them $2 more an hour. On New Year's eve John texted me "Happy New Year's Ms Tracy" with some party images.  (I actually hate those cute little images but even my beloved husband John uses them). John wants to become a nursing home administrator. In order to do that in California you have to have a bachelor's degree, get a licensed administrator who is certified to preceptor to  preceptor you for 1,000 hours, and pass both a federal and state exam. A previous administrator at Fidelity had started the preceptor program with John and then been let go and decided to move to Arizona; which left John out in the cold.  I meet the requirements to be a preceptor but have never taken the class to become certified to be one in California.  In 3 months the class is being offered in Sacramento, which is a long way from where we are at.  In 6 months the class is being offered in Riverside which is only about an hour's drive from where we are at.  I emailed him this past week that I'm going to take that class in June and afterward I'm willing to preceptor him if he'd like.  He emailed me back that he wants that.  I'm not sure what John's personal beliefs are but I feel drawn to him.  I feel like God wants to use me in his life, so I'm praying about how.

Natalie is most likely in her fourties but is beautiful, fit, and looks younger.  She's African American.  She started out as a C.N.A. in the nursing home business and then became an LVN.  She worked at Spring Valley where I used to work for a few months, but it was after I left.  I hired her not too long ago to be our Director of Staff Development (DSD). Leila referred her to me.  From our first conversation during the interview I liked her and knew she'd  be a great employee. This is her first DSD job. I paid her more than she asked for.  She is super excited, working to get things organized, goal oriented, and easy to work with.  She respects authority and is the kind of person that I can sit down with and problem solve.  She's a team player and we can both dig in and work together - I love working with people like that! She comes in at all times of the day so that she can work with and supervise staff on the various shifts.  She's working to get the staff trained.  I'm working to support her efforts and require that the DON and other nursing staff support her efforts and work with her instead of expecting her to do everything (which would be impossible). She has a handsome husband who I think is her second husband, a teenager, and at least one young adult child who lives back east some where.  She is a Christian and sometimes drops phrases like how she's praying for God's favor. I really like her and find her easy to be around. I feel like God wants to use me in her life, so I'm praying about how.

I feel a deep desire to lift both of these two up in their careers.  I want to be as much of a help to them as I can and maybe, through the grace and power of God, be even more of  a help to them then I would ever think I could.

Right now I'm praying and looking for opportunities.  Today I felt impressed to write each of them an encouraging note. So I'm praying for each of them and about what to say in the notes

I'm looking forward to what God is going to do.