Electronic mar charts: Why care homes are increasingly relying on this software?

The use of electronic MAR or eMAR charts has drastically improved medication administration in care homes. From preventing drug errors to sorting complex paper works, eMAR is a precise and cost-effective solution in improving the overall operational efficiency of care homes. If you are running a care home, the use of electronic MAR charts can help you streamline medication processes and improve patient safety. By switching to eMAR, you can simplify the process of medication administration and reduce the hassles involved in traditional MAR charts.

Here we discuss why care homes are increasingly relying on eMAR and how your care home too can benefit from it:

1. Reduces risk of medication error: Caregivers are entrusted with the responsibility to administer drugs several times a day. From prescribing medicines to administering and documenting drug records, a medication error can occur at any stage. eMAR lowers the risk of adverse events that can occur due to medication errors. With the help of eMAR’s safety alerts and reminders, no dosage is missed and the chances of medication errors are reduced.

2. Saves time and effort: With paper-based MAR sheets, caregivers spend a substantial amount of time in determining the right medications that are due to be administered to the residents. This process is not only lengthy but also tiresome for the caregivers. With eMAR, caregivers save a lot of time from manually sorting medication records, allowing them to spend more time on person-centered care.

3. Increases staff productivity and efficiency: eMAR helps to boost the efficiency and productivity of the caregiving staff. Caregiving is a challenging job as it involves fulfilling a diverse range of important responsibilities, managing increased work pressure, and giving undivided attention to the needs of the residents. eMAR comes as a perfect tool to reduce the caregivers’ work stress by providing a centralized electronic medication record system. eMAR provides greater control and a high level of transparency that all authorized staff working within the care home could access. It saves a lot of time providing more scope to the caregivers to focus on high-quality care for the residents.

4. Easy access of data: eMAR helps caregiving staff access data in real-time. It can facilitate and enhance urgent care because of its easy accessibility. By using this software, caregivers can easily enhance their operational efficiency. It can be remotely accessed by any authorized member of the caregiving staff. Because of its easy and user-friendly interface, it provides a seamless experience in integrating data.

5. Streamlines communication errors: Communication errors could create hurdles in administering medication. The use of eMAR gives a clear flow of communication between health experts and the caregiving staff ensuring proper medication management. It also eliminates the uncertainties around medication dispensing eliminating chances of medication errors.

Making the most of the GP visit: Tips for care home staff

A visit to a GP is an opportunity for the care home staff to proactively address the health needs of the residents. When health issues are communicated to the GP promptly and in the right way, better health outcomes can be achieved. For this, you, as a care home staff, have to make the most of the GP visit.

Here we discuss some useful tips to help you make the most of the GP visit:

Prepare a list of questions to ask: Days leading up to visit, make a list of questions that you think are important to ask. The questions can be complicated or simple – they could be related to an existing medical condition or about getting a routine vaccine. Make sure that you write down your questions and discuss them with the concerned resident.

Keep the paperwork ready: Prepare a list of residents whose GP appointment is due. Ensure that the GP has access to the individual care plans. Also, all the test results must be available for review. If the resident was admitted to a hospital, secure a nursing transfer letter and discharge summary. If there has been any change in the resident’s level of frailty, note down that information. Also, keep a note detailing whether previously discussed health outcomes have been achieved or not.

Share the medication chart: Put together a current list of medications that residents are taking. Access to MAR sheets allows the GP to promptly review the current medication plan. As medication is an important part of the care provided to residents and any mistake in the administration process can turn out to be a serious one. Many care homes in the UK are shifting from MAR sheets to electronic medical records software. It offers a host of benefits, including that the software ensures the GP has easy access to all the accurate details of residents and cuts down time spent retrieving paperwork.

Update the GP about new symptoms: As a caregiving staff, it’s your responsibility to share information about new symptoms and health concerns. For instance, if a resident struggles to sleep or has indigestion more than often, you must inform the GP. Changes in behavior such as irritation and anger or change in communication needs or dietary needs should be carefully noted and the GP must be informed about them. The more information the GP has, the better he or she can get to the bottom of the problem.

Get a recap: Ask the GP to repeat the instructions that the resident and you’re supposed to follow. Write things down, so that nothing is missed after the appointment. The best way to do this is to take notes on electronic MAR sheets. If you have any doubts, ask the GP before updating the MAR sheets.

New caregiver notes: How to improve your professional etiquette?

While necessary training and skills are a must to meet the job requirements, caregivers must also possess professional etiquette. An important skill, professional etiquette, is creating a mutually respectful work atmosphere and improving communication between other caregivers and the residents. If you are a new caregiver, here are some tips to improve your professional etiquette:

Introduce yourself: As a new caregiver, you must create a positive first impression. To come across as a friendly and confident professional, be ready to introduce yourself to colleagues and others. It’s a good idea that when you introduce yourself, you speak a few sentences about your professional experience – it can be about where you worked last or for how long you have been working, or other important things you would want to share with your peers.

Watch your body language: Whether you are speaking to colleagues or residents, your body language is an essential part of communication. When you are in a conversation, make sure that you are paying attention. Gazing outside the window, not making eye contact, or looking at your mobile phone – all these send a message that you are not interested in what the other person is saying. Stand tall with your shoulders straight and your chin up and make eye contact. Acknowledge the other person with a sincere smile.

Talk carefully: As a professional caregiver, you will have to interact with residents and colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is good to chat with them but avoid controversial topics that may result in inadvertently hurting someone. When speaking to residents, lend an ear to what they are saying but do not ask personal questions. If residents do tell you something personal, avoid discussing it with your colleagues.

Be courteous: Professional caregiving is a challenging job, but you can handle stressful situations by being courteous. To ensure effective communication, always listen to what the other person is saying rather than reacting too soon. Use polite language and good manners no matter how stressful the situation is.

Dress for success: If you wish to be viewed as a professional and competent caregiver, you should dress like one. Dressing too casually may not send out the right message. In many care homes, there are uniforms for caregivers. If yours also has one, make sure that your dress is neat, ironed and the shoes are professional looking.

Person-centered care – why does it mean everything to professional caregivers?

As a caregiver, you want to spend more time providing person-centered care to residents. However, daily duties such as manually handling MAR sheets and reviewing every entry at the end of the day not only can take up a lot of time but also leave room for errors such as illegible writing, wrong dosage, or missed dosage. Many care homes in the UK have switched to eMAR, an electronic medical records software, that has allowed them to automate and speed up the medication administration processes. If your care home is still using paper MAR sheets, discuss the benefits of using eMAR with your care home manager.

Caregiving tips: how to handle mood swings of residents suffering from dementia?

Anger, confusion and sadness are a few symptoms a person with dementia may experience from time to time. This may often result in mood swings and unpredictable behaviours. These episodes can be trying for caregivers who are trying to help them with a wide range of activities of daily living. If you are running a care home with residents suffering from dementia, it is important that your caregiving staff are well-trained to care for such residents.

Over here we discuss some ways that will help your care home staff understand dementia and handle mood swings associated with the condition:

Learn about common dementia behaviour: A person with dementia may become irritable and angry without even being provoked. He or she may not cooperate with caregiving staff for even daily activities such as taking a shower, eating meals or taking medication. To deal with any problems related to mood swings, it is important that the caregivers fully understand dementia and common dementia behaviours.

Understand the individual: The best thing that caregivers can do to mitigate mood swings is to understand the individual person. An understanding of an individual resident’s history, likes and dislikes, what calms him or her down and what upsets him or her can help the caregiving staff organize the resident’s day, anticipate problems, and even avert them sometimes.

Check for physical comfort and needs: Often residents with dementia may feel discomfort and they may not express it. But this may trigger a mood swing. Caregiving staff in your care homes should make sure that there is no physical discomfort such as feeling too hot or too cold, sleep disturbances, and reactions to medications that are bothering them. Caregivers should be trained to assess the physical needs of residents and address them appropriately.

Identify the behavior’s cause: Certain triggers are responsible for the erratic behavior of residents. These triggers could be an unexpected visitor or glaring light or too much noise. Caregivers should acknowledge residents’ feelings and not try to correct them even if they have their facts wrong. A calm and poised response from caregivers can be reassuring for residents.

Distract and redirect: If a resident is becoming agitated and irritable, the caregivers must be trained to distract them by changing the subject or doing something they enjoy. For instance, if a resident is having mood swings, taking him or her out for a walk may help to redirect the resident’s attention. Redirection can be quite helpful in ending an outburst. However, caregivers must be quick on their feet to come up with different ideas.

Make sure it’s not a reaction to medication: If a resident with dementia has been showing signs of erratic behavior particularly after being prescribed a new medication, caregivers should without any delay inform the GP concerned. The difficulties experienced by the residents should be well-documented for the doctor’s reference. If the care home is using electronic medical records, caregivers can note the observations quickly and easily.

Benefits of eMAR for care homes providing dementia care

Caring for patients with dementia can sometimes be challenging. Dealing with erratic behavior and personality disorders can result in lapses in inpatient care such as medication errors. An alternative to paper-based charts, eMAR charts are more precise and efficient. Using electronic medical records ensures medication is administered accurately and reliably. This will let caregivers spend more time with residents to give them the person-centered care they need.

What is A Medication Audit?

Healthcare settings such as care homes and nursing homes undergo inspections by the department of health and social care. To be compliant with the guidelines set by the departments, it is necessary for them to demonstrate how they audit and monitor all aspects of medication management. The purpose of a medication audit is to ensure that all policies, care plans and other documentation are in proper order. Medication audits also act as evidence that care standards are taken seriously.

If you are running a care home or nursing home, you should make sure that your staff is maintaining medication audits and all the records are up to date.

What information is included in a medication audit?

A medication audit must include the following:

Paper MAR charts or electronic MAR charts complete with details of residents, correct initials, age, medications prescribed (both prescribed and non-prescribed medication should be logged). The time of the day when the medication is to be given and the correct dosage should be recorded.
There should be detailed information about how the medication is stored in a safe place away from the residents’ access. It should record steps to ensure that the effectiveness of medications is not compromised and how the medication is disposed of in the appropriate manner.
Evidence of the staff helping residents take their medication. This is particularly important for residents who may have limited mobility or mental capacity.
Correct recording of medication errors or near misses.
Adequate staff training on medication management

Here we share with you some useful insights on the need for in-house medication audit:

Ensures compliance: Healthcare settings are required to undergo an assessment of quality and safety at regular intervals. An in-house medication audit gives you a real insight into how you are monitoring all the aspects of medication management on a daily basis. Also, these audits are helpful for the inspecting agency to evaluate the care standards at your care home. When they see that regular audits are completed and evidence of high-quality care are presented, inspecting agencies know that care standards are taken seriously.

Reduce errors: A medication audit helps you identify potential and actual medication errors at different stages. An audit ensures that your care home is taking every step to avoid potentially fatal errors.

Setting accountability: A medication audit may highlight areas that need improvement – both on individual and organisational level. An audit may highlight problems such as lack of staff competence, incorrect disposal of medicine and poor medication monitoring.
Transfer of care: Often many patients are transferred from hospitals to care homes. If both places have a well-maintained medication audit, the transfer is more streamlined without any compromise on the quality of care.

Maintaining an internal medical audit can be daunting and time-consuming if your care home is still using paper MAR sheets. Switching to eMAR, electronic MAR charts software, can help you maintain records by automating a wide range of processes associated with medication. For instance, with an electronic medication system in place, there are timely reminders sent to the care staff when the medicine is due. . Not just that, the electronic system can be linked to the pharmacy – it reduces the risk of missed dosage due to incomplete inventory.

What Makes a Care Home Outstanding?

According to a report, less than 1% of care homes in the UK have been rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). While approximately 62% have been rated good, the remaining 37% require improvement. You must be wondering what makes a care home outstanding?

Here we discuss some key attributes of an outstanding care home:

Efficient care home managers: Good management is key to excellence in care homes. Recruiting a manager who is confident and competent to lead a team of caregiving staff is essential. An efficient care home manager who is supported and valued by the management and has all the necessary resources at his or her disposal to deliver the high-quality, person-centred care that their residents need.

Person-centred care: An outstanding care home should follow the principles of person-centred care. Caregivers at outstanding care homes recognise the needs of residents and respect their right to make health decisions and choices. They focus on individuals and their abilities, interests, preferences and needs. Every resident is valued and respected at an outstanding care home.

Strong values and ethos: When the values and ethos of a care home are clear to all the staff members involved in the care of residents, whether directly or indirectly, it ensures that all the team members are working towards the same goal. In order to pass the CQC inspection with flying colours, they must ensure they are safe, effective, caring and responsive to residents’ needs. With an effective care home manager in place, they are well-led.

Sufficient resources: For any care home to offer the best quality care possible, it is essential that they have a strong pool of resources. For a care home manager to do his or her job, it is important he or she has adequate resources at disposal.

Skilled and kind caregiving staff: Caregiving staff are the backbone of care homes. Outstanding care homes ensure that their caregiving staff are respected, supported, well-trained, treated well and valued. Their emotional well-being is recognised and understood. As caregiving is a challenging profession, efforts should be made to ensure that the caregivers are not overwhelmed with work. They are provided with enough knowledge and skills that they need to carry out their duties with ease. For this, engaging and relevant training should be provided to them.

When you have all these elements in place, you have the fundamentals in place to become an outstanding care home. There are many things that can be done to improve care homes and investing in electronic medication administration systems could be a positive start. Care homes are at particular risk of medication errors. Implementing electronic MARs can help care homes streamline the process of medication administration,thus ensuring medication is administered reliably. It not just improves resident safety but also saves staff’s time by streamlining medication rounds, stock management and auditing. Book an eMAR demo today. All demos can be done remotely at a time that suits you.

Safe Medication Administration: Useful guide

Safe and accurate medication administration is important in all healthcare settings, including care homes. Inappropriate medication can jeopardise resident safety and can lead to health complications that could have been otherwise avoided.

Here is a useful guide for caregivers on safe medication administration:

Avoid distractions: One of the ways to reduce medication errors is to avoid distractions while doing medication rounds. Interruptions can be a major source of errors during medication administration. Having ‘do not disturb’ vests can help caregivers minimise errors. They can ask their supervisor to free caregivers on medication round from other responsibilities such as answering call bells.

Caregivers should be careful when preparing medications: Preparation of medication is a task that should be carried out with utmost care. When preparing medicines, it should be ensured there is no disturbance. Some care homes have a no-interruption zone (NIZ) where caregivers prepare medications.

Medication calculations should be done diligently: Miscalculating doses is a common source of medication error. Caregivers should have all the essential information and training in drug calculation. Also, they should use the right measuring unit and tools.

Two patient identifiers should be used: Many residents in care homes often use their middle names or nicknames instead of their legal names that are mentioned on the medication records. If caregivers were to go by a nickname, it could create confusion and lead to a potentially life-threatening problem. If a patient has the same name as another patient that too can lead to confusion. Caregivers should always use two identifiers such as full name, date of birth and medical ID number. This will improve the patient identification process.

Allergies should not go unchecked: To improve patient safety, caregivers should ask about allergies or any adverse drug reaction. The severity of the adverse drug reaction should be verified and the doctor concerned should be informed so that either the medicine can be changed or the dose can be reduced. The allergy information should be updated in the MAR sheets.

Caregivers should not rely on memory: Caregiving is a challenging job that requires caregiving staff to pay constant attention to residents. They are also required to respond quickly to an emergency situation. In such a situation, relying on memory for medicines can be potentially dangerous. Memory slips caused due to lack of attention, fatigue or distractions can compromise the safety of residents. For every resident, standard operating procedures should be followed without fail.

Residents’ consent should be taken before giving medicine: It is essential that residents are informed before medicines are administered. If residents need additional information about the medicines, the same must be provided by the caregivers. A resident should not be forced to take medication. If a resident completely stops a medication, the GP’s order should be reviewed and the practitioner in charge of the resident should be notified.

Shortcuts should be avoided: There are many challenges that caregivers will encounter while administering medications daily. However, in such situations it is important for the caregivers to look for the right solutions rather than the ones that look easy. For instance, there is a shortage of a particular medication. In such a scenario, the instructions of the facility should be followed. ‘Borrowing’ medication from another patient while waiting for the pharmacy to stock up the medicines is not right.

Why is eMAR needed at care homes?

Using the eMAR medication system ensures medication is administered reliably – caregivers can enter medication information electronically thus eliminating the need for written notes. . The electronic medication system increases the effectiveness of medication management by providing information about the resident at the click of a button. This means caregivers no longer have to sift through piles of paper to ensure that the right medicine is administered to the right person. Also, timely alerts ensure that no dose is missed.

Book a no-obligation online demo with us to see how it works.

Medication Management for Residents Suffering from Dementia

People with Dementia lose their cognitive abilities and as a result find it difficult to perform everyday work like getting dressed, keeping track of their medications and paying bills. And this is one of the main reasons they move into assisted living facilities. If you are managing an assisted living facility, here are a few useful insights for you on medication management for residents with Dementia.

1. Identifying the goals of care: Because the goals vary depending on the stage of dementia, the caregivers must closely work with the resident’s health care provider to prepare an effective medication management plan. For instance, in some cases medicines that seemed appropriate for the early stages of dementia may not be necessary during the late stages. Hence, it’s important to assess the goals every 5-6 months and document properly. The goals should also be communicated to all team members and easily accessible.

2. Medication safety and efficacy: To ensure safe and effective medication administration, the care staff must be provided regular training. They need to have a proper understanding on how prescribed medications can interact with different medicines that the residents are taking such as – herbal therapies and over-the-counter medications. They will also need training on how to know when the prescribed medications are effective. They must be provided training on responding to side effects. Also, take steps to simplify and streamline the medication administration process. Electronic mar – a hand-held electronic medical records software can be very helpful in this process. It is perfect for assisted living facilities where compliance and security are vital. The intuitive design of the system makes the transition to eMAR from Mar sheets easy. To know how the digital MAR sheet template works, book a demo today.

3. Insure that the doctor’s appointments are not missed: The care staff must schedule the follow-up visits as specified by the doctor. Also, they need to book the right mode of transportation (they can book a taxi, a wheelchair van or a medical van depending on the resident’s medical condition) to help the senior travel to the doctor’s clinic.

4. Administering the medicine the right way: In addition to following the 5Rs of medication administration, the care staff has to take certain precautions while taking care of the residents with Dementia. While giving them the pill, they have to give the residents proper instructions in a calm and clear voice. For instance, while giving them medicine for pain management, they can say “Here’s the pill for your joint pain. Put it in your mouth. Now have a glass of water and let the pill go down.”

Medication Administration Goals: Useful Insights for Care Home Managers

To ensure that the medications are administered safely and accurately in your care home, you have to consider different ways to help your staff. A well-trained team that has more time for person-centered care can improve patient safety and health outcomes. Let’s discuss more over here:

1) Consider the work environment: Medication errors and other safety issues can happen due to certain work conditions which include increased workload, staff shortage, poorly designed medication administration guidelines, staff distractions and failure by the care team to adhere to the policies. As a manager, you have to assess these factors regularly and implement changes as and when required.

2) Implement eMAR to streamline the medication administration process – eMAR medication system offers a host of benefits including improving medication safety, saving medication administration time and improving operational efficiency of the care home. To book an eMAR demo, get in touch with us. It will take 30 minutes for our team to show you the benefits of going paperless. We can do demos remotely at a time that suits you. Training and set up can also be done remotely for you.

3) Staff training: Provide education and training to your caregiving team on following the best practices for medication management. Some of the best practices include: being extra careful while dealing with medications with similar appearances or names, following the 5 Rs of medication administration and making a record of the administration as soon as possible.

4) Ensuring that there are fewer distractions while the staff is administering medicines: One of the causes of medication errors in care homes is the work interruptions experienced by the staff. Some of the strategies that care homes have applied to reduce distractions include care staff wearing “do not disturb” tabards while administering medicine or preparing the medicine, creating an isolated drug preparation area and allocating staff to work on urgent non-medical work so that the care team on the medication round is not disturbed.

Implementing useful technologies like eMAR has many benefits

First of all, with eMAR you can make your medication administration process a paperless one. You and your team won’t have to manually check every MAR sheet every day or after everytime your staff ends his/her medication round. The digital nature of the system helps you get a complete picture of the activities in real time for efficiency. To know more about the electronic medication administration record template, watch the video. Data is always backed-up in a secured manner.

Palliative Care Homes and Medication Errors: Check These Useful Insights

Palliative care offers comfort and support for people living with severe illnesses or those who are at the end stage of life. The aim is to make sure that the person continues to receive care with dignity. Palliative care is also called ‘supportive care’ as such care homes work in partnership with medical staff and other facilities to help improve the quality of life for the residents. An integral part of helping the residents live as actively as possible until the end is to ensure that the right level of care is provided to them without medication errors.

Here are useful insights that can help reduce medication errors in palliative care homes:

Follow the five rights: Medication errors can have serious and costly consequences. They can lead to additional medical intervention, serious side effects and in worst cases can even lead to death. Following the five rights — right drug, right patient, right dose, right time, right route — can help reduce the medication errors. To follow the five rights, the caregivers should have easy access to all the information at one place. With the electronic medication administration record system, caregivers can have all the information at the tap of their fingers.

Pharmacological training for caregivers: Lack of pharmacological knowledge is one of leading causes of medication errors by caregivers. Not knowing drugs’ generic and brand names, doses and properties of drugs can be confusing, especially when the drugs either look alike or have similar-sounding names. This can be addressed by organising regular training.

Get the complex drug calculation right: Drug calculations can be complex. Care home managers can fix this issue by regular training of caregivers so that they know how to calculate drug dosages accurately and avoid drug errors.

Increased workload: Increased workloads may predispose caregivers to take shortcuts and fail to follow the right drug administration procedures, such as verifying patient identification or administering medicines at the right time. The quality of care in any care home depends on many factors and one of the key factors is the competency and professionalism of the care workers. If you are a care home manager, you must recognise the signs and symptoms of caregiver stress and burnout and help and educate your staff. Talk to your caregiving staff and help them with stress management techniques.

To ease the burden of medication management for caregivers, many care homes in the UK are using eMAR, an electronic MAR sheet medication administration system. The software can streamline medication administration and offers a host of benefits. The medication administration software sends alerts to caregivers when medicines are due, ensuring that no dosage is missed or delayed. With the help of the software, monthly audit reports can be prepared without any paperwork. To learn more benefits of eMAR, check the product tour.

What Is the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia? Insights for Caregivers

Caregivers who care for patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s face several challenges along their caregiving journey. However, not knowing about the conditions can make it difficult to provide the right level of care. Often people use dementia and Alzheimer’s interchangeably but the two are different. While dementia is an overall term for a decline in memory whereas Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a disease while dementia is not a disease in its own right.

Over here we share some useful insights for caregivers on what makes Alzheimer’s different from dementia:

Dementia is a syndrome while Alzheimer’s is a disease: Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are similar but they are not the same. Dementia is a syndrome term that is used for symptoms that affect the functioning of the brain. A syndrome describes a collection of symptoms whereas a disease has specific symptoms and a common cause. Alzheimer’s is a disease with a specific set of symptoms and a common cause.
Alzheimer’s disease occurs in a specific part of the brain: The cause of dementia depends on the type, but the exact causes of many forms of dementia are currently unclear. Several different diseases may lead to dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells. These build-ups occur in specific areas of the brain.
Alzheimer’s have specific symptoms, dementia doesn’t: Confusion, disorientation, memory problems and mood changes are some of the symptoms that are specific to Alzheimer’s disease. Anxiety and distress, low mood, detachment and disinterest and sleep disturbances are some of the many symptoms of dementia. Symptoms of dementia are not specific and may emerge years after the onset which makes it difficult to diagnose and treat.
No treatment for dementia: Currently, there is no treatment for dementia and the condition cannot be reversed. The treatment for Alzheimer’s focuses on relieving symptoms. Dementia in general and Alzheimer’s disease in particular are progressive disorders with no available cures. The cognitive decline can adversely affect the patient’s quality of life. It is thus important for caregivers to help patients stay as independent as possible and provide assistance when needed.

Here are some tips for caregivers to manage daily tasks:

Be flexible: Establishing a daily routine can be helpful in structuring the day. However, allow flexibility so that care is adapted to the needs, personality, habits, preferences cognitive limitations of the resident.
Take your time: Take your time and take breaks during the tasks, if needed.
Communicate clearly: The best way to make caregiving easy is to communicate in a way that the resident understands.

Managing medication administration in dementia care homes

Caring for seniors with dementia can be quite difficult and it is, for this reason, many dementia care homes in the UK are implementing eMAR. With electronic MAR sheet medication system the caregiving team won’t have to spend hours checking every MAR sheet every day or after every medication round. Since it’s paperless, the team doesn’t have to worry about illegible notes and missed signatures. Learn how eMAR can help you and your care home. To book a demo, get in touch with us.

Top 6 Activities to Enjoy With Senior Residents of Your Care Home This Winter

If you are on the lookout for fun-filled activities to keep older adults active and engaged during the winter months, you are on the right page. Over here we discuss some of the enjoyable activities that you can organise at your care home this winter:

Dancing: The cold temperatures outside can make it difficult for seniors to step out for a walk or stick to their usual exercise routine. If seniors resist exercising because of the cold weather, you can host dancing sessions indoors. Dancing is one of the powerful and enjoyable forms of exercise. It helps keep the body and brain healthy. Also, it helps enhance balance and agility. You can organise the classes in a large space where social distancing can be maintained.

Knitting, crocheting or quilting: At first go, all these activities look complicated. However, once the seniors get the basic techniques they can create beautiful scarves or blankets. The repetition involved in knitting, crocheting or quilting allows the mind to relax and at the same time, help them use their imagination to come up with new patterns and designs.

Arts and crafts: Arts and crafts are enjoyed by the young and old equally. From painting to making paper crafts, there are limitless possibilities when it comes to arts and crafts ideas. Besides helping seniors pass the time, arts and crafts offer a host of health benefits. In addition to discovering their creative side, senior residents also experience improved motor skills, better cognitive ability and reduced stress.

Reading: During the winter months, there is nothing like a good book and a warm cup of coffee. Reading can engage the seniors at your care home and keep them mentally stimulated. Though reading is a solitary activity, you can start a reading club in your care home so that seniors reach out and make new friends. Select the first book with a vote and later you can let residents pick what they wish to read.

Musical nights: During the winter months, the weather can be gloomy and dreary. The perfect way to lift everyone’s mood in your care home is to organise musical nights. You can organise a choir performance, a music class, or a karaoke night. Music is the perfect indoor activity that is fun-filled. Group music activities are a great way for seniors to socialise with each other, too. You can conduct this activity online or in small groups so that maintaining social distancing is not an issue.

Indoor games: Bingo, puzzles, dominoes, card games and board games are the ideal activities for cold winter days. You can have scheduled game nights, which offer seniors an opportunity to have some fun and socialise. Indoor games help seniors to practise essential cognitive skills. They help to improve the parts of the brain that are responsible for complex thought processes and memory formation. Residents can play remain in their doorways while playing so that they can avoid coming too close to each other. They can also opt to play online games with their friends and families.

Caregivers should take personal preferences of the residents into account when coming with an activity calendar.

How can you help caregivers focus on person-centred care at your care home?

While caregivers try to focus on person-centred care, they get occupied with y time-consuming manual tasks like filling in MAR sheets or reviewing them. By implementing electronic MAR, an electronic medication administration record system, you can can automate the medical administration in your care home and reduce the workload of caregivers. The electronic medication administration record template is similar to paper-based MAR sheets, making it easy for caregivers to adapt swiftly. eMAR will not only improve the operational efficiency of the medication administration process but it will also give caregivers more time for residents. Book a demo today.