Inside Athena: MeadowBrook of Granby Nurse Digging Into Patient Care
GRANBY, C.T. — Rita Barnard is like a “little archeologist” at MeadowBrook of Granby, she said.
She’s been the MDS Director at the center since 2013. She started as a charge nurse 25 years ago and doesn’t see herself leaving anytime soon.
Every day, she is working with the departments to create resident assessments.
“We do assessments on every patient that comes into the building whether they’re short-term or long-term that we send to the Centers for Medicare Advocacy to show why that patient is here,” she said. “We’re like little archeologists, we’re digging into their medical records in order to say why they need to be with us.”
Barnard also advocates for the residents on why skilled nursing is beneficial, even if only for a short period of time.
She has always wanted to do something that allowed her to work with people. It was either a teacher or nurse, but she first ventured into the business world. While unhappy with that, her husband asked her what would make her happy. She then enrolled in nursing school and became a licensed practical nurse.
“I like to interact with people. That’s why I became a nurse,” she said. “Even though the Minimum Data Set is my main job, I’m also a case manager so I advocate for people.”
She enjoys being able to work alongside patients and take part in research on their medical history. MeadowBrook has also created a family for her over the quarter-century.
Administrator Patricia Salisbury said, “Rita is dedicated to the facility and our residents with a long history of providing care for them.”
Throughout her long history at the center, there have been countless residents who have made an impact on her life. In fact, she named her daughter after a former resident of which she is still in communication with the family.
“When I was younger and started, every day I came to work, it was like I had 30 grandparents. That’s how I looked at it,” she said.
With a meaningful career in healthcare, she wants others pursuing the path to see the benefits of skilled nursing. She said there are so many avenues worth exploring in the industry that “you never know where you are going to go.”
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