A Champion For Dignity At Beaumont Rehab
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Nicole Croteau, director of nursing at Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Northbridge.
For Nicole Croteau, director of nursing at Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Northbridge, the career that ignited and would become her passion began as just a summer job.
After her first year at Stonehill College in Easton, Croteau needed a job, and “it was either here or Friendly’s. I just needed a job, to be honest.”
But three months in, she realized she had begun building meaningful relationships with the people she cared for.
“For the first time in my life, I didn’t have to hesitate when I was asked what my passion in life was,” Croteau said. She’s worked elsewhere and practiced acute care at a couple of area rehabilitation clinics, but said when she started trusting her feelings and stopped listening to what other people were telling her, she went right back to Beaumont.
Innovative Care
And what she has done there is truly special. The “Peace Team” Croteau started at Beaumont when she became director of nursing is a simple yet unique and effective program designed to help the families of Beaumont residents cope with the death of a loved one.
The Peace Team program has brought Beaumont out of the old way that nursing homes used to deal with dying residents into a new, more thoughtful and responsible way of coping with and accepting death.
It is difficult to accept death, but it’s a reality, especially for nursing homes. Traditionally, nursing homes would deny their residents the opportunity to accept the death of a fellow resident. The dying individual’s personal wishes were subordinate to those of the nursing home operators and staff, who were more often concerned with efficiency and the maintenance of a set routine.
The Peace Team puts those notions aside.
In a way, Croteau recognizes that if we do not acknowledge death, we have failed. She remembered two men who lived at Beaumont, became friends and ate at the same table day after day. When one of them died, the other learned about it “when he picked up the paper and read the obituary of his tablemate.”
Would that man have liked to say goodbye to his friend? Would the dying man’s family have appreciated the kind words his friend may have offered?
The way nursing homes used to work, that was almost unheard of. But caring for the dying doesn’t have to be so cold. And for Croteau, simply listening to the dying wishes of her patients and their families is the cornerstone of the Peace Team.
“If it’s hot in the room, get some water,” she said. “Sometimes people don’t need much, but there’s a lot more respect for individuality, for the people who live here. They had lives before they came here. We respect that and go first with what they’re telling you.”
Does a dying resident want a party? Does his family want some drinks? They get it. Special meal requests are honored, families who hold vigil at a resident’s bedside are provided with cots and blankets to sleep on. And the other residents know that’s how their fellow wanted to spend his last days.
Marty Green, who with his family nominated Croteau for this award, saw how valuable the Peace Team is when they lost their father last spring. “My family and I have very powerful memories of being together with my dad and his caretakers during his last days,” Green wrote in his nomination of Croteau.
Croteau, along with one of Green’s father’s former roommates, attended the funeral.
Croteau’s idea was a simple one: Death is part of life and we have a responsibility to look it in the face and accept it. Sometimes the best way to do that is to celebrate the life of the person who’s passed on.
Residents and staff at Beaumont are no longer discouraged from speaking about the dying. Instead, staff looks in on dying residents and their families during every shift. Deceased residents are escorted from the building under a colorful Peace Team quilt by someone important to them. The Peace Team follows up with the families of the deceased and sends flowers.
These may seem like small points, but they all contribute to an atmosphere of celebration of life rather than one in which families would simply close their eyes and wait for their loved one to die.
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