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One On One With: A long-term care dining director on serving during hardships of coronavirus
Debra Ryan of Oakland Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center shares her story of keeping up with regulations and dealing with death during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2 Min Read
Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Soundcloud.
In this week’s episode of One On One With, Food Management’s podcast, we catch up with a dining director in a long-term care facility in the hard-hit state of New Jersey. Between deaths, every-changing rules, regulations and expectations, my guest today has had to deal with it all.
I today’s episode, I catch up with Debra Ryan. Debra is the food service director at Oakland Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Oakland, N.J. From just the change in mask-wearing policy alone, the past two months have been what Debra calls a roller coaster ride. Throw in a couple of in-person and virtual department audits, and you’ll start seeing just how stressful running a foodservice program in a coronavirus hotbed had been.
Here’s what Debra said: “Yes, it’s risky, but the work we’re doing is very fulfilling. The residents here are our family. As we started to see them pass away, especially those that we became bonded with, it’s so emotionally taxing. We are doing everything we can as a team, as a healthcare team, and sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s enough. In the beginning I thought, how can I expect my team to show up to work knowing what they know and seeing what they’re seen. But they did and they still are. And to me, that’s so commendable.”
Listen in to learn more about what the team at Oakland Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center is doing to make it safely through this pandemic.
Have a story to share? Email me at [email protected].
You can subscribe and listen to all One On One podcasts on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Food Management · One On One With: A long-term care dining director on serving during hardships of coronavirus
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