Welcome to Optimal Aging!
Optimal Aging is a senior care consulting business born from my love of helping older adults and a strong belief in patient-centered, evidence-based nursing care and education.
My stepfather was my first guide into the world of healthcare. David was an internal medicine physician who set an inspiring example of patient-centered care. He ran a bustling clinic where compassion, integrity, and a dose of humor were as vital as any treatment. From reading X-rays to performing complex procedures, he collaborated with the patient, the nurses, and the in-house lab tech and pharmacist to provide the best treatment plan for every patient. He had a relationship with his patients and often butted heads with hospital administrators over patient treatments. He once drove a patient to the emergency. And visited another patient on a Saturday on our way to the ski hill. It was because of David that I pursued a nursing degree.
Entering a tight nursing market with my shiny new BSN pin, I eagerly advanced my way through hospital units enjoying the thrill of cardiac and critical care nursing. Problem-solving with colleagues and appreciative patients was rewarding. But when I received a cheap plastic water bottle as a token of appreciation for Nurses’ Day, my views of my employer began to change.
During this time, my husband and I welcomed our first daughter while working alternating hospital shifts to minimize childcare expenses. Curt was preparing for a major career change, and I was working to advanced my critical care nursing skills. And then the unexpected happened. Suffering a massive intracerebral brain bleed I quickly became a patient in the unit where I worked. Ten days later I was recovering from a craniotomy. If it had not been for my husband’s medical knowledge and attentiveness to the ICU nurses management of the various lines going into my major veins, I likely would not have survived. It is amazing how one’s life can forever change in an instant.
Experiencing healthcare as a patient perspective was disappointing. The neurosurgeon was arrogant and rude. There was no visiting nurse to follow my recovery from major neurocranial surgery. The combined effects of narcotic analgesics and anticonvulsant medications on an irritated brain was discombobulating. It would have been helpful for my husband and I if we had support to help navigate the exhaustion, frustration and reality of my situation. At the time I thought about creating a support group, which I would have called Headbangers, but I didn’t have the energy or mental capacity.
Fast forward ten years, our oldest daughter was a senior in high school, our youngest was in middle school and I was itching to return to nursing. Community hospitals were now hospital systems with tentacles of clinics canvassing communities and patient care was being transformed by constantly evolving technology. In the hospital nearly every step of nursing care involved a badge, a computer password, a barcode reader or a combination of all three. Documentation involved checking boxes in the patient’s electronic medical records. It seemed nurses spent more time tending to computers then patients. At the same time, the ceiling lifts above every patient bed demonstrated that patients weren’t getting better. I was obvious the healthcare system was broken and I didn’t want to be a part of it.
Taking the family-friend option with a goal of educating future nurses I entered graduate school. Landing a nursing instructor position is easy in the midst of a nursing shortage. And within five years of that first job as a skills lab instructor I was the interim director of the Associate Degree nursing program. And in those fast and furious five years we obtained an accreditation designation, designed and received approval for an RN-BSN program and I was awarded tenure. After a year of a DEI selected PhD director I was done. It is not an understatement to say I did my time in academia.
But it was while teaching second year med/surgical and first year geriatric nursing students that the inspiration for Optimal Aging was born.