Administrative Assistant Sharria Floyd: New role, same caring heart

Sharria Floyd has changed her daily outfits from scrubs to business casual, but she still feels like the caregiver she has always been.

“It doesn’t make me feel any less or more confident,” said Floyd, the former Homeland CNA who stepped into the administrative assistant role for Homeland CEO Barry Ramper II. “It lets me know that I’m doing a different line of work. It made the new position of reality for me, but of course, I still go and see the residents.”

Floyd fills the shoes of Ramper’s longtime assistant Esther Burnside, who retired in spring 2025. In typical Homeland fashion, it was not a job she saw herself doing, but Ramper saw her potential and invited her to grow into a new role.

Floyd joined Homeland in August 2000. After time as a CNA floating through Homeland’s three continuing-care units — Personal Care, Skilled Living, and Memory Care –– she joined the Ellenberger Memory Care Unit.

“I absolutely loved the interaction with the residents, whether they were thinking about some moment in their past or had that moment when they were able to be in the present,” she said. “I felt that – and still do – there’s so much to learn. The job isn’t about giving care, although that’s fundamental. It’s also about being a friend. It’s about being a good listener. It’s being a helping hand.”

Over the years, Floyd rose to Quality Assurance, where she helped ensure the implementation of residents’ care plans.

She loved her job but had been praying for a challenge when, one day, Ramper asked if she had a moment to talk. She was “in complete shock” when he asked if she would take Burnside’s position.

“He said he prayed about it, and God said to ask me,” she said. “I prayed, fasted, and thought about it.”

She knew it meant spending less time with the colleagues she had grown close to, but she said yes when she concluded that Ramper must have confidence in her.

“I thought about what I prayed for, and it seemed to match,” she said. “I asked for a challenge. I didn’t know exactly how it would come forth, but it answered a prayer.”

Growing up in Lancaster as the oldest of five siblings, plus a stepbrother, Floyd always had a caregiving heart. Her parents taught her the values of treating others with respect and dignity. She would visit her mother, a nursing-home CNA, during lunch breaks and thought it was fun to help with the residents.

When she moved to Harrisburg, she interviewed with the nursing home where she earned her CNA, but the experience was abrupt and clinical.

She interviewed at Homeland on the same day and was greeted with smiles and warmth. When Homeland offered her a position, she knew it was the place for her.

Taking her direct care experience into administration, Floyd understands the forms and terminology crossing her desk, knowing what they mean to the residents.

She can also help her colleagues understand the reasons behind Homeland’s procedures and rules.

“I feel like because I’ve remained the same person through-and-through throughout these 20 years, people trust my word,” she said. “I don’t have to go into deep detail, but I can give reassurance and let them know that things will work out. Most people want to know that you’re listening, that they are being heard.”

Her new duties include taking minutes for Board of Trustees and Resident Council meetings and ordering flowers for the families of residents who have passed away.

“It’s such a nice gesture,” she said. “Time passes, and it might be a day when they’re thinking of their mother or their loved one, and here are some flowers to cheer them up and let them know that their loved one isn’t forgotten. They haven’t forgotten them, and neither have we.”

Outside of work, Floyd is busy with her church and her three children, ages 18, 12, and 7.

At Homeland, Floyd believes she is part of a team that cares for residents as family members want them to be treated.

In her new role, she hopes to keep praying with and for the residents, contribute to solutions when they’re needed, and continue to grow. She is inspired by Homeland’s history, which began in 1867 with the founding of 18 women who put aside any differences they might have had and “decided to be a helping hand” to Civil War widows and orphans.

“That’s why Homeland is special,” she said. “That’s what still makes Homeland special. The spirit of their love never dies.”

Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.