Tag Archive for: Employee Spotlight

Quality Assurance Coordinator Amanda Schrader strives for excellence!

In January 2016, Amanda Schrader had a new job at Homeland Center, a husband busy with his own work overseeing a prison medical unit, and two boys, ages 1 and 3.

“I decided that was the perfect time in my life to go back to school,” she says. “Why not? I’m crazy.”

The pursuit of knowledge, even in the face of daunting demands, is a defining feature of Schrader’s life. At Homeland, she is Quality Assurance Performance Improvement/Education Coordinator, responsible for the rigorous pursuit of consistent excellence.

Schrader grew up in Pennsylvania and North Dakota with a medical family. Her dad is an anesthesiologist, now living and practicing in Williamsport.

“Medicine was always part of my life but it never occurred to me until halfway through my senior year in high school that nursing was something I wanted to do,” she says. “Once I decided on nursing, I just stayed with it.”

Her nursing studies have taken her from North Dakota to Williamsport, working by day and studying by night. She expects to finish her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Grand Canyon University in November 2017.

Schrader’s husband of seven years, Josh, is a lieutenant at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institute at Camp Hill, where he oversees the medical complex.

“It’s fun,” says Schrader. “He knows he can talk to me about the medical stuff going on and I won’t get grossed out.”

She and her husband devote their off-work time to the boys, Harrison, 5, and Nathan, 2 and a half. They go to science centers and zoos, parks and pools. Sometimes, family time is as basic as sitting on the deck in their rural home.

“When you have a stressful day at work, you have to be so cautious with the kids,” she says. “You can’t take away their childhood because you have a bad day.” Then she added, “Harrison and I had a pillow fight before I left for work this morning.”

At Homeland Center, Schrader first worked in the Ellenberger dementia unit. There, she honed her skills in catching the nonverbal cues from residents to indicate a need.

“You have to completely know and be in tune with everything that goes on because they can’t say to you, ‘My back hurts,’” she says. “Maybe they’re calling out, and all they need is a Tylenol because their back hurts. Maybe they’re looking for the bathroom, but they can’t tell you that.”

Homeland is the right place for her because its standards of quality care for residents match her own.

“The people who have been here 10, 20, or 30 years, they’re the ones who make Homeland what it is,” she says. “I came on board and make sure the quality continues to be there.”

The days can be pressure-filled. It helps, she says, that “there’s a whole team of quality assurance people in the building.”

“Everyone’s busy, but there’s never a moment when they make you feel like there’s something more important,’’ she said. “That’s what makes this place different. This is such a supportive family.”

Residents and their families feel the difference.

“When you feel included and appreciated and supported, it’s one less thing weighing on your mind when you’re providing care for someone,” Schrader says. “It’s easier to leave stress outside the door because when you come inside, you feel safe and you feel protected. It’s all about the residents.”

A lifelong South Central Pennsylvania resident, Jennifer Murray, currently the Director of Personal Care, began at Homeland a little over a year ago in March of 2016.

Murray has been a nurse for seventeen years. “I received my LPN certification in 1999 and became a Personal Care Home Administrator in 2005.” She also holds certifications as a Medication Trainer, Fire Safety Trainer and as a Certified Marketing Professional.

“I always knew I wanted to be a nurse – since I was a child. I always enjoyed taking care of everyone around me. I have a natural instinct to help those in need.”

Her first job related to nursing or personal care was with the Middletown Home. “I was there for twelve years, serving as Director of Residential Living.” Murray was also charged with the task of handling all of their marketing efforts.

Before beginning at Homeland Center she held positions with a few other facilities in the Lancaster area, but soon returned back to Harrisburg.

“I love what I do and where I work. I am a people person and truly enjoy working with both residents and their families to find the right care for their current needs. I enjoy making a difference in their lives.”

“Homeland is such a close knit community. Residents, families and staff are all so welcoming and courteous. Everyone I pass in the hallways is smiling. The smiles are soon followed with a ‘hello’ or a ‘hi how are you’?” Murray feels “at home” at Homeland Center.

For 49 years, Pauline Neal delivers joy!

Pauline Neal has trained thousands of Homeland employees, and she tells them all the same thing she heard when she was hired in 1959.

“Always remember that this facility doesn’t belong to anyone but the people who live here,” the Homeland matron told Pauline. “It’s their home. It’s not ours. We’re invited guests in their home, and we’re paid invited guests.”

The native of Huntingdon, PA, first worked in Harrisburg facilities as a nurses’ aide. She never worked in a nursing capacity for Homeland, but for 49 years, she has held multiple caregiving roles – as director of housekeeping and linens, food services director, resident liaison, and now, part-time receptionist.

A mainstay for nearly one-third of Homeland’s 150 years, Pauline has touched countless lives through her attention to detail, her empathy for residents and families, and her devotion to keeping the “home” in Homeland.

Pauline’s first Homeland job, cleaning rooms to prepare for inspection of newly constructed wings, was meant to last one week. On the second morning, the assistant superintendent told her he had inspected every room and wanted to discuss the quality of her work. The young Pauline waited for the ax to fall.

The rooms were spotless, he said. And then he asked, “How would you like a full-time job here?”

In those days, three trunks in the basement were filled with baby clothes, recalling the time when Homeland accepted children. The washing machine required a staffer manning a pedal to run the spin cycle. The person running the behemoth dryer set the temperature by reaching in to adjust the gas flame. When new laundry equipment arrived, doors into the basement had to be enlarged to fit it all.

“It was a mess, but it was so much fun,” Pauline recalls. “Everything that we had here involved all the employees. There wasn’t one department that was better than the other.”

Pauline’s years coincided with Homeland’s concerted efforts to comply with rising regulations and instill excellence as its hallmark. She would tell staff, “Everyone is a special guest and should be treated as such.”

When the nearby Three Mile Island nuclear plant nearly melted down in 1979, Pauline and Homeland staff packed up clothing and medications, and then boarded residents on two buses and “I don’t know how many ambulances.” For five days, the evacuees lived in a former tuberculosis sanatorium and the dorms of Wilson College, both in Chambersburg, where Pauline and colleagues kept watch.

“We made sure they were fed and bathed and tried to do activities to keep them occupied,” she says. “Nobody got sick. That was traumatic for a lot of those people. You had to be very calm.”

After retiring in 2004, Pauline served as a part-time resident liaison, ensuring that residents and families got everything they needed. She remains in touch with many families. They bring her peanut butter eggs at Easter and send flowers on Mother’s Day. The stack of thank-you cards she keeps at the front desk includes one from a former resident’s daughter.

“Thank you for all your help, support, expertise and kindness when my mother was in Homeland,” the note reads. “You are a class act.”

Such sentiments mean the world to Pauline. She believes she is blessed because she found a job as a young woman and landed among people “who cared about me enough to help me grow.”

“My dedication is to the residents and their families,” she says. “I was taught that you put Jesus first, others second, and yourself last, and you will always have joy.”