Westminster Woods

This Monday, we had the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Chad Evans, the Executive Director of Westminster Woods to our meeting. He talked to us about the facility that he works at, the network his facility belongs to, and what it takes to become a Nursing Home Administrator. His talk gave us a lot of insight into the world of long-term care, as well as information on how to achieve our goals of working in this sector upon graduation.

To begin, Mr. Evans discussed Westminster Woods at Huntingdon, the continuing care retirement community that he is in charge of. This facility consists of independent living, personal care, and skilled care, and is part of a larger network of retirement communities. The starting age for someone to live in the community is fifty-five, so some of the residents still work even though they have moved into a retirement community. Others participate in the many clubs and activities that are put on at the health care center.

On top of Westminster Woods, there are another 12 campuses that are within the Presbyterian Senior Living community group. Altogether, the organizations serve over 3,000 residents. The group of retirement communities is spread across Pennsylvania, as well as other bordering states. He told us about job and internship opportunities within these facilities, and reminded us that there are a lot of avenues for careers within a Continuing Care Retirement Communities.

For the rest of his talk, Mr. Evans told us about the process of getting licensed as a Nursing Home Administrator. He said there are several ways to obtain an NHA, but the fastest way is to take a 120 hour course, obtain a bachelor's degree, 1,000 hours of an Administrator in Training Program, and finally taking a board certification test. He gave us several tips on what we should do while in school and beyond to better prepare ourselves for the future. He taught us about the changing landscape of long-term care and how insurance companies have a large influence over health care centers. Overall, though, he stressed to us the importance of experience. His biggest piece of advice was fo us to shadow everyone in the facility from food service to the CEO. To be able to understand someone's situation, you have to experience it.

Thank you again to Mr. Evans for coming to our meeting! Your advice and wisdom is incredibly useful, and we were glad to hear from you.