We’ve been word processing, editing, proofing and printing nursing home activity calendars for 17 years now, and we’ve seen 1000′s of them.  We’ve worked with hundreds of activity directors, and each has his or her own unique way of doing the monthly activity calendar.

A professional and polished activity calendar is a bright reflection on the whole facility.  Here are just a few simple tips for doing your calendar:

1.  Be consistent. As much as possible, keep the times and events consistent on a month to month basis.  For example, if the facility has a monthly birthday party, find a day that will work for most months of the year, say the third Friday of the month, and schedule it for that day.  If the Resident Council meeting is on Wednesdays, try to keep it that way as much as possible.

2.  Keep times as uniform as is practical. Activities might be scheduled on the hour, on the half hour, etc., but it helps to keep the starting times the same month to month once convenient times have been found.  If the morning activity starts at 9:00 a.m. one month, and the next month it’s on the calendar for 9:15, confusion reigns.  While some times changes are inevitable, try to avoid unnecessary scheduling changes.

3.  Write legibly. Since we try to make the process of getting a monthly calendar out as easy as possible, we accept handwritten calendars that our clients fax to us.  This is the easiest way to do it for many of our clients, and we love to be of service this way, but the more legible the better for all concerned!

4.  Proofread your calendar. We proofread all of our client’s calendars before sending them back a proof copy, and we edit for obvious errors.  It only takes the client a couple of minutes to double-check the work, and the result is a beautiful, professionally produced calendar that the facility can be proud of (and can use for marketing purposes).

5.  Send it to the family members. The more you’re able to advertise upcoming events in advance, the more family members and friends will be able to attend.  This will help family members remember when important events are, thus increasing the likelihood that attendance will be high and the event a success!

6.  Get it out into the community. Do you use your calendar for marketing?  In the right hands a great activity calendar goes a long way in marketing your facility, with discharge planners, medical personnel and referrals.

7.  Use last month as a template. In order to make the process as easy as possible, we send our clients their last month’s calendar updated to the new month.  So, for example, after their June calendar has been printed, they have the July calendar ready to go with all their events that were on the June calendar, minus those relevant for only a specific month, like Father’s Day events.  We add the holidays for the new month, e.g., 4th of July.  This streamlines the process when the activities are going to be similar.

These are just a few simple tips to a great activity calendar and they may seem obvious, but they’re sometimes overlooked.

Nursing home activity calendars come in various sizes, one of the more popular sizes being 11 by 17 inches.  Residents with special needs, however, may benefit from using a different size calendar.  A resident who has visual impairment, for example, will benefit from an enlarged activity calendar, one with a larger font size, or “dailies,” 8½ by 11 inch sheets of activities for each day.  Since only one day’s activities are listed on each sheet, the font size is increased substantially.  A resident with dementia may also benefit from the enlarged “blow-up” calendar, or the daily calendars.

Many facilities enlarge the standard 11×17 activity calendar to a 36 by 48 inch poster size to be hung in the facility and accessible to all.  This makes the font much larger and easier to read.  The enlarged nursing home activity calendar can also be used as an artistic activity for the residents, for example, our enlarged calendars come with art that can be colored in by the residents.  Having the residents with dementia color in the art on the nursing home activity calendar helps them focus and take a greater interest in the calendar itself.

The enlarged nursing home activity calendar can also be used as an orientation tool that will help residents with cognitive difficulties.  Use a sticky note, sticker, or other indicator to note which day it is on the enlarged nursing home activity calendar.  This will help with date and time orientation.  Hanging the enlarged calendar in a central location that the resident will walk by several times a day will maximize the chances of the resident being aware of the activities for that day.

“Dailies,” the 8½ by 11 inch individual sheets for each day’s activities, are also useful for residents with dementia because they focus only on the day at hand and do not list what has occurred in the past or what will occur in the future.  This type of calendar system helps the resident to stay focused on the present day, which can help to decrease feelings of anxiety and confusion.  Dailies also help with reality orientation by continuously reminding the resident what the date is and what activities they have done and have the option of doing for the rest of the day.  To further the efficacy of the dailies as an orientation tool, you can cross off the activity after it has been completed for the day, which will help the resident keep track of activities.

Looking for some popular games to add to your monthly nursing home activity calendar?  Some of the all-time favorites are bingo, card games, balloon volleyball, trivia/quiz games and word games.

Bingo remains the most popular nursing home game for most residents.  If you think your bingo games could use a makeover, there are ways to add some variety.  Try having a theme night, say an Elvis Presley bingo night, where Elvis trivia questions are mixed in with the bingo.  Or you can vary the prizes won, say a costume jewelry night.  In your monthly newsletter to families, you can ask for donations of inexpensive prizes for bingo games.

Card games are another popular activity and are good for promoting interaction and socialization.  It is often easier for residents who are more reserved to socialize and get to know each other over a game of cards.  Large print cards are now available from many sources online.

Another fun activity is balloon volleyball.  You can hold a balloon volleyball tournament in which residents from different wings form teams and face off against each other.  If you stay connected with several other nursing homes you can suggest facility versus facility tournaments.

Trivia and quiz games are activity favorites as well.  Many facilities do era-based trivia like music from the 60’s or sports players from the 50’s.  For example, the free trivia games we give our clients each month include a “Who Am I” guessing game, a “Where in the World Am I” guessing game, several “Guess the Sports Team” trivia games, several “Name That State” games, and two “Name That Hollywood Star” games.

Another type of game you can add to your nursing home activity calendar are word games. We provide our clients with Mix and Matches, Word Searches and Word Jumbles each month.

Adding these games to your nursing home activity calendar line-up helps to create a more entertaining and mentally stimulating environment for your residents.

Activity Directors spend a great deal of time and effort planning and scheduling activities that are fun and stimulating for the residents, but sometimes it’s difficult to measure how successful any one activity is. A nursing home activity calendar, in addition to listing scheduled events, can also help directors track the popularity of activities and be used as a planning tool.

After each activity occurs, the activity director can make a few quick notes to help in planning future activities.  For example, the director can make a note of  how many residents attended the activity, the levels of participation, resident comments about the event, and any other relevant information as to the the popularity of the event.  A color system can be used on the nursing home activity calendar to elaborate on the overall acceptance of the activity.   If the residents seemed satisfied, the director could highlight the activity in green, if the residents seemed agitated, the director could highlight the activity in red, etc.  This is an especially good idea when experimenting with new activities, as a lot of residents may come to the activity out of curiosity, but ultimately dislike it; in this case, simply noting the attendance record on the nursing home activity calendar would not be a sufficient amount of data.  The director may also want to make a small note about how much the activity costs to determine if it’s popular enough to justify the amount of money needed to run the activity.

By color coding the activity calendar and making a few relevant notes, activity planning for the upcoming months can be done more easily and effectively.

Nursing home activity calendars are a great way to stay in touch with residents’ family members and loved ones.  Sending a copy of the nursing home activity calendar to each person that the resident has expressed an interest in seeing more frequently may encourage the resident’s loved ones to visit.  Having a copy of the facility’s activity calendar will help family members and friends remember to come to special events and activities.  You can encourage family members to hang the calendar on the refrigerator at home so they can take a quick look at what is going on in the facility every day.  If you have a little extra time, you can even highlight the activities that the resident would like for their loved ones to attend with them.  You can also put the facility’s phone number and other contact information directly on the nursing home activity calendar so the information is always readily available.  It is always in the nursing home’s best interest to maintain an open line of communication with a resident’s family and friends so a higher level of understanding about the resident and the resident’s plan of care can be reached by all parties.  The nursing home’s activity calendar may also serve as a steady reminder to residents’ families that their loved one is in good, qualified, caring hands.

Any nursing home that is Medicaid/Medicare certified must adopt a set of federal resident rights.  One of the federal rights that a nursing home is expected to adhere to is that the resident has the right to interact with members of the community both inside and outside the facility.  When state surveyors come to the facility they will be looking for proof that the residents have had ample opportunities for this interaction.  An easy and convenient way to ensure that the activities department has proper records of these opportunities is to use a nursing home activity calendar.  Activities personnel should document any volunteers coming in to visit the facility, such as entertainers, religious groups, children, etc., on their nursing home activity calendar.  Likewise, any time the residents have an opportunity to leave the facility for any type of outing it should be documented on the nursing home activity calendar.  The activities staff may want to write down which residents attended outings and if they conversed with anyone who does not currently live or work in the nursing home.  At the end of the month the activities staff can file the nursing home activity calendar away, and refer to it when state surveyors ask for documentation that proves the right to interact with members of the community has been adhered to.

Nursing homes that accept Medicaid and Medicare must comply with federal regulations, including: each resident has a right to choose activities, schedules and health care consistent with his or her interests, assessments and plans of care. State surveyors typically monitor if a facility is offering activities that pique a resident’s interest by looking at which activities programs a resident is visiting. Because this is the easiest way for surveyors to determine if the facility is providing appropriate activities, all Activity Directors are required to keep a log of which residents attended what activity. Some Activity Directors keep track of a resident’s attendance by using a nursing home activity calendar. In smaller facilities it is easy to record a resident’s activity by making one copy of the nursing home activity calendar for each resident and then simply highlighting the activities using a color coding system. For example: a director might highlight all activities a resident attends in green, all activities a resident refuses to come to in red, and all activities a resident didn’t come to because he/she was occupied with something else in yellow. Other progress notes or elaboration on the circumstances can also be written in the cell for that day. At the end of the month the nursing home activity calendar with all the notes can go into a file that is kept for that specific resident.

According to Medicare regulations, a facility’s activities program is one of the most important things a person should consider when deciding on a nursing home. One of the easiest ways to make the facility’s activities and upcoming events information easily accessible is to use a nursing home activity calendar.  Activity Directors can hand out monthly calendars to the residents and hang the calendars in various places around the facility.  The director can also keep spare nursing home activity calendars on hand so that when a potential resident comes in to tour the facility, they can take home a calendar to determine if the activities program is right for their interests and needs. Activity Directors also frequently keep a nursing home activity calendar for themselves on file. Many Activity Directors keep a copy of every month’s calendar in a three-ring binder with any last minute changes noted. This is a quick and efficient way to organize and record the recreation schedule for surveyors to review.