Meet our Assistant Director of Nurses, Jessica Griffin
May 19, 2022
Meet Jessica Griffin, Assistant Director of Nurses and Memory Care Unit Manager here at Webster at Rye.
For Jessica, healthcare is a family matter. She began her career at age 16, working as a unit aide alongside her mother, who was working as a Licensed Nursing assistant. After high school, she went on to earn her LNA license, and finally graduated with her LPN degree from the New England School of Practical Nursing while raising her young daughter.
There are obviously many career options available to a new nursing school graduate, and clinical rotations offer a glimpse into those options. Many clinical nursing rotations begin in long-term care, and it was there that Jessica found her calling.
“I stayed in long-term care. I kind of liked how you can be with a resident and get to know their family, and their life story and follow them.”
Jessica celebrated her nine-year anniversary with Webster at Rye in January. She started out as an assisted living LPN but really found her passion in memory care. As the memory care unit manager, Jessica is responsible for supervising the memory care staff, assisting residents, maintaining records, and ensuring standards of care are maintained, and serving as a liaison between patients and their family members, among many other tasks. But for Jessica, nothing comes before the people part of the job. “My residents are my favorite part of my job,” she says. “I really like memory care. You can be who you are, and nobody will judge you.”
Our memory care unit offers three levels of care for residents depending on their care needs. Besides personalized care, every memory care resident enjoys daily activities specially designed to meet their physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual needs. This includes It’s Never 2 Late (IN2L), an interactive computerized media program designed and specialized for memory care residents.
Dementia is different for each person who experiences it, and no two days are the same for Jessica and her team. They provide individualized care specific to each resident’s needs, personalities, and level of cognitive impairment.
“It takes a special type of person, with good coworkers … but we do it!”
Outside of work, Jessica likes to spend time in nature, camping and hiking with her family and two children, ages 12 and 16.