Dan Onorato Walks a Day in a Nursing Home Worker's Shoes

Dan Onorato, the Democratic nominee for Governor, spent a few hours walking in the shoes of Shanrika Dukes, a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at the Somerton Center nursing home in northeast Philadelphia. Shanrika has been working at Somerton Center for 15 years and is an elected member of the SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania Executive Board.

“Before he got there, I thought he might be scared to interact with the residents or do all the things that I do,” said Shanrika Dukes. “But he did really well. He talked with them, asked lots of questions and did everything a rookie employee on the job would do. His commitment to the residents showed and it was fun working with him.”

Shanrika led Mr. Onorato through many of the activities she does every day, including serving residents their lunch, answering calls for assistance, participating in patients’ restorative therapy and making beds.

“It’s a strenuous job that these people are doing and it’s an emotional job. You have to be strong both physically and mentally,” said Onorato. “I got a whole newfound respect for the people that work in nursing homes.”

“If you’ve never worked in a nursing home, or don’t have a family member in a nursing home, you don’t know how challenging and important our job is,” said Dukes. “It’s so important for someone like Dan Onorato to see and understand the work that we do.”

“Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, you’re just taking care of someone,” said Onorato. “Well it’s more than just sitting there watching someone. You’re constantly moving all the time. You move from one event to another event, from one function to another function. There’s no downtime.”

There are more than 700 nursing homes across the state, the overwhelming majority of which receive a significant amount of their funding from the state through Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. As Governor, Mr. Onorato would be responsible for not only funding quality care, but also the Department of Public Welfare and other agencies that are responsible for monitoring the quality of care in our nursing homes.

“I’m sure that if he becomes Governor, Mr. Onorato will remember that he walked a day in my shoes, and I hope that he will fight for the funding and staffing that we need to provide the highest quality of care to our residents,” said Dukes.

(Photos © JJ Tiziou - www.jjtiziou.net)