PFL has a second component where healthcare workers will receive training in reciting poetry. They will use the materials developed on the Poetry Out Loud website for teaching the recitation of poetry. This is primarily intended for activities directors and their staff, but we have also had success in working with Certified Nurse Assistants/Aides (CNAs) in training them to use poetry as a communication tool.

“Over the last few months with the poetry project I have been able to come out of my shell. I am not a person that does public speaking. I remember speech class in high school and how much I hated it. Having this opportunity has really helped me to get out and do more things with the residents and speaking in front of people. That is something I would always shy away from. Having been given the opportunity to do it I feel I can do it and I am getting better and it is possible and each poetry session I run I feel myself getting more confident and more excited. I can’t wait to next week’s poetry session and what is that going to bring. It has been very meaningful to me.

I have been reciting the poems so much at home in order to memorize them, that my children have been learning the poems and saying them along with me. That has been fun to see how my kids react to the poems.”
-Joelin Mueller, Activities Director, Valley VNA Senior Services, Appleton Wisconsin