While watching CNN a few days ago, I saw a great article about a skilled nursing facility in PA. After setting up a Nintendo Wii on the home's big screen television, the staff noticed a great change in their patients and residents - they were getting lots of exercises!
The Nintendo Wii, which you can pick up for around $250, has had a great impact on nursing homes across the country. Nintendo's philosophy in creating this new gaming console was to make game play easier, more interactive, and more physical. This is a perfect combination for skilled nursing caseloads.
If you are working in a facility that needs a change, this could be a great chance improve the quality of leisure time for the residents. Nintendo Wii offers a wide variety of easy to learn sports games such as tennis, golf, baseball, and boxing. The great thing about these games are most of the controls can be performed sitting or standing, so even wheelchair-bound patients can move those arms to break a sweat. This is a perfect activity for a patient in need of physical and occupational therapy.
The greatest thing about the news story on the Nintendo Wii was noticing that the residents of the nursing home CNN visited were all smiling.
