It’s About Transparency: A Q&A With Olena Korytnyuk, Regional ALSA Director at Masonicare
Meet Olena Korytnyuk, RN, Assisted Living Services Agency (ALSA) Director at Masonicare at Ashlar Village and, as Regional ALSA Director, a cheerful and common presence in all Masonicare communities. Olena dreamed of being in the medical field as a child and began her healthcare journey in earnest at Norwalk Community College, receiving her RN license there in 2010.
Since then, she has worked in various doctors’ offices and home health agencies, gaining valuable experience along the way. She has also worked with Title 19 residents and individuals suffering from mental illness. With her impressive resume, she decided to make the leap to assisted living and became the ALSA Director for two communities in Norwalk. In 2016, she joined Masonicare in that same role.
In the following interview, Olena explains how she got her start in assisted living and what led her to Masonicare, among other things.
Could you please tell us about your history in the medical field? What inspired you to become an RN?
Since I was a child, I wanted to be a medical professional, playing doctor as a kid. When I first came to the U.S. from Ukraine in 2004, I looked at what my options were and nursing seemed like a very diverse field. You can work in so many different places and in so many different positions as a nurse, so I decided to go to school to pursue a nursing degree. I started at Norwalk Community College, getting my RN license, and I started working right away.
What led you to Masonicare?
I worked as a float nurse for a while and realized that that wasn’t really what I wanted to do, so I looked more into community nursing, which led me to a home care agency. With them, I was working primarily with underprivileged, Title-19 residents who had mental illness. I worked there for six years and was promoted to supervisor, but pretty much the only other way for me to grow in my career from there was to go more corporate.
I wanted to work in a more clinical setting by that point anyway and it just so happened that, at that time, I got a call from a recruiter for an assisted living role. I decided to take a chance and accept that role, which was in Norwalk. From there, I moved to a role at The Towers in New Haven, where [current Executive Director of Assisted Living at Masonicare at Ashlar Village] Rachael Laudano was my boss. There, I was promoted to lead director and then when Rachael came to Masonicare, she asked me if I would be interested in working at Masonicare as well.
Is Masonicare different from other communities you have worked in? If so, how?
My favorite part of working at Masonicare is the transparency. You can talk to anyone from your direct superior to the CEO without worrying and you know that you'll be able to work with them to find a solution. It's the reason I commute here all the way from Norwalk every day. I love my job. Sometimes you can forget that, because this role can be hectic and challenging, but I love my job. Since starting [at Masonicare], I have never had a morning when I've woken up and dreaded coming here.
What are some challenges you face in your role?
When you have a big team, working with many different personalities has its challenges. You want to make sure that your team works like a well-oiled machine, because our top priority is ensuring that we’re giving the best care to our residents. I work constantly on building team morale. Also, I’m always available to my team members, as well as the residents. Having my finger on the pulse of this community is critical, because with so many responsibilities it could be easy to lose sight of certain things.
Can you share any memorable experiences from your time at Masonicare?
Yes, we had a resident move in and he was really struggling; he was really depressed. His wife had passed away and he never envisioned that he would one day live in an assisted living community. I always try to stop by, even if it’s for no reason, just to say hello to all of my residents and check in on them. One day, I received a hand-written letter from him and, in the letter, he explained that me coming to him, smiling and just talking to him was the highlight of his day every day. He had never expressed that to me before and you sometimes don’t realize how much of an impact you can have on someone’s life. That letter was so heartwarming, it made me cry and made me realize how important it is to just stop and talk to people.
