Rachael Sprinkle had fashioned a successful 21-year career in child care, earning her Early Childhood Education and Teaching Director’s state certification and serving as a director at one Denver-area child-care center for 13 years. “At age 15,” Rachael said, “I started in my church nursery and just went from there in the child-care and preschool field.”
In November 2023, Rachael decided to pursue a second job to supplement the salary from her full-time management position at a child-care center. “My father and stepmother had worked for Home Instead®, so I thought I would give it a try as a part-time Care Professional,” recalled Rachael, who joined owner Michael Lammers’ award-winning Home Instead franchise of Boulder, Broomfield and northwest Adams Counties. The office is in Louisville.
Home Instead Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator Brenda Munro immediately took notice of Rachael’s winsome ways with the clients and their families. Rachael was a natural at senior care, a wonderful, compassionate addition. “After working for a couple of months as a part-time Care Pro, Rachael made the move from child care to senior care full time in mid-January. She works five overnight shifts a week with the same client and does a great job. The client’s wife said she and her husband love Rachael and would be lost without her,” Brenda explained.
Rachael improvises well and has met unexpected challenges with patience, empathy and humor.
A confused client thought he was ushering Rachael out the door one evening, possibly thinking her shift had ended in the middle of the night. But the problem was, the “door” was attached to a walk-in shower. Rachael recalled: “I believe the client figured he was ‘showing me the door.’ He opened the shower door, told me to walk in, closed it and went back to bed. As I laughed, I immediately came out of the shower and followed him. In the morning, his spouse and I got a good chuckle out of it.”
“Since I have worked mainly overnight shifts, I don’t have many client stories, but that was a memorable one,” Rachael added. “I can say that in the professional caregiving age realm, I have gone from one end of life to the other.”
Brenda pointed out that Rachael quickly embodied Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.” As a result of Rachael’s quick transition to senior care and the immediate success that followed, Brenda announced Rachael had been honored as the franchise’s Care Pro of the Month.
Rachael had not been devoid of any senior-care experience before joining Home Instead. To the contrary, she had done well when she was thrown into family-caregiving roles that she had gladly accepted. “I took care of my grandmother and mother. My grandmother was wheelchair-bound, so I did as much as I could for her around the house,” Rachael said.
“I bathed my grandmother and helped her around the house when her mobility did allow her to get around. I did anything else she needed. I also helped my mom after her heart attack. I basically did the same things that I did for my grandmother. My mother could not climb the stairs, so we had to improvise and make everything work downstairs.”
The key to being a Care Pro, Rachael said, is treating each client as if he or she is a family member. “What I like most about my Care Pro assignments are the relationships. I love building the relationships with the clients and earning their trust. As Care Pros, we come into the clients’ homes and add a new vibe, another body and a new personality to their home settings. When a client really trusts you, it makes all the difference in the world,” Rachael said.
From Broomfield to Boulder and Longmont to Lyons, Rachael and the other Home Instead Care Pros are the trusted source for in-home non-medical care for Colorado Front Range seniors. Rachael and her co-workers serve a franchise that is a member of a network comprised of Home Instead, Inc. and its parent company, Honor. With the world’s largest home-care network and the most advanced care platform, Honor and Home Instead are revolutionizing care for older adults, their families and Care Pros. Combined, the network has more than 100,000 Care Pros across 13 countries, meeting the growing needs of millions of older adults and their families worldwide.
All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (720) 890-0184 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
