First of all, playing the piano without the hassle of red tape is a real problem. Some nursing homes treat the piano player as a volunteer postion, complete with all the forms and background checks. Kind of limiting when you are just itching to play!
Other places will just let you jump on the piano when they know you are safe, and that, hey, what could one piano player do, anyway? That situation is great, as it lets you bless someone in song while they run their background check (which can take a while to do).The second thing you should know is, if you play the piano at nursing homes, you need to be prepared for wysiwyg pianos. Or should I say, what you hear is what you get...you see, a lot (and I do mean, a whole lot) of nursing home pianos are HORribly out of tune, complete with non-functioning keys, and whole octaves that are "off". You need to decide if you can be creative enough to eek out some tunes with out the necessary keys, or if your next call is to say "next". Only you can decide, but there are plenty of needy residents out there in plenty of different places. I move on to the next one when two or more critical keys are out, because it makes my songs sound like a youtube video breaking up...
The third thinkg you need to be prepared for is less than ideal environments. Now, I'm not talking about the residents {though I'll get to them in a minute) but what i mean is, sometimes you'll be required to be.. flexible. As in being flexible enough to squeeze into a piano bench that no one will pull back from the wall, leaving you trapped in between the bench and the piano. See, some facilities push the piano against the wall (keyboard side in) when not in use, and then leave you to pull it out your self or scramble for a "helper". Not fun.You should also know that, no matter how much you stress "I'll be here each thursday" or "could you please make sure the TV is off when I get there?" it's highly possible no one will make sure. You will have to find someone on staff or do it yourself. Let us hope that everyone's favorite soap opera is not airing at that time...you don't want to compete with "days of our life".
Which brings me to my next point... you have to be wanted. No, not by the staff. Many of them don't care. They are just getting paid. But you have to be wanted by the people, the residents. That's who you are there for. Just five minutes of residents crying clapping or singing is all it will take to get you to put up with the other nonsense.I'll never forget when one lady was crying and praising God during a song i sang. I was hooked! Or the time that five ladies started swelling "he walkks with me and he taaaalks to me" as I played. Times like this make it worth it.
Also, don't think you aren't making a difference. The first time I ever played piano at a nursing home, absolutely every single resident in the dining hall was unresponsive. And not because they didn't like it, it's just that even if they did like it , there was no way for them to expresss it with their physical limitations. however, there was one lady whom, for whatever reason, they had wheeled up to the piano. She didn't make one single indication that she could hear a thing, until I played "come to the garden". Suddenly, she began humming in the sweetest tune. She could hear all along!