For Activities Directors ·
What you'll accomplish
You'll have Claude set up as a dedicated Activities Department assistant that already knows your facility, your documentation style, and your resident population. Instead of explaining context every time you open a chat, you'll start conversations with full shared understanding and get documentation that sounds like it came from your department.
What you'll need
Go to claude.ai and sign up with your email address. Click "Sign up" and follow the prompts. You don't need any special plan to start.
What you should see: You're logged into Claude with a blank conversation window. There's a sidebar on the left with "New conversation."
Troubleshooting: If you don't receive the verification email, check your spam folder.
On the left sidebar, look for a "Projects" section. Click "New Project" or the "+" icon.
If you're on the free plan and don't see Projects, you can still use Claude with a detailed starting message. Skip to Step 5 for an alternative.
What you should see: A "Create project" dialog box with fields for project name and description.
Name it something like: "Activities Department - [Facility Name]"
In the description field, write: "This project is for all Activities Department documentation, programming, and communication tasks."
Click "Create."
What you should see: Your new project opens with a configuration panel.
Inside your project, find "Project instructions" or "Custom instructions." Click to edit. Paste in the following template, filling in the brackets:
You are an AI assistant for the Activities Department at [Facility Name], an assisted living community in [City, State].
Resident population: approximately [number] residents, average age [age range], [general cognitive and mobility profile, e.g., "mix of independent, mild dementia, and memory care residents"].
My name is [your name] and I am the Activities Director.
Common tasks I need help with:
- Writing quarterly activity progress notes in clinical documentation language
- Drafting monthly activity calendars tailored to our resident population
- Writing the monthly family newsletter for [Facility Name]
- Translating plain-language descriptions into care plan narrative language
- Generating activity ideas for specific themes, seasons, and resident interests
- Writing volunteer recruitment emails
- Drafting incident documentation
Documentation style: [describe how your facility documents — e.g., "We use narrative progress notes, not SOAP format. We follow our state's assisted living regulations for activity documentation."]
Tone for newsletters: Warm, personal, friendly — not corporate or clinical.
Tone for documentation: Professional clinical language, objective, factual.
Do not invent specific facts about residents. I will provide the specifics; you will help me write them up in the right language.
Click "Save."
What you should see: Your project instructions are saved and will apply to every conversation in this project.
Click "New conversation" within your project. Type:
"Write a quarterly activity progress note for a resident named Helen, 82, who has mild dementia. She attends bingo three times a week, participates passively in music programs, and declined chair exercise participation this quarter due to hip pain. Her engagement has been consistent."
What you should see: Claude generates a progress note using clinical language appropriate for your facility, without you needing to explain any context.
Create a simple Word document (or note in your phone) with your most-used prompts:
Save this document as "My AI Prompts" on your desktop. These become your reusable toolkit.