Thu 15 Dec 2005
Wow, it’s almost been two months since Will and I got married. What have I been doing?!
As you may have read earlier, I found a job at a nursing home in Tavi, where I am a nurses aid half time, and a musician half time. It seemed like a job from heaven…y’know, being in town, utilizing my skills and challenging me to learn something new (or MANY things for that matter, as I have never had a job in health care before, nor have I gone to school for nursing). As it turns out, though, it just didn’t feel right for me to be a nurses aid. NOT that I’m irked by the realities of the job (changing pads, feeding, toiletting, bathing, etc), but rather I have this unrelenting feeling of being incompetent…even after 2 monthes. They all say it takes that long and longer to get the hang of the job, but it’s just too much. You gotta know the routine (which changes for every shift there is, and you are scheduled to work every shift at some point), you gotta know each and every individual resident’s needs (which changes over time and with the arrival of new residents), you gotta tweak your work styles to make each and every co-worker happy (because a procedure that might be right to one co-worker, could be dead wrong to another), you gotta be willing to be woken up at 5:30 in the morning with a phone call requesting you to work at 6:00 (not to mention all the random calls you get to fill in for others who don’t show up to work), and you gotta put up with certain residents who give you a hard time, and quite possibly, get aggressive with you.
Don’t get me wrong. I have loved my job at Bonnie Brae, almost as much as I have despised it, mainly for the wonderful residents I have gotten to know (which number far greater than the unpleasant ones), and for the programming that I do, which is one-to-one visits, sing-alongs, baking, and performing. These experiences have made my time at Bonnie Brae very rewarding and enriching . Also, the skills I have learned have made me a far more versatile person, and I will carry those skills and knowledge with me for the rest of my life. I’m also glad I have experienced this, just to get a glimpse of what it is like in the health care system, to see just how difficult a nurses and nurses aides job is, and I have grown to appreciate people who spend their lives doing that even more.
Having said that, though, I am on the look out for another job, and I will keep you posted (get it? Posted!) if there any further advancements in that department.
December 18th, 2005 at 1:37 am
I used to volunteer at a local hospital visiting mainly elderly patients, more than one of which was an in-patient just because there was no room for them in a nursing home. I enjoyed some of the visits and met some wonderful people. I think it’s really honourable to care for the elderly. However, I found that it could also be quite depressing sometimes, thinking about how we all slowly lose our physical abilities, and some of them were so alone. Where am I going with this? I don’t know.
December 19th, 2005 at 5:33 am
It sounds like my job here in Korea. It’s now approaching 3 months here at LCI Kids Club, and it seems there is some kind of surprise every week. Multiply that, in your case, by every day surprises and constant supervision (which I don’t have) and it would probably make me want to commit euthanasia on myself. Seeing as I am a youth in Asia, I suppose I’ve already commited such acts and all that is left is to hope that you find something you do like.