The Cellar  

Go Back   The Cellar > Main > Home Base
FAQ Community Calendar Today's Posts Search

Home Base A starting point, and place for threads don't seem to belong anywhere else

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-17-2006, 12:54 PM   #1
limey
Encroaching on your decrees
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: An island within the south-west coast of Scotland
Posts: 7,016
Quote:
Originally Posted by capnhowdy
Best Job: Front man for a local club band.

Worst: Home care provider for Hospice. The work was fine. Only thing was... none of your patients ever recover or survive. I never could provide the service without getting attached to the patient. Definitely a weak point in this field.
I've done the "provision of personal care in a residential home for the elderly" thing, where the residents only ever left horizontal in a box. I got great job satisfaction from making the residents comfortable, cheering them up, or simply being around. I accepted that they were going to die soon, and felt glad* and privileged to be the one to "lay out" two of the residents after their death, feeling that this deeply personal service should be carried out by someone who cared for them in life.
The worst of this job was that it pays minimum wage, and is a job which requires special skills and demands a lot of you, emotionally.


* this just is NOT the right word, but I'm damned if I know what the right word is ...
__________________
Living it up on the edge ... of civilisation, within the southwest coast of
limey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-17-2006, 01:25 PM   #2
Stormieweather
Wearing her bitch boots
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Floriduh
Posts: 1,181
Quote:
Originally Posted by limey
........and felt glad* and privileged to be the one to "lay out" two of the residents after their death, feeling that this deeply personal service should be carried out by someone who cared for them in life..............

* this just is NOT the right word, but I'm damned if I know what the right word is ...
honored?

I worked in a nursing home as a teenager. I was a CNA and assigned to several terminal patients. In one case, I was on what they called the "Death Watch" where the patient was expected to die within 24 hours and someone was to be at their side constantly. The lady was tossing and turning a lot, so I had to keep a close eye on her IV (which was in her ankle at the end). I also had the honor and priviledge of laying her out after she died, bathing and dressing her in preparation for the funeral home arriving to collect her.

Another lady had a severe joint disease and her joints were tightened to the point she was unable to eat normally (not even spoon fed). She had to be fed with with a giant syringe and you had to put your ear as close as possible to her mouth to understand what she was saying. She was a beautiful, delightful woman and I treasured those times. Other CNA's were less gentle and caring. I used to get so furious at their callous behavior.

Later, I worked in the nursing home laundry. Now that was a nasty job...washing the soiled bedsheets and dirty, cloth diapers from all the patients. I spent hours using a pressing machine to iron pillowcases in the sweltering heat. Yuck.
__________________
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."
- Mahatma Gandhi

Last edited by Stormieweather; 07-17-2006 at 01:34 PM.
Stormieweather is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:48 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.