The past week or two a few things have come to my attention that don't sit well with me. The first was a picture on Instagram insisting that in order to work in health you had to normalise death...what!?
The second was a post from a student nurse that has gone viral this week..she explained how choosing to be a nurse was the worst decision of her life. (Siobhan Fenton, 2016). She goes on to say that she broke down crying in front of her young daughter and how bus drivers are on more money, for an awful lot less training.
This may be true..BUT..a bus driver does not go to work each day, knowing that they are making a fundamental difference to someones life. If money is your only motivation for working in health, then you may as well go and be a bus driver.
I am not a student nurse yet, but I have worked in care for 4+ years, and people that know me have seen the effect that it has had on me at one point or another..I honestly wouldn't recommend anyone undertaking a nursing degree without first gaining some experience in care.
But this is the important thing to remember..
If you go home from your job in a care home, community, hospital, hospice, doctors etc and you cry..it is because you CARE! Do not ever think that you are weak for having a good heart! Do not ever think that seeing someone die needs to become normal to you..do not desensitise yourself to that. You are human. It is in your nature to love and to feel empathy. Your children will see that their mommy and daddy have an important job, they look after people who cannot look after themselves. They hold peoples hands as they take their last breath and they hold peoples whole worlds when they welcome a new life. What you do today is important. The compassion that you show and the work that you carry out, day in, day out is appreciated.
As Mahatma Gandhi once said “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Don't ever forget that. You are special, you are needed and you are magnificent.
Reference:
Siobhan Fenton. (2016). Student nurse reveals 'soul destroying' realities of career in open letter. [online] The Independent. Available at: <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/student-nurse-reveals-soul-destroying-realities-of-her-career-in-open-letter-a7344516.html?cmpid=facebook-post>.
Friday, 7 October 2016
Thursday, 3 March 2016
The making of The Care Worker - a tribute
In 2012 I found myself at a crossroad in my life. I had just left a job in retail and wasn't quite sure what to do. A friend of mine suggested care work. I thought he was crazy. Never the less, I thought 'what have I got to lose?' and I applied as a domiciliary care worker with a company called C&S Care Services Ltd. I attended an intense one week training programme and I was hooked! I haven't looked back since.
Sure, there have been times when I have doubted myself and questioned why on earth anyone would want to do this as a job. One of those times came not too long after I had moved into residential care. I had been on an evening shift, it was all going swimmingly. One of our long term residents, who had fairly high needs and at this point was unable to walk or talk, surprised us all. Not long after tea, she stood up out of her wheelchair, and she asked me if she could go home with me that night. Amazing! Miracles do happen after all. From what I can recall, she asked all of the carers similar things that evening. The rest of the shift ran smoothly, a rare occurrence in a care home as I'm sure many of you know.
9pm rolled around and it was time to start our routine bed checks. Myself and one other member of staff started and then suddenly, I heard the scream of my co-worker down the corridor. My heart was in my mouth. The emergency buzzers were ringing in my ears. I ran down the corridor, preparing myself for what I was about to face. When you're in a situation like that, your brain and body go into autopilot, you don't think, you just DO. We worked tirelessly on our beloved resident until the paramedics arrived but it was too late.
After the paramedics left, I found myself sat in the staff room, with my head in my hands, tears rolling down my face wondering if there was anything more we could have done. I felt in my heart that she knew she was going to die and that was why she had asked if she could go home. I was devastated, we all were.
Myself and the member of staff that I had worked with that night, had also been involved a few months earlier with the resuscitation of another resident. I didn't know how to cope then, and I didn't know how to cope now. I seriously questioned if this was for me.
It took a few days before I could think clearly, you don't leave those kinds of images at the door when you go home, they stay with you. What you saw, how you felt, it doesn't leave you..ever.
So I was sitting at home one evening, trying to think how I was going to get past this, and then it came to me, just all of a sudden, I needed to get my feelings down on paper.
And thus came the poem 'The Care Worker'. I wrote this for all of my colleagues, my friends and my family, because that is what they had become. A part of my life that I loved and cared for like the family I had grown up with.
The Care Worker
I wake them up, I get them dressed,
I brush their hair so they look their best.
I make their bed and wash their clothes,
The little things that no-one knows.
I hold their hand when they are scared,
I talk to them when no-ones there.
I give them a friend when they are alone,
I treat them like family, like one of my own.
And when its time to save a life,
I keep my heart strong, and hold my head high.
I wait 'til its over, when everything's done,
When the house has gone quiet, the emptiness comes.
So please don't' judge me, when you think I don't care,
I look after your family, when you are not there.
Written 19th December 2013
Sure, there have been times when I have doubted myself and questioned why on earth anyone would want to do this as a job. One of those times came not too long after I had moved into residential care. I had been on an evening shift, it was all going swimmingly. One of our long term residents, who had fairly high needs and at this point was unable to walk or talk, surprised us all. Not long after tea, she stood up out of her wheelchair, and she asked me if she could go home with me that night. Amazing! Miracles do happen after all. From what I can recall, she asked all of the carers similar things that evening. The rest of the shift ran smoothly, a rare occurrence in a care home as I'm sure many of you know.
9pm rolled around and it was time to start our routine bed checks. Myself and one other member of staff started and then suddenly, I heard the scream of my co-worker down the corridor. My heart was in my mouth. The emergency buzzers were ringing in my ears. I ran down the corridor, preparing myself for what I was about to face. When you're in a situation like that, your brain and body go into autopilot, you don't think, you just DO. We worked tirelessly on our beloved resident until the paramedics arrived but it was too late.
After the paramedics left, I found myself sat in the staff room, with my head in my hands, tears rolling down my face wondering if there was anything more we could have done. I felt in my heart that she knew she was going to die and that was why she had asked if she could go home. I was devastated, we all were.
Myself and the member of staff that I had worked with that night, had also been involved a few months earlier with the resuscitation of another resident. I didn't know how to cope then, and I didn't know how to cope now. I seriously questioned if this was for me.
It took a few days before I could think clearly, you don't leave those kinds of images at the door when you go home, they stay with you. What you saw, how you felt, it doesn't leave you..ever.
So I was sitting at home one evening, trying to think how I was going to get past this, and then it came to me, just all of a sudden, I needed to get my feelings down on paper.
And thus came the poem 'The Care Worker'. I wrote this for all of my colleagues, my friends and my family, because that is what they had become. A part of my life that I loved and cared for like the family I had grown up with.
The Care Worker
I wake them up, I get them dressed,
I brush their hair so they look their best.
I make their bed and wash their clothes,
The little things that no-one knows.
I hold their hand when they are scared,
I talk to them when no-ones there.
I give them a friend when they are alone,
I treat them like family, like one of my own.
And when its time to save a life,
I keep my heart strong, and hold my head high.
I wait 'til its over, when everything's done,
When the house has gone quiet, the emptiness comes.
So please don't' judge me, when you think I don't care,
I look after your family, when you are not there.
Written 19th December 2013
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