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For those who complain about the understaffing at health care facilities and claim that they really care about the patients there, I have one word for you.....VOLUNTEER! I have yet to find a facility which has even 1/10 of the volunteers they really need. If you care, DO something about it! Most facilities have sign up lists for those willing to show up and help out. There are many things they can do and many people who would be thrilled to have your company. You could forever change the quality of many, many lives. People who volunteer in care facilities are ANGELS. Do YOU want the opportunity to be seen as an angel? Please, please volunteer.
If you are the kind of person who truly wants to help, not just be the kind of person who goes around "tattling or badgering" CNAs and nurses, get out there and do something! The nurses will love you. The CNAs will love you. The patients will love you. You will form many new friendships...and, should you end up having to be a patient in that facility, you will have many new friends there. You will also, quite likely, have a whole new understanding and appreciation of just how very hard most of the people work, what they are up against on a daily basis, and just how much they really care.
Since I'm already assisting my parents, in my own home, with their now chronic health problems and physical fragility.
I am not going to currently volunteer.
I did however when I was a child/teenager. (doing crafts, basically).
And while volunteering is wonderful and no doubt enriching (emotionally) to all invovled - it is not an answer to the lack of care at some nursing homes.
I had no idea nursing homes accepted volunteers. I know hospice does. That's good to know. I wish I'd known this before. I'd have volunteered. While I was there with my dad, I noticed that other patients were desperate to talk to me. They really need someone to talk to. It would be great for good listeners (and talkers) to volunteer!
Quote:
Originally Posted by beachmel
For those who complain about the understaffing at health care facilities and claim that they really care about the patients there, I have one word for you.....VOLUNTEER! I have yet to find a facility which has even 1/10 of the volunteers they really need. If you care, DO something about it! Most facilities have sign up lists for those willing to show up and help out. There are many things they can do and many people who would be thrilled to have your company. You could forever change the quality of many, many lives. People who volunteer in care facilities are ANGELS. Do YOU want the opportunity to be seen as an angel? Please, please volunteer.
If you are the kind of person who truly wants to help, not just be the kind of person who goes around "tattling or badgering" CNAs and nurses, get out there and do something! The nurses will love you. The CNAs will love you. The patients will love you. You will form many new friendships...and, should you end up having to be a patient in that facility, you will have many new friends there. You will also, quite likely, have a whole new understanding and appreciation of just how very hard most of the people work, what they are up against on a daily basis, and just how much they really care.
Do you ever wonder why so many people who are in a Hospital for a long time are then sent to a Nursing Home seem to die almost right away. Are the Nursing Homes able to use certain types of Drugs that allow the person to die, that are not allowed in Hospitals? This has happened to a number of relatives.
Some where taking drugs for extreme pain that was limited in the Hospital, but unlimited in the Nursing Home. Maybe high doses of Morphine is a form of Mercy Killing.
I think much of it has to do with lack of GOOD staffing.
My sister-in-law had a stroke during heart surgery, and 2-3 wks later was transported to a nursing home. Because of the stroke she could not speak. But her husband (my brother) knew there was something wrong from the looks of pain on her face. He tried to communicate this to staff but no one seemed concerned. A couple of weeks later she died from a staph infection in her bowels.
I think it's one thing if the patient IS dying and needs care to be comfortable (?) to the end. But this was not a good place for my sister-in-law to be, although I'm not sure what the answer was. The fact that she could not talk proved to be a fatal complication.
Agree with your perspective of someone giving up when hitting the nursing home doors.
How could you not.
Seems like such a sad ending for many.
You live a life surrounded by your loved ones and slowly they either grow apart and the person becomes less and less involved with daily family.
My grandfather died within a few days after going to the nursing facility.
In his case I believe it was palliative care none the less the older people know whats coming.
sad to think about.
Since I'm already assisting my parents, in my own home, with their now chronic health problems and physical fragility.
I am not going to currently volunteer.
I did however when I was a child/teenager. (doing crafts, basically).
And while volunteering is wonderful and no doubt enriching (emotionally) to all invovled - it is not an answer to the lack of care at some nursing homes.
Then you're already busy assisting your parents. As for the lack of "care" at some nursing homes, well...again, that can have a heck of a lot to do with understaffing. They claim to want to hire "caring" people, then they overwhelm them with far too many patients. If you spend too much time "caring" for your patients, you're not spending enough time doing your paperwork during your shift. This staffing shortage is not going to change...it just isn't. Most of those facilities are "for profit" businesses. THAT is the bottom line.
I had no idea nursing homes accepted volunteers. I know hospice does. That's good to know. I wish I'd known this before. I'd have volunteered. While I was there with my dad, I noticed that other patients were desperate to talk to me. They really need someone to talk to. It would be great for good listeners (and talkers) to volunteer!
Like I said, volunteers are ANGELS! Oh how most of us in the health care profession would love to just have the TIME to give to people..the time to just sit with them and give them love, to really get to know them and to be able to feed their souls. We just don't and it's not good for them and it's awful for some of us. Many of us go home crying at the end of our shifts because we didn't have time to love on everyone who needed it. It kills you, a little bit at a time.
Agree with your perspective of someone giving up when hitting the nursing home doors.
How could you not.
Seems like such a sad ending for many.
You live a life surrounded by your loved ones and slowly they either grow apart and the person becomes less and less involved with daily family.
My grandfather died within a few days after going to the nursing facility.
In his case I believe it was palliative care none the less the older people know whats coming.
sad to think about.
Some, yes, others no.
Actually, I think a lot of it is what the resident/family makes of it. Some of the facilities have happy hour, regular parties, etc, and many of the residents are interesting and very open to communication.
It's the families that come in with the "god, this is hell, I feel so sorry for them.." attitude that miss it, and don't see that aspect of it..
The one family I mentioned previously isolates their father so much - they arrive regularly each night for dinner and make a point to sit with him, or take him into a separate area.
Meanwhile, his table mate is quite a character - but they completely chose to miss out on it, and isolate their father from it all.
One of the worst things family could do is come in with negative attitudes, and make negative comments like "ew medicine, yuck!" - you won't believe how much family can sabotage the situation and cause harm.
Oh btw, that particular resident rarely refuses his meds or cares when the family is away. When we can approach him ourselves, and engage him, he does very well. It's when family is surrounding him trying to control the situation, that he lashes out (even hitting staff..) - which (despite being told otherwise), the family takes as "see, you guys can't control him, therefore we need to be here.."
Also - realize this is their home. Attitudes/comments/gestures of "this is so depressing.." is an insult to the other residents who call it home and make the most out of it.
And yes, the residents/staff can tell..
Sorry if I sound annoyed, just channeling some past situations..
you should not keep or try to keep people in your life because you don't want them to leave you behind...that's selfish...we wouldn't keep our pets in misery, so why do we try to make humans, that we say we love, live in horrible conditions? I would never want to be kept alive in a nursing home or hospital, not at any age...just so people can come stare at me?? that's not quality of life...
I agree that negative attitudes towards nursing homes are not productive. And I would think that it is probably true that some families can be counterproductive.
Socially, my mother did fine in the nursing home. Well, she thought she was in with a bunch of "old geezers" (my mom was 81 and wheelchair bound/bed-ridden at the time), and she (while polite and nice in person) didn't particularly care for her clearly mentally-affected suitemate (the woman had stuffed animals she treated as babies, it was a little peculiar, but not that odd in the grand scheme of things).
It was the medical stuff that was troubling.
I would call once a day (I lived 250 miles from her at the time, before I moved them in with me). I could tell immediately if something was wrong by her tone of voice/speech pattern.
More than once I called the nurses desk (from 250 miles away) and told them to check my mom's blood oxygen (she was on supplemental oxygen at that time) - only to have the nurse insist mom was "fine". After repeated calls, someone would finally check - and sure enough, someone had forgotten to give mom her oxygen that day, or they'd let stop using it (it annoyed my mom) and her blood ox was down into the 70s. (that is low enough that it affects (in my mom) speech and neurologic function).
At another home, my mom, who was in for a "rehab" stint after an ICU bout with pneumonia and insertion of a pacemaker - they did no rehab.
She'd been there for a month, and I'd ask her if they were helping her get in and out of bed.. (by this time she was a very difficult gait belt transfer) - she said "Kevin lifts me out and puts me in the chair" (Kevin was a HUGE, TALL, STRONG guy).
Well - great for efficiency, but it meant that MOM was not doing any of the work.
She was there over a month, and I asked if she was using the commode? Oh - no one there had thought of that. I said "at home, she uses a commode chair (with arms) over the commode".
The "PT/OT" people (who they had 2 days a week, and looked like they were either new graduates, or still in college) had never thought of that.
So, after one month there - my mom's functional abilities were FAR worse than they'd been in our home, with an aide who only spent a couple hours a day with her, but who made sure mom did some of the work.
That's the kind of problem I have. If you are not constantly on top of a lot (not all, I'm sure some really are excellent) of facilities -- they will do as little as possible for you loved one, because they are terribly understaffed and terribly overworked.
So - for me - I think a rehab/nursing home facility is fine for a YOUNGER person, who is totally going to self-manage everything "aide - please get me to PT, its my appt time".
But for an older person, especially one who is not going to speak up and demand attention, its basically warehousing until they die.
which is why my parents won't be back in one until death is already an immediate prospect (not years off, but only months).
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