Second blog

Lets talk a little more about my beginnings into the health care field, that I loved and enjoyed for 46 years. Being from a small town there aren’t a lot of job opportunities, so the summer before my junior year in high school (age 16) I got a job as a nurses aid in the small nursing home in our town. I really didn’t know much about the job and what it all entailed. I was used to taking care of animals not people, but soon it just came part of me to be a caregiver. It was a little strange at first to bathe and care for people you had known your whole life, friends grandparents, your parents friends and people who went to your same church. I had long blond hair growing up, that my mother insisted in putting into ringlet curls. If you remember the TV show Family Affair, I looked just like Buffy from the show. It was hard at times for people to take you seriously when they all knew you when you wore diapers. This was at the time that the nurses still wore the white dress uniforms, white stockings, and their nurses caps. Interesting little fun fact all the nurses’ hats were different based on where they went to school. This it the time I became acquainted with medical abreviations ( pretty sure not medically approved ones) The first one was the 3 H enema, hot, high, and hell of a lot. The second one was a TAP bath, this one was probably not as nice ( tits, a$$ and pits). I think my mother might of made me quite my job if she realized I was bathing naked men at 16. Now this was the time before wander guards or fall alarms. We just did our best to keep everyone safe. I will share a couple of humerous stories from this time. We had a resident who was ambulatory but had dementia so she could be a handful at times. It was a Saturday night during festival days, when suddenly around 9pm the city police officer came walking in the doors with this resident. She was at the street dance that was going on on main street. She was only wearing her night gown and her purple crocheted vest, which she never went without. The police walked her back instead of putting her in their car because they were concerned she would urinate in their car. She had the biggest grin on her face, I think she really enjoyed the music. There was another time, same resident was missing at lunch time. We began to look for her, myself and our restorative aid went outside to look for her. We noticed something strange, the house next to the nursing the owners car was backed out of the driveway into middle of street and was just sitting there. We knew the owners very well, the wife worked at the bank and the husband worked on their ranch which meant no one should be home. We knocked on their door to let them know about their car and guess who answered the door. Yep our missing resident, she says come in I baked cookie and have hot coffee ready. She very reluctantly returned with us to the nursing home. Boy was that an embarrassing phone call to the owners of the house. Luckily she had not baked cookies. Moral of this story is no matter how small the town, lock your door and don’t leave your keys in your car. They are so many stories from this job experience that I could share but I would take way too long to share them all. It was during this time that I learned this group of people (geriatric), had so many stories to share and so much wisdom to impart if people would take time to listen to them. There were many sad stories during this experience as well, but it was also at this time I learned being there for end of life was as rewarding as being there for the start of a life. I worked in many different areas of nursing through out my life but this first experience was the one that made me realize that healthcare was for me. I also became an EMT when I turned 18. Being small rural area most of my experience was transferring patients to a larger hospital about 90 miles away. It was at this time I learned that I was better at giving patient care than driving the ambulance, especially since the first time driving I took the light bar off the top of the ambulance backing it into the hospital for cleaning after a run. My one and only time driving the ambulance. I can definitely say my career in healthcare was not boring.