Working with elders

This semester I will be doing fieldwork at a nursing / rehabilitation center. I had never really worked with elders until my 82 yo father became ill from cancer last year. My family & I decided to take care of him at his home. It wasn't easy at times, but we did our best & helped out as much as we could. At the very end, when we were unable to maintain his pain, we decided to take him to a hospice center. The staff there were all very compassionate, & they helped my dad leave this world in the most gentle way possible.

One of the main reasons we decided to take care of my dad at his home is because of the "bad press" nursing homes / SNFs have had - the facilities have a nasty smell, they're dark & gloomy, & pts are not well taken care of. I hope this isn't the case once I begin my fieldwork at the nursing/rehab center. From our class discussions & information from the internet, it seems like the newer, more advanced facilities are more friendly & more welcoming for pts & their families.

Doing fieldwork at a nursing/rehab center will be a good challenge for me, & I'm excited to learn more about them... the good & the bad. I love hearing the great stories that elders have from their past & I also love their "I'm old, I can do anything & say anything I want" attitudes. For the elders who are having a hard time, physically & mentally, I'm going to have to practice how to deal with them - to use my therapeutic use of self. I haven't really dealt with too many people who are grumpy & non-receptive, but I'll probably see a few of these people at fieldwork.

When my father was still at home, we had a CNA come in 2x/wk. Some days my father was in a good mood & he would joke with her, & she would joke back... it made his day. Other days my father wasn't doing well, & the CNA was able to change her personality. She wasn't sympathetic, but she was empathetic, which made him feel more at ease. I hope I can learn to use my therapeutic use of self as well as she did.