Do you have an aging parent or loved one in the nursing home? Well, I have my 92 year old mother there right now and I have a new appreciation for everyone who is caring for mom at this time. Since I am mom's primary caregiver at home I have made my presence known at the nursing home...since I have nothing else to do....HA!
I have had so many questions and the caretakers are so busy that I have been quietly observing and keeping a watchful eye out for mom. So far, I couldn't ask for more caring nurses and nurses aides but this isn't a perfect world so there are a few sprinkled in here and there that aren't as kind...you know what I mean. BUT on a whole, the wonderful caretakers far out weigh the bad ones in my opinion.
Now, as I was visiting mom this morning at 4:45 a.m., yes you heard me, I am a very early riser, I was in the room when the night shift nurse came in with mom's morning pills. When the nurse said "Alice here are your morning pills" my ears perked up.
When we had our second meeting with the doctor, he made mention that he wanted this particular medicine to be taken at a certain time and a certain way or it would not have the effect that it was suppose to have.
Every morning for two weeks I just assumed that the orders were followed out. NOT!
After the nurse completed her task and walked out of the room I quietly followed her without alarming mom and asked her if that particular medicine was to be taken alone. She looked at me puzzled and said "I don't know but I sure will find out."
She immediately looked in mom's chart that she had before her and read to me that it did not confirm what I told her so she continued to investigate and sure enough found that indeed the original doctor orders did say what I thought.
I very kindly apologized to her for butting in but thanked her for not brushing me off and she graciously said to me they make mistakes and she was thankful for my letting her know and she immediately changed the orders.
Now, I know I could have been rude and demanding but where would that have gotten me?
A MAD NURSE!!!
That's not what I want so....
I decided to be kind about it and I got a pleasant thank you back from her. We can make it hard or we can make it easy for all of us.
This is just my opinion but I have been observing a lot while sitting in that room with mom and it has changed my way of looking at nursing homes in general.
In future articles I will continue to give you little tips or heads up to make your loved one's stay in the home a little easier.
Remember....it depends upon our communication when dealing with all the health professionals who may be in charge of the care of our elderly and aging parents.
We need to remember that even though these special workers have our elderly's lives in their hands and we put our trust in them to make sure to the best of their ability to keep everything correct, they are human beings just like you and I and they have a HUGE responsibility on their shoulders when caring for our loved ones.
Let's help them, instead of making their task at hand harder.
You know what you deal with at home....these folks don't deal with just our aging parent or loved one but with many more all at the same time.
When I walk out in the hall and see all the lights that are lit up I wonder how in the world they can make everyone happy because they just can't get to all the little people at once. It is a process and we need to be more patient with the ones who have the lives of our loved ones in their hands.
So the next time you are visiting with your parent or hear your parent say they are being neglected....they aren't!
We need to show more patience with these wonderful nurses and nurse's aides who are giving their life to care for our aging family members.
I COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT THEM!
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