This past Saturday and Sunday I worked my first shifts at the new job ALONE! Well, my coworkers were there to help but I wasn't following anyone around like I did for my training and I was officially out on my own. Overall, it went pretty good. I am not the best nursing assistant in the world and I definitely am slow compared to the other aides. Getting to know the residents and finding my own routine will fall into place the more I am there. Sunday morning I woke up with a really sore back and body from the constant lifting and moving around - and I'm still a little sore today. You know, it's easy to try to practice good body mechanics but when you're in the middle of lifting someone with your legs and they can't get their feet to move those good body mechanics kinda get thrown out the window.
There are a lot of things about the job, mostly the hard manual labor, that I really don't care for. For the amount of residents and the level of care that the majority of them need, the home doesn't have enough aides on each shift to really take care of them. You do your best but in between taking care of your own group that you are assigned to and helping the other aides with lifts and two person transfers, you find yourself running around with your head cut off most of the time.
On the other hand, there are things about this job that make all the craziness worth while.
One of our residents with Alzheimer's needs help eating so I was helping her on Sunday with her lunch. I've never seen much facial expression from her and she usually grabs onto things with a really tight grip and doesn't let go. At one point, her and I made eye contact, she smiled and put out her hand. I put my hand in hers and she just held it without tightening up.
Another resident who is very soft spoken (he whispers when he talks) was lying in bed while I was getting his clothes out of his closet. As I started putting on his socks, he looks at me and says "Beautiful" and I could hear him clear as day!
There is another resident with Dementia who's husband comes in every day to be with her. He is such a sweet man and you can tell he will stand by his wife's side for as long as he lives. He called me and all the aides who take care of his wife angels for all the work that we do.
And throughout the day on Sunday I had quite a few good laughs with a few of the residents. Some make me really laugh with the things they say and one raced me down the hall in her wheelchair.
It's moments like these that really make this job more than just a job.
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