Still smarting from the indignity of having the Contract shredded and the Pension revoked, I remain skeptical as to whether my Union will survive after 2010 when the eye of the world is no longer fixed on British Columbia. Sure, we got some renumeration (all taxed at the lump sum rate, thanks Gordo) and sure we got our pensions reinstated ( starting date of the legal victory, not the original paid from date, thanks again Gordo) but not many of us believe that if he gets in again, and recession hits hard, Gordo won't pick on us again.
Predominantly a female work force, we work hard for you, the public, without judgement. We do things you do not want to. We see things that no human can witness without wincing so that you, the families and friends do not have to. We work for you. Present and accountable, we go everywhere, in our own vehicles, to provide one high standard of Health Care for all, rich and poor, young and elderly. This is the beauty of Government Health Care - we believe that it is every Canadian's right to access free Health Care.
We in Community Health are paid less than our fellows who work in Hospitals. We work at considerable risk because of our passionate beliefs. I have never met a Community Health Nurse or Worker that did not have this passion. I have never met a Community Health Nurse or Worker that I would not want in my own home providing care for me.
---- * *
“Compassion, forgiveness, these are the real, ultimate sources of power for peace and success in life.” Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama
Showing posts with label Health Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health Care. Show all posts
2.10.08
13.1.08
A Common Complaint
Today I made the acquaintence of an older couple who live in a small apartment here in Paradise.
The gentleman was released after a series of radium treatments into the care of his arthritic wife. She is 86. He is 88. He cannot walk without assistance. In fact. he has no balance.
What on earth is our HealthCare system coming to?
On what planet does this scenario make sense?
The gentleman was released after a series of radium treatments into the care of his arthritic wife. She is 86. He is 88. He cannot walk without assistance. In fact. he has no balance.
What on earth is our HealthCare system coming to?
On what planet does this scenario make sense?
12.1.08
Poster Boy
A young man in his 30s sits at the table perusing the latest copy of Time magazine. He is a very good looking man with bright eyes and a ready smile. When he speaks, he is articulate - very well spoken. He is also, by the way, schizophrenic. Let us call him Ron.
Ron and I are sitting in a house funded by Mental Health where a variety of programs are offered for the consumers - all people suffering with Mental Illnesses. Currently, some funding has come their way to make a series of videos on living with a Mental Illness.
One of the staff is trying to get Ron interested in appearing in the video. Another is leaning close to me whispering: "See what you can do to get Ron to be in the movie. He would be perfect!" They already have 5 or 6 *actors* who are very eager to appear. They are not among the highest functioning clients but they have great enthusiasm for this project. Ron is looking uncomfortable and asks me to go for a walk with him.
As we amble down the lane he tells me that every time he goes to this place it is the same story.
He is feeling pressured.
"I don't want to be in a movie. I don't want people labeling me. I am more than my illness. I don't want to be the Poster boy for schizophrenia."
In that moment I realize his assessment is right on the money.
They want a Poster boy; especially one as eye-pleasing and charismatic as Ron is.
They want him so badly that they are forgetting one of their own tenets: to let the client be who they are and allow them to express themselves as they wish.
As I drop Ron off he thanks me and says he does not want to go there anymore.
Later, a volunteer for this Society tells me that most of the high functioning clients do not find a peer within the House. Most of them stop coming after a few visits. The people at the top of the food chain view it as them expressing their recovery.
I view it as another pothole in the Health Care system.
Preaching to the converted.
Ron and I are sitting in a house funded by Mental Health where a variety of programs are offered for the consumers - all people suffering with Mental Illnesses. Currently, some funding has come their way to make a series of videos on living with a Mental Illness.
One of the staff is trying to get Ron interested in appearing in the video. Another is leaning close to me whispering: "See what you can do to get Ron to be in the movie. He would be perfect!" They already have 5 or 6 *actors* who are very eager to appear. They are not among the highest functioning clients but they have great enthusiasm for this project. Ron is looking uncomfortable and asks me to go for a walk with him.
As we amble down the lane he tells me that every time he goes to this place it is the same story.
He is feeling pressured.
"I don't want to be in a movie. I don't want people labeling me. I am more than my illness. I don't want to be the Poster boy for schizophrenia."
In that moment I realize his assessment is right on the money.
They want a Poster boy; especially one as eye-pleasing and charismatic as Ron is.
They want him so badly that they are forgetting one of their own tenets: to let the client be who they are and allow them to express themselves as they wish.
As I drop Ron off he thanks me and says he does not want to go there anymore.
Later, a volunteer for this Society tells me that most of the high functioning clients do not find a peer within the House. Most of them stop coming after a few visits. The people at the top of the food chain view it as them expressing their recovery.
I view it as another pothole in the Health Care system.
Preaching to the converted.
3.2.07
Levels of Incompetancy
It is rarely the doing of the unskilled worker, to be sent into situations they are ill-equipped for. Rarely. Hard to imagine an employer who would do the sending though. The Nurse Leader says:
"All of my workers are fully trained."
That's what she thinks.
Some of these very well-intentioned people have a Grade 10 education backed up by on the job training to be cooks and housekeepers. When Governments took charge of such services, they mandated these in-place work forces be upgraded to the minimal Nurses Aide standard.
Sounds good, yes?
NO!
Who did the upgrading?
Why the Supervisors of the time. Who of course had no vested interest in seeing their employees upgraded rather than having to rehire and retrain.
Working alongside of these upgraded people is like playing roulette. You never know what you are going to get. Some of them are truly fabulous Nurse's Aides and some of them wouldn't know a bottle of french dressing from a bandage. The ones with the low skills tend to be older, in their 50s and 60s and you CANT TELL THEM ANYTHING because they know everything. Seniority etc....
I do not work alongside those people anymore. I know who is who now and I can insist on proper support in appropriate situations. What brought this to mind was a very capable and well-trained worker telling me about a *senior employee* who puts on her gloves to do bowel care and leaves those gloves on for unseemly periods of time.
*ugh*
Number 1: What is a HealthCare Worker in the field doing Bowel care for anyway?
It is a Licensed Practical Nursing function. I wouldn't let _anyone_ touch me internally who didn't have their LPN at least. Think about those gloves.
Think about being contaminated by a person who knows it all whilst infecting you with whatever....
UGH
rant au jour
Things I cannot change.
15.1.07
An Echo and a Ripple
This last week I had the privilege to attend to a gentleman in his last days.
He is always an interesting man as he has kept his desire to interact even in these end times. I met him only a short few weeks ago when things were not going very well.
Thanks to good advice and better follow-up things are much better.
This day I come, he is bed-ridden in the living room. It is a good thing and he looks comfortable, although paler and thinner and I do not think there will be a next week for him. I give him a sip of water before he start to change things for him.
The woman floating in and out of the living room is familiar to me but I cannot quite get it. She was in the room a few weeks ago when I was here although I do not think that is where the memory is.
Just as I am finishing up, he looks up and says very loudly: "SHIT"
Well, by golly, it was not an expletive it was a descriptive.
I laughed out loud and he started singing: "Brown stuff brown stuff..
All right, perhaps a bit graphic for you or morbid but it was cute and funny and even his wife, usually so uptight laughed too.
So we cleaned up... again.
As I finished I was telling the wife she did not have to clean up for me... I can do it. But she did. The other familiar woman came over and said to me:
"I could never do your job. I don't know how you can do it and stay so calm and relaxed."
"Oh, you never know," I said, "I used to live in the big city and had a much different job until my own mother became terminally ill and I came here...
I looked at her.
"THATS WHERE I KNOW YOU FROM!""
She said to me: "You seem so familiar to me."
We took a hospice course together. All those years ago.
That course was the defining factor in my retraining.
Once I took it I knew I wanted to pursue palliative care.
For her, it was the other way. Once she took it she knew she had to move on.
I remember her well as her husband had early onset Alzheimers.
They were both active dynamic people. He was a health food, hiker,runner, holistic sort of fellow and it was a shock when he became unwell.
He was dead at 42.
So this is an echo and a ripple.
She looked great. She is remarried. And she is doing a very good job of helping her father in his last days.
Right on.
He is always an interesting man as he has kept his desire to interact even in these end times. I met him only a short few weeks ago when things were not going very well.
Thanks to good advice and better follow-up things are much better.
This day I come, he is bed-ridden in the living room. It is a good thing and he looks comfortable, although paler and thinner and I do not think there will be a next week for him. I give him a sip of water before he start to change things for him.
The woman floating in and out of the living room is familiar to me but I cannot quite get it. She was in the room a few weeks ago when I was here although I do not think that is where the memory is.
Just as I am finishing up, he looks up and says very loudly: "SHIT"
Well, by golly, it was not an expletive it was a descriptive.
I laughed out loud and he started singing: "Brown stuff brown stuff..
All right, perhaps a bit graphic for you or morbid but it was cute and funny and even his wife, usually so uptight laughed too.
So we cleaned up... again.
As I finished I was telling the wife she did not have to clean up for me... I can do it. But she did. The other familiar woman came over and said to me:
"I could never do your job. I don't know how you can do it and stay so calm and relaxed."
"Oh, you never know," I said, "I used to live in the big city and had a much different job until my own mother became terminally ill and I came here...
I looked at her.
"THATS WHERE I KNOW YOU FROM!""
She said to me: "You seem so familiar to me."
We took a hospice course together. All those years ago.
That course was the defining factor in my retraining.
Once I took it I knew I wanted to pursue palliative care.
For her, it was the other way. Once she took it she knew she had to move on.
I remember her well as her husband had early onset Alzheimers.
They were both active dynamic people. He was a health food, hiker,runner, holistic sort of fellow and it was a shock when he became unwell.
He was dead at 42.
So this is an echo and a ripple.
She looked great. She is remarried. And she is doing a very good job of helping her father in his last days.
Right on.
BAH! More Snow!
This Winter is getting very old. More severe weather warnings for my area, and more snow. If I wake up snowed in I will be most displeased. I need the $$
We do not get paid if we do not work. Like most people.
I had an interesting experience today.
I had a *change* in my schedule since I refused to return to the home of the hugger/rubber. I am not usually so picky but in this case I think it best just not to go there ---period--- since the person in question is generally very genteel and kind.
All the more reason it stunned me.
---- !
So the *change* was a lateral move so's to speak.
A couple in their 90's with dementias.... go help make sure they are all right and so on...
I go. He is deaf. Seems alot deafer when I try to speak with him than when everyone else does. And yes, there are quite a few people about. A team of house cleaners are around and a family member is taking a swim in the indoor pool.
---!
All went well. I even had the wife down the hall and cleaned up which I announced to the stairwell as I left. The family were obviously surprised.
One of the housekeepers took me aside and said quietly:
"They don't usually like new people, they can be very difficult. You did very well.
OH great.
-!
Do I sound spoiled?
It is only because it is becoming more and more common for all levels of staff to be put at greater and great risk as people with heavier dementias are staying at home longer.
So I traded a kisser and rubber/hugger for a possible puncher.
!
We do not get paid if we do not work. Like most people.
I had an interesting experience today.
I had a *change* in my schedule since I refused to return to the home of the hugger/rubber. I am not usually so picky but in this case I think it best just not to go there ---period--- since the person in question is generally very genteel and kind.
All the more reason it stunned me.
---- !
So the *change* was a lateral move so's to speak.
A couple in their 90's with dementias.... go help make sure they are all right and so on...
I go. He is deaf. Seems alot deafer when I try to speak with him than when everyone else does. And yes, there are quite a few people about. A team of house cleaners are around and a family member is taking a swim in the indoor pool.
---!
All went well. I even had the wife down the hall and cleaned up which I announced to the stairwell as I left. The family were obviously surprised.
One of the housekeepers took me aside and said quietly:
"They don't usually like new people, they can be very difficult. You did very well.
OH great.
-!
Do I sound spoiled?
It is only because it is becoming more and more common for all levels of staff to be put at greater and great risk as people with heavier dementias are staying at home longer.
So I traded a kisser and rubber/hugger for a possible puncher.
!
29.12.06
Mrs. D.Vès quote of the day
As I come through the front door, she is standing in front of the window.
It is one hell of a view with those floor to ceiling windows and the waves are crashing mere feet away from her oceanfront home. She looks at me and speaks her line with a dramatic gesture:
" It is not by chance you enter here... "
We adjourn to the family room and a little Woodsworth.
"I had such a great family Christmas I think I am ready to move on to the next stage of live."
( she is 94)
Up goes the arm again and the quote issues forth:
"Not into entire forgetfulness and not in utter nakedness,
but trailing clouds of glory do we come
from God who is our home."
oh yes.... thats quite a typical conversation.
I love my job!
It is one hell of a view with those floor to ceiling windows and the waves are crashing mere feet away from her oceanfront home. She looks at me and speaks her line with a dramatic gesture:
" It is not by chance you enter here... "
We adjourn to the family room and a little Woodsworth.
"I had such a great family Christmas I think I am ready to move on to the next stage of live."
( she is 94)
Up goes the arm again and the quote issues forth:
"Not into entire forgetfulness and not in utter nakedness,
but trailing clouds of glory do we come
from God who is our home."
oh yes.... thats quite a typical conversation.
I love my job!
14.11.06
Two Ladies
Two ladies await the move to assisted living quarters. Both of them are moving into the Government assisted part of the complex saving them alot of money. One lady enjoyed a fairly decent living until her husband died and his pension with him. Her husband died 30 years ago.
The other lady also lost her husband but much more recently.
The first lady never worked and has no pensions at all except the Canada Pension and guaranteed income subsidy. She sold her home when her husband died and has been renting ever since. The second lady still lives in her home which will go on the market when she has been moved in. Her home is worth over $300,000.
Both these ladies will pay the same amount and get the same subsidy.
Is it just me or is something wrong here?
------- *
The other lady also lost her husband but much more recently.
The first lady never worked and has no pensions at all except the Canada Pension and guaranteed income subsidy. She sold her home when her husband died and has been renting ever since. The second lady still lives in her home which will go on the market when she has been moved in. Her home is worth over $300,000.
Both these ladies will pay the same amount and get the same subsidy.
Is it just me or is something wrong here?
------- *
“Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.”
Irving Kristol
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