Dimple's Discoveries

Every different career choice has the employees working with each other on a varying level. Some jobs have employees helping each other with work, others barely interact or know each others names. In health care your coworkers, like it or not, are your new family. You have to depend on them completely to help you, because there is no way you could do it all on your own. I have been blessed to have some of the most amazing coworkers at both of my jobs. They really have become my adopted family: We've laughed and cried together, gone to parties together, motivated each other, cared for and lost beloved patients together, and protected and taken care of each other in dangerous or uncomfortable moments. My coworkers are able to bond with me in a way that no one else can, in that they can understand exactly how it feels to be a CNA. They understand how I ache when one of my patients falls and dies of a result, how my body hurts once I finish a shift of helping others, or how I fee...

I've told you guys about a lot of meaningful, spiritual moments at work. We have those moments a lot, don't get me wrong, but there is a whole lot of funny mixed in there too. Today I'd like to share a few:  One night another aide, we'll call her Amy, and I were getting a patient in bed. Amy is a very sweet, sincere aide, she is good to work with. Anyways, we were getting this patient tucked in, putting her water and tray by her, and we always have to make sure their call light button is near them so they can call if they need something. The patient asked "Where is my button?" but Amy misheard. She thought she said 'Where is my butt?' and without missing a beat Amy kindly pokes her in the bum and says "It's right here!" The patient and I just looked at each other and busted up laughing. Amy was mortified, but it was a fun moment. One of my patients, she just passed away, had these dolls that she called her babies/children. She would...

I work in an assisted living center and a rehab for post op.I have lost dozens of patients. The ones that I was close to I write their name in my copy of 'The Locket' by Richard Paul Evans. I hate pulling that book down from the shelf to write another name in it, but it helps me remember them each in turn and the fun memories we have had. It isn't uncommon for me to turn to the obituaries and see a name of a patient I have cared for. Losing a patient is a very heart-wrenching event. Since I have been away at school, I had forgotten how it felt to lose a patient, how sharp the sting actually is. I had a patient at one of my jobs that was dying of cancer: two different kinds actually, and her chances aren't good. This is the third time she has been diagnosed with cancer in her lifetime. When she first arrived at the facility I was very intimidated by her. She is a no-nonsense, direct, commanding woman, and she isn't afraid to say what she thinks. I had been her aide...

Something very common in the medical world is the feeling that we haven't done enough. We could have spent more one-on-one time, we could have gotten to that call light quicker, could have... and the list goes on and on. On more than one occasion have I left work ready to cry because I wasn't able to give the level of care that I would like to, because of being short staffed, emergencies arise, etc. The feeling is often present in care givers that they have failed, and how sad that is. If you followed a CNA around on an 8 hour shift, you would be blown away with the pain they relieve, the hearts they comfort, the aches they soothe, whereas the aide won't see it. Oh, they'll see that they finished getting everyone up on time, or that they got all their vitals to the nurse by 4, or whatever technical work they've completed, but they won't see the deeper level very often. When you have a job like we do, you are constantly giving, not only physically, but emotio...