Dimple's Discoveries

This week has been busy with work at both jobs, and I have done something this week that I have never done before-stand up for myself. I have two patients, one at each facility, that have been extremely rude this week to our staff, screaming at the employees, refusing to let us do our job until they have things done in the order and at what particular time they want it, regardless of the other patients in the building or what time we are supposed to leave work. This can be exasperating for caregivers, and is unfair to us as we try to do our job to be treated in this manner. In all the years I've been working, I've never had the guts to stand up for myself, and I've stood in the room and allowed patients to yell at me and chew me out, to the point that I leave their rooms crying and can't go back in any more that shift as a result. I recognized this week as I heard one particular patient screaming at the nurse who was trying to give him insulin to manage his diabetes, ...

I have worked with dementia patients for several years now, so much that it has almost become routine. I never think anything of it anymore. Because of that, I sometimes forget what a hard trial it can be on the family members of those who suffer this degenerative disease. At one of my facilities I have been working with a patient who not only has dementia but has recently suffered a stroke, so her speech has been very impaired. She has, over the time she has spent at our facility, been improving in her communicating, and we can now understand a lot more of what she says, although she still doesn't finish sentences and we sometimes have to fill in the holes. I saw her daughter in her bedroom with her last night, and I slipped in to greet her and check on my patient. Her daughter has been so dedicated in coming to visit and caring for her mom, but as is often the case, her mom cannot remember that they are related, and as a result her daughter often leaves crying. I have talked ...