You are currently browsing all posts tagged with 'common sense'.
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The Process of Dying

  • Posted on January 21, 2012 at 10:03 am

Yesterday was one of those days.  You get frustrated because your life revolves around watching someone slowly dying and you know, there is nothing you can do about it.  You are helpless in preventing Death from achieving its goal, so when things that you can control, are thrown out of whack, you lash out.

The problem isn’t that people are uncaring, it is that Business is more concerned about the bottom line, than about the people that GIVE them that bottom line.  From the consumer who buys their products / services, to those who help sell the products or provide the services.

When those you answer to, are more concerned about money, than people, then why should they care?

They aren’t being paid to do that, and let’s be honest, we ALL have our own headaches to contend with.

Yet I still Believe that WE have the power to change that. I know the concept of One Person, One Vote, seems archaic today, but then, nearly half of us don’t bother to make that choice. WE STAY HOME.

AND THAT IS WHAT HAS LED TO THIS CORPORATE CONTROL OVER OUR VERY LIVES.

Beacon Community Services has some damn good people working for them, but they are being burned out, and it isn’t because the job is hard, or difficult.  It is because they CARE.   And when you care, it takes a huge emotional toll on you, more so when the people you work for, simply don’t care.

People like Trinity, Tracy, Yvette, Billie, THEY CARE but then we have others like Edna, Rose and many many more, who are there for the paycheque only.  They have closed themselves off, for whatever reason.   It comes from an operation that simply wants bodies to fill the gaps, unconcerned if they are qualified or not.

When you reach this stage of life, to have to be at home 24/7 watching the person who raised you, slowly dying, as age takes its toll, you realize that all the things she taught you, no longer hold sway.

When I grew up, you could rely on Government for many things.  IF a business was mistreating its workers, they would insure it stopped, or was corrected. When you went to buy groceries, you never had to worry about tainted foods, or expired foods, because Government insured that didn’t happen.

No, it wasn’t perfect, there were instances when things slipped through the cracks, but they were rare, not common place. Today FOOD & PRODUCT RECALLS are a daily occurrence. It isn’t that there are just more products, more food being consumed, it is that Government has abdicated its responsibility to the very people who they are supposed to be watching over.

Business is an Entity.   Government is elected by People, and is supposed to be responsible to US.

As you sit by, watching a person dying, bit by bit, you see how the erosion of Government Responsibility impacts you more than if you were in your 30′s or 40′s going about your daily life. You see how simple things like buying food becomes a chore, and you wonder, about all those old people, who have no one to subsidize their income, who must manage on what little they have. You see people take advantage of them by rushing in, rushing out, leaving them exhausted and stressed.

Something that just hastens the dying process.

 

I Am Tired of Doing Beacon’s Job

  • Posted on January 15, 2012 at 4:18 pm

Honestly, I should be getting paid by Beacon Community Services for doing their blasted job.

How the hell do you send someone to a person’s home, who isn’t informed of what they are supposed to do? What about those who don’t have anyone present to tell them?

Then again, why should I have to clean up after them?  So a person didn’t use the commode, or at least it seems it wasn’t used, YOU STILL NEED TO WASH IT OUT!

Like come on here, you get 50 minutes in the home, and you can’t be arsed to put the hand towel in the laundry basket, as instructed, you can’t rinse out the commode pail, as instructed to.   I have to do it, and I am not getting no $20 an hour for my efforts.

How hard is it to actually transfer a lady from the couch to a wheelchair?   I do it several times a day, but honestly, seems to me that some of these workers don’t have a clue on how to effect a SAFE TRANSFER.

Yes, Mom can’t walk, but with assistance can stand and turn.  So let us put the transfer chair in front of her, then reach over it, to pull her up to a standing position?  ARE YOU FLAMING NUTS?

A worker is given 50 minutes to do their task. Doesn’t require that much time, but better to have extra time, than less. Means no rushing for a 94 year old.  So given all that, let’s make sure she is rushed in using the commode.  After all, the more time you don’t use, the easier it is for you, right Gabriela?

This is what I mean.  Mom gets on the commode, and you ask her if she’s done before she is even fully seated yet?  Naturally she is going to get confused, and stressed out.  More than that, it is tough enough to have to use a commode, instead of the regular toilet. There is such a thing as Dignity, but many Beacon Community Service workers are blindly ignorant of that word, and it’s meaning.

Elderly people get nervous, stress over the smallest of things, so why don’t we tell them they are bleeding from an open sore in their groin?  Hey, they can use the added rush of adrenalin, right?

You are told to be gentle, for that very reason, an open sore in the groin, so when you wash and dry, you force the clothes between her legs, instead of asking her to spread her legs apart a bit more.  I do that each and every time I have to do the job, and you know, I’ve never drawn blood, or tore her skin.  Did you catch that Rose?

Beacon Community Services :   Pay Me to train your many incompetent workers, it might save some poor old soul their Life.

Testing Ones Patience and Resolve

  • Posted on October 21, 2010 at 10:28 am

I truly wonder about people, any myself.  Maybe I am just  ‘ too old school ‘ and should let it all go. Get with the times, simply accept that people today have no common sense, are not fully trained in their jobs.

Last night I spend nearly a half hour, trying to break Mom’s fixation on the stool softener pill.  She is convinced that it is too difficult to swallow, even though she has been taking the very same pill (same brand, size, etc) for over five years.

All of this, because one SUBSTITUTE HOME SUPPORT WORKER commented on how many pills Mom took, and didn’t think she needed them all.

Todays Substitute, thought she should harp on Mom’s toenails needing clipping.  Course the Foot Doctor didn’t think so, but hey, what does he know. I mean he’s only a DOCTOR, and today’s worker, is just, well…   a worker.

To me, it is common sense. You make idle chit chat with the Patient, tell the care giver about any issues that should be addressed.  Yet most of today’s home support workers, think it is better to harp on possible issues with the Patient.  Like what, the main caregiver is too stupid to understand? 

Then there is the ” were does the nightshirt she wore go, folded for use later? “  I mean, it was soaked with urine, stinks from it, but hey, we’ll let her wear it again tonight.   NOT!

I don’t know, I think I’ll stick with being ” old school ” and use the brains GOD gave me, along with some old fashioned COMMON SENSE.

Home Support Workers A Few Questions

  • Posted on October 3, 2010 at 8:18 am

Here is the scenario:

You have been to a 93 year olds a few times over the last 15 months. Most was when she was in a cast, which was 14 months ago, give or take a few weeks.

Question #1:

Do you assume nothing has changed?

Question #2:

Do you read the provided Care Plan PRIOR to beginning your duties, so you are assured of just what those duties are, for changes since your last visit?

Scenario Continued:

You are informed that the 93 year old Patient has a groin infection, a bad cold, and is considerably weaker than normal. Further, you are told she has prescription creams applied, which is done by the primary care giver, NOT HER.

Question #3:

Do you pester the Patient to find out which creams are to be used in the groin area?

Question #4:

When you are informed, by the Primary Care Giver, that the creams are by prescription, and are applied by them, do you then insist that whoever is applying the creams, are not putting enough of them on the infected area?

Question #5:

Do you make the Patient sit up, turn around, sit down, sit up and continue that for over 40 minutes?

Be interesting if any Home Support Worker, who reads this blog, replies.  See, to me it is pretty much Common Sense on the right procedure.  I mean, how can any worker KNOW if the creams being applied, are done in the right manner, if you don’t even know what the creams are?

If a person is elderly, weak to begin with,weaker from the ravages of both a persistent groin infection & a bad cold, why would you make them get up and sit down repeatedly, using what little strength they have, needlessly?

Being A Professional – A Surprise

  • Posted on September 24, 2010 at 10:30 am
This entry is part 3 of 12 in the series Making A Difference

Today’s substitute worker was a surprise.  She acted like a real professional,which in itself, was a surprise.  A change, from the substitutes that come thinking they know it all, including Mom’s routine.  This one didn’t quibble about reading our care plan, knowing that the one provided her by Beacon Community Services was out of date.  After all, she’d been here a year ago, when Mom had her cast.

Having selected staff, designated for Substitute Work, is needed and should be a requirement for Beacon Community Services.  Among insuring that ALL STAFF are properly trained.  Having “floaters” will enable regular home support workers to not be needed for substitute work, leaving the regular routine for Patients untouched.

Proper training goes a long way, but so does COMMON SENSE.  It is something that is missing in a lot of people these days.  After all, do we really believe that a person who is Elderly (in their Eighties or Nineties) to be able to move unassisted and/or quickly?

Do we truly believe they are fully alert, that they don’t have some difficulties such as bad hearing, poor eyesight?

Why ASSUMEthey are as capable as a Fifty or Forty Year Old?  When people age, things age, parts wear down. They simply aren’t as efficient as when NEW or BROKEN IN.  Yet, today’s workers ASSUME JUST THAT.

By cutting back on PROPER TRAINING, by NOT HIRING PEOPLE WITH BASIC COMMON SENSE, we are not just adding to our Health Care Costs, but WE ARE ENDANGERING LIVES.

It is something that the big shots at VIHA & Beacon Community Services, need to start taking into account.  The first step is to change their attitude.  THEY WORK FOR US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

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