I work in a personal care unit of a small town hospital/nursing home facility in Montana. Days can be long, meals provided can be bland, and visitors can be few for the residents living 24/7 where I work anywhere from 8 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts 5 days a week.
Some times spirits start to sink for these folks. Signs are changes in tones/attitude, less attendance in daily activities provided and finally in eating habits. We offer snacks between meals 3 times a day and for the most part none are accepted. The residents do usually keep something in their cupboards in their rooms but with regular checks (to keep water cups filled) and verbal reminders (asking if they would like a snack), still sometimes extra calories or even enough caloric intake is not done. One thing we (the staff of 4) have noticed is by combining little cups of vanilla ice cream and a partial can of root beer in a coffee cup and including a spoon and straw, there are smiles on faces all around. Only recently one resident said to me, "How did you know that a root beer float was always my favorite drink?"
Just this week, I have been experiencing a sort of loss because one of the residents moved out to be taken care of by her daughter at her home. The resident's physical limitations were deteriorating so that she would have to be moved into the nursing home part of our facility. When I made root beer floats for the other residents today, I had to mentally dedicate it to this now "former" resident. I cherished our many conversations and learned several new things in my 6 months of interactions.
Also as a treat to my family, I stopped at the local market and brought home some vanilla ice cream and root beer to have floats for desserts. All smiles in my house tonight!
Hoping you treat yourself to this simple fun tasting joy some time soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment