First thing, when you need to help someone shave their face, ask them how they would like it to be done. Some people like to use lotion instead of shaving cream, some people have a special razor they like to use. Whenever you go to do personal care like this, always let that person remain in control. Allowing that you have asked the patient how they prefer to do this, there is a basic routine you can use. Before you really get started, its good to get the patient nice and relaxed. You can get a warm (not too hot) washcloth and drape it over their mouth and nose area. This will soften up the whiskers and face so shaving is easier. While this is going on, fill up a basin with warm water that you can use to rinse the washcloth and your razor. After they have relaxed for a couple of minutes, you can remove the washcloth and lather them up with either lotion or shaving cream. When you start to shave, go in the direction the hair is growing, that way you don’t pull the hair and create unnecessary razor burn. If you need to, you can pull the skin tight where you are shaving. This helps get a closer shave. Take your time and be careful not to nick the patient. If you do, no biggie, just apply a little pressure and the bleeding should stop. Ask the patient if they are on blood thinners before you start. If they are, you need to be extra careful not to cut them, because the bleeding will be a lot harder to stop. After you are finished, have the patient look and feel so they can tell you if they would like you to go back over an area. Rinse off the washcloth, and wash their face off one more time. After this you can put on lotion or aftershave, whichever they prefer. The more often you shave them, the easier it will be. If you wait until the hair grows out long and thick, it takes probably three times longer to get it done. When you are done, make sure to clean up and put the razor in a sanitary place.
How to shave someone’s face
What you will learn in a CNA class
There are many different topics you will go into when you take your CNA class, but there is no way I can go into them here without writing a book. Here are the main important topics you need to look out for while taking your class, they are the most important!
The role of the CNA:
It is the CNA’s role to help patient’s with ADL’s, or activities of daily living. This includes: bathrooming, dressing, hygiene, eating, and transferring. They should be dependable, respectful, honest, and have compassion and integrity. They should not ever physically or emotionally abuse or mistreat a patient. Due to many reports of poor care in nursing homes, the U.S. government passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or OBRA. They set a minimum standard for nursing assistant training of at least 75 hours. They must pass a competency evaluation before they can be employed, and must attend regular education to keep skills updated.
It is also the role of the CNA to uphold resident’s rights. Some of these rights include: quality of life, activities to maintain a high level of wellness, the right to be fully informed regarding rights and services, the right to participate in own care, the right to make independent choices, the right to privacy and confidentiality, the right to dignity, respect, and freedom, the right to security of possessions, rights during transfers and discharges, the right to complain, the right to visits!
The HIPAA-the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This was passed by congress in 1996. One reason for this law is to keep health information private and secure. All healthcare organizations take steps to protect this information. They and their employees can be fined and.or imprisoned if they break rules that protect patient privacy. Under this law, health information must be kept private, including patient’s name, address, telephone number, social security number, e-mail address, and medical record number.
First aid and safety:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) is all about safety of employees at work. It requires that all dangerous chemicals have a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)
Fire-Most facilities have a fire safety plan. If you ever have to use a fire extinguisher, remember PASS.
P-Pull the pin
A-Aim at base of fie when spraying
S-Squeeze the handle
S-Sweep back and forth at the base of the fire
DO NOT be a hero. Get yourself and your patients out of harms way and into safety as quickly as possible.
CPR-Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, used when a person’s heart or lungs have stopped working. This is not meant to teach someone how to do CPR, you need to be certified in a class for that, this is only a reminder for those who already know. First, check to see if the person is responsive. If you have no response, call 911 immediately and stay calm. To start CPR kneel at the person’s side, and open the airway by tilting the head back slightly. Lift the chin with one hand and push down on the forehead with the other. If the person is still not breathing at this point, you will have to breathe for them. You will give two “rescue breaths” Pinch the nose to block airway and cover that persons mouth completely with yours. Blow into the person’s mouth slowly and watch for the chest to rise. Do this twice. After you have done this, look for signs of response, they may start breathing on their own or coughing. If they do not respond, give 30 chest compressions. Do this ONLY if you have been trained. Continue to provide “rescue breaths” if necessary until help arrives.
You will also learn how to do the Heimlich maneuver, and how to deal with fainting, shock and seizures. They are pretty simple so I wont go over it here.
Infection Control: It is the set of methods used to control and prevent spread of disease. This is very important to learn very well, because the risk is much higher for nurses and nurses assistants to catch something than just the average Joe. You will encounter many different infectious diseases, but if you handle yourself accordingly you should be able to avoid catching anything. Most important things are washing your hands frequently and learning how to properly remove contaminated gloves. Treat all used gloves as if they are contaminated, whether you know they are or not. Also just try in general to have as little actual physical contact with patient, and be especially wary of cuts or open wounds. The CDC (centers for disease control and prevention) is a federal agency that makes rules and regulations to try to protect and improve health.
Understanding your patients:
Always try to promote independence and self-care as much as possible. It is very important for the patient to be able to feel in control of what is happening to them. Make sure they feel comfortable and secure with you. You can achieve this by being reliable and efficient. Always make sure they get their food on time, and they engage in activities. Respect their personal views, be it politics or religion. Never try to change their views. If there are any changes you notice, don’t assume it is just a normal part of growing older. Things such as depression, incontinence, shortness of breath, and confusion are not considered normal signs of aging and should be reported to your head nurse. CNA’s are considered the “eyes and ears” of the doctors and nurses, because they spend the most one-on-one time with the patients.
Make sure you know someone’s advance directive. This is a document citing what people have chosen to medically happen to them if they are unable to make that decision anymore. Living wills and Durable power of attorney are examples of this.
You will also go over body systems, I will not cover it here because it would probably turn into a novel. The most important thing here to note is how the body is affected as it ages and what symptoms can come from that.
Positioning patients and avoiding bedsores:When a patient stays in the bed the majority of the time, it is quite common to develop a bedsore. These are very painful and take a long time to heal, so it is good to try to avoid them at all costs. Some ways you can do this is changing positions in the bed, giving back rubs, and strategically placing pillows under the patient to take pressure of certain areas.
You will learn about Basic nursing skills. This includes how to take vital signs. This means temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure. You can take temperature three different ways, depending on the patients needs. Oral, rectal, and axillary (under armpit.) Normal temps for Oral=97.6-99.6 Rectal=98.6-100.6 and Axillary=96.6-98.6. A normal pulse rate is 60-90 beats a minute, and normal blood pressure is 100/60-119/79. Anything over is prehypertension.
You will learn about conditions such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. You must remember to not take their behavior personally, and treat them with as much dignity and respect as possible. They may at times become very agitated and angry. They may even try to strike at you, but you have to remain calm and try to deflate the situation.
You will learn a little bit about rehabilitation and range of motion. This is for people who need extra stretching or exercise to try and get back to a normal state of flexibility and movement.
And lastly, you will learn about how to take care of yourself as a caregiver, and some classes will help place you in a job after the class is over. Some things I did not go over here are how to use a bed pan, how to change an occupied bed, hospice, home health, giving a bed bath, how to shave a patient, how to dress a patient, transferring and using a gait belt, and the dying process, because I have already written about these and you can find them under the categories page. Again, I was not able to go over everything you will learn, but I feel like these are the most important things. Good luck, and remember, have fun with it! Don’t let it just become a job, these are real people you are taking care of and dealing with. It can really be a fun and exciting job if you carry the right attitude with you.
How to become a CNA
There are many awesome reasons to become a CNA, including the fact there is going to be a 21-35% increase in this field over the next decade. Also, there will be a 50% increase in the home health care industry alone. With the way our economy is today, it’s hard to find a stable job out there. But the health care industry is booming, and what better time than now to get certified? Now the only question is how do you become a CNA? What are the steps? Well here they are:
1. First, you must find an affordable, legitimate course that is located near you. They must be approved by the department of public health, which means they have a license to teach you. Be careful, some of these courses can last months and cost you thousands of dollars. This is entirely unnecessary, the class is only required to be 75-80 hours long.
2. Sign up for the class, pay the due amount, and get ready to learn! At some point during the 75-80 hours, you will have to have 16 hours worth of clinicals. This is where you will basically volunteer at a nursing home and have some hands on experience. This is usually done as a group with the class and instructor. You will take your final in the class and then you are ready to…..
3. Take the state certification test! There will be two parts to the test: the handwritten test, and the hands-on test. If you work in a nursing home, you will have 4 months after your class to complete the test. If you do not work in a nursing home, you have up to a year. You have three chances to take the test, but more than likely you will not need them. If you do not know where to take the test, your instructor from your class will be able to point you in the right direction.
4. Once you pass the test, you have the opportunity to go work in a variety of places such as: hospitals, home health care, hospice, physicians office, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, clinics, mental health agencies, and private duty. Also once you are a CNA, if you ever abuse a patient and are found guilty, your name will appear on the abuse registry, and you will never be able to get a job in the field again.
While you are in the class, there will be a variety of things you will learn. I will go over these in detail in future blogs, but the main topics will be: Blood pressure, pule and respiration, how to change adult depends, how to change an occupied bed, infection control, safety, communication skills with different patients, range of motion, and hygiene. Good luck!
Long-term care insurance
Well over half of us will need long-term care at some point. When you are ready to start long-term care your doctor will write a note saying that you can no longer perform at least 2 ADL’s, or activities of daily living. These include hygiene, continence, dressing, eating, toileting, and transferring. Once you can no longer do two of these on your own, you will need a caregiver or sitter to help you with daily life.
To hire a caregiver or sitter is quite expensive. Some can charge you up to 200 to 300 dollars a day. For most of us, this is not pocket change. What are you going to do when you get to that point, and your family cannot take care of you like you need? They probably have jobs and children of their own, and at this point don’t have a lot of spare time. Most people will hire a sitting agency or home health agency, and that can eat up almost all of your retirement fund. If you thought ahead enough to invest in long-term care insurance, no worries! You and your family can have the comfort of knowing that you are going to be taken care of.
Long-term care works a little differently than life insurance. When you buy life-insurance, you pay a premium for a set amount of money that you will most likely get all at one time. When you buy long-term care, you are paying for a “daily benefit.” This means that instead of saying, “My insurance is worth X amount of dollars.” You will be saying, “My insurance is worth X amount of dollars a day.” That means that once you are ready to start long term care, you can have anywhere from 40-400 dollars a day to spend on it. Some companies will only let you spend this money on a licensed sitting or caregiving company. While others will let you hire your own, and will just send you the check. In which case, you can spend on whatever you want to. That also means that you could hire a friend or family member to take care of you instead of a complete stranger.
Just like with life insurance, you want to look for a company that has been stable for awhile, and has high credit ratings. Again, if this company dies, so does your money. A good agent will have about one meeting per year to check with how your life is going and to reassess your needs. This way you also have a relationship with your agent, and when that time comes to cash in, you have someone you can trust to make sure you are taken care of.
When you buy a premium, you will want to put some thought into if you want an inflation rider or not. What is does is as time goes by, it will automatically increase your daily benefit from 3-5% every year. $100 dollars today will not have the same value 20-30 years from now. There are two types of riders, a simple rider and a compounding rider. A simple rider will take 3-5% annually on the original amount, we’ll say 5% on $200. So year one will go up to $210. Year two comes around and we are taking the percent on the original amount, so it will only go up to $220. If we had a compounding rider, it would take the percent off of the compounded amount. So instead of year two being only $220, it would go up to $220.50. Doesn’t sound like much, but it would add up over 20 years. Compounding rider at $200 added 5% a year for 20 years adds up to $530.65 a day. Simple rider at 5% for 20 years would only add to $400 a day. That’s an extra $3658.20 a month.This option does cost a little more, but worth it.
Another thing you want to keep in mind, is that your daily limit is tied to a lump sum pool of money. As long as there is money in that pool, you will continue to get your money per day. Once that pool runs out, so does the money. It is possible to buy an unlimited policy, but it is understandably pricier. Also, it is good to buy early, in your 50′s, because if you are past a certain age, they may give you a limit on your daily benefit, because they know you will be cashing in soon.
Overall, a long term care policy has two goals to benefit you. First, to take that financial, physical, and emotional responsibility off of your family. Of course they want you to be taken care of, but wouldn’t they rather be the supervisor than the worker? And secondly, to keep your retirement from going down the drain. Think what a waste it could be after all these years of working hard for your retirement, it’s gone before you know it. No one can guarantee that you will or will not need long term care, but odds are you probably will. And in that event, if you have long-term care insurance, you can rest at peace knowing that you and your family will be taken care of.
Life Insurance
Life insurance is not something you buy for yourself. Life insurance is something that you buy and will pay the premium every month or year until you die and you will never get to see the money. So why do people have life insurance? Its because you buy it to be able to take care of the people you love, even long after you have passed on. Life insurance is the insurance to you that after you are gone, your family will not be left alone to deal with the financial implications of your passing, which can be very hefty. If you do not take care of this issue properly, you can leave your family is a huge amount of debt. I heard a story once about a man who found out he didn’t have much longer to live, so he went and applied for a ton of credit cards and went on a little shopping spree. I don’t think he knew that when you die, your debt does not die with you. Someone has to pay it, and that someone is the family that you leave behind. Between leftover debt, and paying for the funeral, you will most likely be thousands of dollars in debt. Maybe even in the ten thousands. This is where life insurance comes in.
You have a few different options when it comes to this, and each option is appropriate for certain times. You have term policies, whole life policies, and accidental death policies. Accidental death is very cheap because the odds of an accidental death are very slim. Accidental death is really not necessary, most people that buy it never get anything out of it. A term policy is a temporary policy to get you through the most important time in your life. And a whole life policy is, you guessed it, a policy for your whole life.
Think of your life like a bell curve. The very beginning being your younger years up to about 25. At this point the bell curve begins to go up drastically, and this is when you need a term policy. Usually around this age people begin to get married, buy houses and cars, start to accrue debt, and have children. Think of what could happen if you were to pass away right in the midst of that. You would leave your husband and children alone with house, car, and an amount of debt to pay off. This is where a term policy would come in and help your family get through this difficult time.
Now, you begin to go down the bell curve. The kids grow up. You pay off your debt and cars. And hopefully down the road you get to pay off your house. So financially, if you left, you wouldn’t leave too much of a burden other than funeral costs. This is where your term policy will end, and your whole life policy will take you through to the end. It is wise to take out a whole life policy as early as possible because for one, the earlier you get it, the cheaper it is. If you wait until you are old and sick, you probably wont even be able to afford the monthly premium. Life insurance is a pre-meditated act, not a last minute effort. Another reason to take it out early is that unlike a term policy, you can build equity in a whole life policy. If necessary you can make loans against it like equity in your house.
When looking for a good insurance company, make sure they are a highly rated company. Ambest and Fitch are a few companies that will have the ratings for you. Also make sure they have been established for awhile, if the company dies, so does your money! When looking for a good agent, you will want someone who will really sit down with you and asses your needs and not try to be the salesman. A good agent will keep in touch with you over the years to asses where you are in life. Not only should they be a good agent, but they should have earned the C.L.T.C. rating. You can find a complete list of these agents at www.ltc-cltc.com. Anytime you make a life changing event, such as getting married, you should contact your agent and look over the policy together to see if any changes should be made. And lastly, when getting ready to buy a policy make sure it is non-cancellable, and has automatic renewal. Meaning, as long as you pay your premiums on time, it can not be canceled on you, and will be automatically renewed. Also, talk to your agent about how that company handles different events. For example, some places will send you your life insurance check the day you turn 100. Some places will allow you to access your life insurance money before you die if you are pronounced terminal. You just never know until you ask!
And lastly, what happens once a family member or friend has passed away? The steps are simple. When this happens you will make sure that you order enough death certificates from your funeral home to cover what you need. You will call the life insurance company and let them know what has happened, and they will send you a form to fill out, and you will attach the death certificate and send it back. When they receive this, it will take 4-6 weeks to send the money out. You have several different options when it comes to this. You can have them do a direct deposit of a lump sum, have payments over a period of time, or you can even tie it over to an annuity. Some agents will hand deliver it to you and have you sign, or just send it in the mail. It is up to you. Just make sure that you communicate well what you want done with your agent, and he should be able to make sure you are taken care of. Once a death of a loved one occurs, it can take awhile to get things feeling back to normal, but it helps to know that our loved ones wanted us to be taken care of after they are gone.
Website update and Coming soon!
As most of you know who have looked at my site, I have a very unique combination of topics. I have the more educational things such as the processes of death and grieving, how to’s, and about’s. I also have a little thing going that I like to call, “Letters to heaven.” This is a very extremely personal series that documents how I am feeling while I am mourning the loss of my precious Granddaddy. Right now, its only been about a month since he has passed, and there are more letters than just about anything else. I believe some people have gotten a misunderstanding of what my site is supposed to be about. The personal part about my own feelings are really only about 20% of what it’s about. The main goal of this site it to help other people who are going through similar things that I went through, and to help set a precedent of what you can expect when you are going through this process. I have decided to take the “Letters to Heaven” off the main page, but I will most definitely be continuing to write them. If you still wish to view them, you can see them in the “Letters to Heaven” category in the sidebar to the right.
Now the fun part, Coming soon!!
I will be working really hard this month interviewing with people of knowledge and doing my own personal research on topics such as:
1. The new health care bill and how it will effect seniors and people with disabilities
2. All about medicare
3. All about medicaid
4. Benefits for Veterans and people with disabilities
5. Life-insurance
6. Long-term care insurance
7. How to plan a funeral
8. How to become a Certified Nurse’s Assistant
I may be slow to add new things but only because it is very important to me to do the research and get valid and useful information out to you guys!
Thanks for all the support from friends and family, I couldn’t be doing it without you all! =)
The Grieving Process
When someone close to us passes away, we will all have equally unique and different experiences with the grieving process. One of the only things that we will all have in common is hearing the same things from people: He is in a better place now. At least he is not in pain anymore. He loved you very much, and would want you to be happy. These are kind words, and we know them in our minds to be true. But that has no effect on how we may feel in our hearts. Though our brains may be able to process the fact that we have experienced a loss, our hearts may remain oblivious. It is hard to advise anyone how to handle their grief, because every one’s situation is different, but one thing that seems to remain important across the board is that you should not try to hide from what has happened, or put off your feelings to deal with later. Many people try to push down their emotions and feelings and go on with daily life. They think that they will deal with it later. If you do not face your feelings head on and deal with this now, it will come back to haunt you, and ten times worse. I personally know how difficult this is to do. Its scary to face this monster. It is hard to deal with it. But if you put it off, even for a week or two, it will come bubbling up when you least expect it and explode like old faithful.
I wish that it was just one clean-cut emotion that you had to deal with before you can start to go back to living a normal life. Unfortunately, its not easy. There will be a slew of emotions that you will be feeling, and all at the same time. It is not unnatural to feel angry, sad, alone, depressed, frustrated, and in denial all at the same time. In fact, its expected. There are 5 main stages of grief and they do not happen in any specific order. It is even common to go back and forth between them. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are some steps that most people will go through during the grieving process. The body has this process for a reason, each step is supposed to help you and eventually bring about a sense of peace and acceptance. Most of the time after a person passes away, family members and friends will feel a bit of denial. There is also a lot of adrenaline going on at this time. Just like if you sustained a intense physical injury, your body would give you adrenaline to help you cope with the pain. This is also where denial comes in. If your brain allowed you to feel the entire loss all at once, your heart would not be able to take it. Denial does not mean that you are completely oblivious to what has happened. All it means is that your brain knows what happened, and your heart isn’t quite ready to handle it yet.
The bargaining stage is apparent in the grieving process of someone who realizes they are dying, but not someone who has lost someone. It would not make sense for someone to bargain for something that has already happened. The anger stage is something everyone goes through and in different ways. The way it has affected me is for about a week or two, I would just get really angry at small things that usually don’t bother me. I would rant and rave and then finally realize that I was not upset about that small thing at all, but I was angry about my feeling of lack of control in the situation. The depression stage can be avoided if you grieve “properly.” Like I said, everyone is different, and some people even skip steps. But if you hold it in and do not deal with it, it will turn into depression. You can avoid this in two ways. Number one: Eat well, sleep well, exercise. It sounds cliche, but during this time it is so easy to forget to take care of yourself. It is very common for people to have sleeping problems during this time. If you tend to wake up at a certain time every night, do not get up. Just stay in bed and try to go back to sleep. If you get up every night, you will change your sleeping schedule, and it will be harder to get back into a normal sleeping pattern. Number two: Deal with it. Even if you have to schedule twenty minutes a day to just go in a room and cry or look at pictures or whatever, do it. Once you take that special time out of your day to focus on your loved one, then you can go about the rest of your day and take care of things such as work, paying bills, taking care of the family, etc. The main goal of all the steps is to get you to acceptance. Acceptance does not mean that everything is hunky dory now and you go on about your life and forget all about your loved one. Acceptance is literally accepting the fact that it has happened. Once your mind and your heart can wrap themselves around this fact, you can start the healing process. A couple things that are really helpful are writing down your feelings in a journal or talking to a friend or counselor about how you are feeling. Journals are unique in the fact that over a period of time, you can see your improvement. If you do not have a close family or friend, bereavement counselors are always available. If your loved one was on hospice when they passed away, a bereavement counselor will be in touch with you. If they were not, no matter, you can still call a hospice, free of charge, and ask to speak with a bereavement counselor and they will be glad to work with you.
Another thing that is good to have taken care of during this time is your work schedule. A lot of bosses will let their employees take some time off to deal with their loss, but eventually, everyone has to go back to work and get back in the swing of things. Sometimes you can ask your boss for a family medical leave, and that will be honored and you will have some time for yourself. It is sad to say that some people do lose their jobs while going through this, but if you communicate effectively you should be able to avoid this.
Ultimately there is no last step in the grieving process, and you will never come to a place where you will be completely done with it. But grief can be a blessing and is meant to help soothe and heal the wound. Just like the physical body goes through process to heal a cut or bruise, the emotional part of you will take steps to do the same thing. Just remember to take care of yourself and take it one day at a time. There will be always help for you when you need it, it’s just a phone call away.
How to change sheets on a bed while someone is still laying in it!
When I was doing my first caregiving job, the man I was taking care of was at the time bedridden. The aide came by and said it was time to change the sheets, and I said, “Ohh no, he cant get out of the bed for that.” She just looked at me and smiled and said, “Were gunna do it with him in the bed.” I was confused as to how that would happen, and then I was amazed at how simple it was!
To change the sheets while someone is still laying in the bed, first you need to get together all the clean linens (pillowcase, fitted sheets, normal sheets, draw sheet, and comforter) Have the patient roll over as far as he can to one side of the bed. If he is in a hospital bed, it helps to have that person hold on to the side rails if they can. While they are rolled over, you will be standing facing their back. Take off the corners of that side of the bed and roll the sheets as much as you can under the side of the patient. At this point it will look like the bed was only made on one side when the patient got in it. Now, you will take your clean linens and start making that side of the bed. Push the excess sheets under the side of the patient. Try to make the side you are on as tight and free of wrinkles as you can. Once you have done all you can on that side, have the patient roll over to the opposite side of the bed. You can tell him that it is going to feel like a big hump underneath him, but to roll right over it.
Now you make your way to the other side. You should be able to clearly see where the dirty linens are, and where the clean linens are. Go ahead and take the rest of the dirty linens off, and then you can finish making the bed with the clean linens. If your patient has a bed pad, you can just treat it the same as the linens, and you should be able to get a shiny new clean one on there.
If you would like to have a draw sheet on the bed (a draw sheet is used to help pull the patient up in the bed, or help them turn over) after you put the fitted sheet on the first side, go ahead and put that half of the draw sheet on there as well, and push the other half up underneath the patient.
To change the pillow, simply ask the patient to lift up their head, and change the pillow case. If the patient has a weak neck, you may want to put a replacement pillow underneath their head, or help support their head with your hand. No need in the patient going through any unnecessary pain!
Once you have the fitted sheet, draw sheet, and bed pad on, you may cover the patient up with the sheet and comforter if they want it. Remember to make sure the patient is comfortable after you are finished, and that they are nice and warm! And you are done, easy as pie!
How to be a Great Caregiver
If you want to become a great caregiver, there are several important things you should keep in mind! Caregiving does not come easy to anyone, but some people are more naturals than others. To become a great caregiver, you have to have a lot of good qualities such as patience, compassion, kindness, boldness, independency, and humbleness. You also have to be willing to sacrifice for your patient. That sacrifice means that whatever need you have, while they are under your care, that need must wait. If you think that these things would come difficult to you, I would strongly reconsider becoming a caregiver. There are a lot of people out there who become caregivers who do not possess any of these qualities. They quickly become miserable, and so does their patient.
There are many situations you will face in the caregiving world that you would not in the outside world. If you are a nurse, physical therapist, CNA, or just someone able to provide extra help, you will be in control of how well a person is taken care of. You can be the determining factor in whether that person is happy and healthy, or depressed and sick.
You will be doing a very wide range of things in caregiving, but everything you will be doing will be because that person can not do it for themselves. And trust me, they do not want you to be there. There is nothing they want more than to be able to provide for themselves. Yes they are sick physically, and sometimes mentally, but they are still people. They still have emotions and feelings just like you and me, and that is a need that has to be met. If someone is being taken care of physically and not emotionally, they might as well not be taken care of at all. A good quality of life consists of these two main areas. (physical and emotional) Once these two equally important needs are met, you will have one happy camper!
Some physical needs you will meet while caregiving are: bathing, shaving, bathrooming, clothing, and feeding. You might also be giving medicine and taking vital signs. You sometimes will also help with things such as light house-keeping, grocery shopping, and cooking. These things are pretty self-explanatory. You already know how to do them, because you do them all for yourself! This process is a lot harder on the patient than it is on the caregiver, so always keep that in mind. When I first started learning how to change diapers and help someone shower, the main thought that helped me was that as difficult as that was for me, I imagined what it felt like to them. Nobody wants those simple tasks to be taken away from them. When you are doing these things always be gentle and provide dignity. As much as possible, give them choices in everything. Do everything you can to maintain their independence and help them feel more in control of their life.
Some emotional needs you will meet will be simple things. Just talking to the patient or giving them a big smile when you walk in the room will do a world of difference. Even if it doesn’t seem like they care, it could turn around their whole day. Alot of them will even talk your ear off if you let them. Most of the time they stay in their room, and they get very lonely. In most cases its hard for them to get out, and especially drive, so they count on you for their only interaction for the day. I know its easy to get busy and forget about this need, but we get to leave at the end of the day. We get to go home to our family and friends and they don’t. Most likely as soon as you hit that door, they are awaiting your arrival the next morning. The other most important emotional need to be met is keeping their sense of dignity and control. We talked about this earlier, but as you will see these two needs really mesh together as one. If you are very good at one, the other will come naturally. Their emotional stability depends on their knowing their physical body will be well taken care of. They know their physical body is in good hands when their every emotional need is met. All of this boils down to caring. If you care, these things will come very natural. It is very common for caregivers to become very close to the people they are taking care of, and trust me, it is a very precious and rewarding bond. It is one of the most wonderful experiences I have had in my entire life. I feel like my patients have given more to me than I ever could have given to them. Simple caregiving is not the most high paying job you may ever have, but it certainly is the most fulfilling.
How to Use a Bedpan
This is something my hospice team did not explain to me how to do. So I figured it out myself. Here’s to make it easier for you guys. For bathrooming if you are bed ridden it really comes down to two choices: Diapers or Bedpans. Diapers are less work on the patients part, but obviously, a little bit messier. If you want to avoid diapers, you can use a catheter and a bed pan! If your patient is mobile enough to be able to roll from side to side without it being too much strain, and can tell when they need to go you may prefer this method. A catheter is something your nurse will have to put in and maintain, but anyone can do a bed pan! Sometimes you can find one at your local drugstore, but if you ask your hospice or home health they should be able to get you one.
When your patient is ready to use the bedpan, find or buy some baby powder and sprinkle it around the edges, that keeps it soft against the patients skin. The opened part of the bedpan will be pointed towards the patients feet, just like they are sitting on a toilet. Ask your patient to roll as far as they can over to one side of the bed. When they are ready, place the bedpan as close as you can get to their bottom. Then you will try to roll them back over so that they are laying on top of the bed pan. (Be careful with placement here) Then you simply relax and let them do their thing! They can go both number one and two in this, but if not cathetered, men usually use a hand held urinal. When they are finished, roll them back over again as far as they can go until they are off the bedpan, or close to it. Then you can do whatever cleaning is necessary of them and your bed pan. Make sure you clean the bed pan out well and store it somewhere sanitary. And thats it, your done!
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