My work experience at Belleview nursing home.

    At the start of the day the patients were to be given breakfast, each of them were helped to the toilet and made comfortable for the rest of the day. At all times the patients were with a qualified member of staff to help them. The patients had the opportunity to spend time in they’re bed or in the day room depending on how mobile they were. As I met the patients and they day progressed I came to learn of some of their illnesses and there disabilities including their personalities. Senile dementia was something I had never heard of. Mrs Jeffrey’s, a care worker, informed me that some people as they get older have a deterioration of the brain, which causes them to be unpredictable and act irrationally. I found some of the dementia patients quite funny but I wasn’t laughing at them, I was laughing with them. Of course some of the dementia patients were quite frightening as their illness can cause them to be quite aggressive which in turn means you have to be aware at all times that they can be violent and could possibly hurt you.

     One particular patient, Lizzie, who was 97 and looked very sad, and confused, due to her dementia, thinking that she was still at home during the war and thought she was a sixteen year old girl. I thought of how she must have felt, having the mind of a sixteen year old but the body of a ninety seven year old. She made me feel sad for her but feeling sorry for the patients doesn’t help in the caring profession. Therefore I had to focus on the job I was there to do.

    As my week progressed at the nursing home, so did my capabilities I grew more confident in the tasks I was being asked to perform. I was beginning to feel part of the team. Getting to know my work mates on a daily basis made me feel that any problems I would be facing with the patients would be quickly diminished by simply asking for help on anything I wasn’t sure of.

    I began helping with the bathing, dressing, feeding and aiding them with their toilet needs. Although the patients were old not all of them were ill, therefore they needed exercise and showing them exercise videos where we all joined in. This made it a fun time for them, thus making their day much more bearable. My days here were passing quickly in the workplace as the patients kept me busy. They all had different and special needs. Some just wanted someone to talk to and some needed constant care as they were bedridden and couldn’t be left alone for very long, due to their medication needs and respiratory problems.

   In my week at Belleview Nursing Home I have learned that old people are not just those invisible people that you don’t see in the streets or on the public transport because I never paid attention to them. I always saw them as moaning lecturing people who were a nuisance. It just took a week for me to get to know these people and realise that they were once teenagers like me and probably never expected to be in a nursing home because, like me, thought they would always be healthy in body and mind. We never know what life is going to deal us and we should always be aware that what we do in our lives today and tomorrow will have its consequences in later life. The people I came to know in the nursing home should be looked after to the best of everyone’s ability, as they were once a great contribution to society. Being made comfortable in their twilight years should reward them.

By Leighona Mills