Yay! I'm Working!
My orientation for my new job started on July 9th and ended on July 17th. After orientation concluded on the 17th, I then reported to the site where I will be working. The orientation included exciting stuff like CPR certification, first aid training, med training, and so much more.
My schedule is Wednesday through Friday from 3pm to 11pm and Saturday from 7am to 11pm. This schedule at least leaves me with 3 days off to recuperate each week. Saturday night, I finished my second week at the facility. It was also my first day flying solo. Up until then, I was always shadowing another staff member in the various apartments in the brain injury section of the facility.
The job is interesting and varies from being difficult to quite easy at times. I have done things like take two persons served down to the lake to fish. That hour or so was rather enjoyable. I was able to help out with baiting hooks and capturing minnows as they tried to escape from the bucket they were being kept in. Personally, I think that it rather helped that I was not a squeamish girly-girl. Another good time involved playing UNO with a person served for about an hour until my shift was over.
Hard parts of the job include helping persons served shower, changing adult diapers, understanding persons served who mumble/speak low/or barely verbalize. I sometimes feel awkward about cooking or helping to cook dinner for my persons served. So far, I think that I have cooked solo two nights. I worry about whether or not they’ll like what I’ve fixed, though other staff members have assured me that the two persons served that I will be regularly working with are not terribly fussy. I have at least learned who likes mustard on their sandwiches and who prefers mayonnaise.
Saturdays are my double shifts and this past Saturday was my first day on my own. After breakfast, one of my persons served decided that he wanted to retire to his room to watch TV. He opted to sit on the floor, which is one of his preferences, so I spread out a blanket for him, gave him his remote for his TV and made sure that he was sitting up. While I worked on cleaning up after breakfast, I periodically checked on him. He’s supposed to be 15-minute checks when he’s awake in his room, but being that this was my first day on my own, I felt a bit more paranoid and checked him every 5 minutes. When I checked in on him for the second or third time, I found that he was lying on the floor in sort of a recovery position. I walked into further investigate. He was blinking and breathing and it took a few moments for him to answer me when I asked if he was all right. He told me that he was having trouble breathing. So, I notified another staff person in another apartment and then called 911. The paramedics and EMTs came out to check him out. By the time that they got there, another staff person and I had gotten him to sit up on his bed and he was back to watching TV. The emergency service personnel thought that he was all right, but we had him taken to a local hospital to be sure. After a chest x-ray and an EKG, my person served was declared to be fine and I drove him back to his apartment. Yeah, I got to drive one of the company vehicles for the second time. This time, I opted for the minivan rather than the large 8-9 passenger van.
I got him back to the facility in one piece and had him sit out in the living room for a while so that I could keep an eye on him. After a while, it seemed clear that he was fine, so he was able to go back to watching TV in his room. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful.
I guess that I might report back to work tomorrow. My back aches a bit, though I really don’t do any real strenuous work. The two persons served that I work with are in wheelchairs, but they are both able to transfer themselves, though they need to be contact guarded to prevent falls. The most strenuous thing that I recall doing in the past week was when I carried the full bait bucket back from the fishing trip down to the lake. The two persons served that I took down there are a bit shaky when walking, so I carried the minnows back.
The job is scary at times. It is also disgusting at times. My one person served clogged the toilet on Saturday, but it wasn’t from using too much toilet paper or too many wet wipes. Rather, it was from pretty much shitting a brick. I tried using the plunger, but it just didn’t do it. I ended up having to don gloves and plastic bags to make a manual extraction. Yes, this job is gross. There are other times when the job is nice like when I see my persons served do activities such as washing the dishes, which are things that will help them to become more independent.
My schedule is Wednesday through Friday from 3pm to 11pm and Saturday from 7am to 11pm. This schedule at least leaves me with 3 days off to recuperate each week. Saturday night, I finished my second week at the facility. It was also my first day flying solo. Up until then, I was always shadowing another staff member in the various apartments in the brain injury section of the facility.
The job is interesting and varies from being difficult to quite easy at times. I have done things like take two persons served down to the lake to fish. That hour or so was rather enjoyable. I was able to help out with baiting hooks and capturing minnows as they tried to escape from the bucket they were being kept in. Personally, I think that it rather helped that I was not a squeamish girly-girl. Another good time involved playing UNO with a person served for about an hour until my shift was over.
Hard parts of the job include helping persons served shower, changing adult diapers, understanding persons served who mumble/speak low/or barely verbalize. I sometimes feel awkward about cooking or helping to cook dinner for my persons served. So far, I think that I have cooked solo two nights. I worry about whether or not they’ll like what I’ve fixed, though other staff members have assured me that the two persons served that I will be regularly working with are not terribly fussy. I have at least learned who likes mustard on their sandwiches and who prefers mayonnaise.
Saturdays are my double shifts and this past Saturday was my first day on my own. After breakfast, one of my persons served decided that he wanted to retire to his room to watch TV. He opted to sit on the floor, which is one of his preferences, so I spread out a blanket for him, gave him his remote for his TV and made sure that he was sitting up. While I worked on cleaning up after breakfast, I periodically checked on him. He’s supposed to be 15-minute checks when he’s awake in his room, but being that this was my first day on my own, I felt a bit more paranoid and checked him every 5 minutes. When I checked in on him for the second or third time, I found that he was lying on the floor in sort of a recovery position. I walked into further investigate. He was blinking and breathing and it took a few moments for him to answer me when I asked if he was all right. He told me that he was having trouble breathing. So, I notified another staff person in another apartment and then called 911. The paramedics and EMTs came out to check him out. By the time that they got there, another staff person and I had gotten him to sit up on his bed and he was back to watching TV. The emergency service personnel thought that he was all right, but we had him taken to a local hospital to be sure. After a chest x-ray and an EKG, my person served was declared to be fine and I drove him back to his apartment. Yeah, I got to drive one of the company vehicles for the second time. This time, I opted for the minivan rather than the large 8-9 passenger van.
I got him back to the facility in one piece and had him sit out in the living room for a while so that I could keep an eye on him. After a while, it seemed clear that he was fine, so he was able to go back to watching TV in his room. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful.
I guess that I might report back to work tomorrow. My back aches a bit, though I really don’t do any real strenuous work. The two persons served that I work with are in wheelchairs, but they are both able to transfer themselves, though they need to be contact guarded to prevent falls. The most strenuous thing that I recall doing in the past week was when I carried the full bait bucket back from the fishing trip down to the lake. The two persons served that I took down there are a bit shaky when walking, so I carried the minnows back.
The job is scary at times. It is also disgusting at times. My one person served clogged the toilet on Saturday, but it wasn’t from using too much toilet paper or too many wet wipes. Rather, it was from pretty much shitting a brick. I tried using the plunger, but it just didn’t do it. I ended up having to don gloves and plastic bags to make a manual extraction. Yes, this job is gross. There are other times when the job is nice like when I see my persons served do activities such as washing the dishes, which are things that will help them to become more independent.