Of People Losing Memory

Yes, I am at work right now. It's my last day but it seems that I am not starting my work not until the two patients I am baby sitting right now will go to bed. I have blogged about a lot of psychiatric patients being admitted in our facility last night and having people with dementia among these population in our building had add up to the load of the nurses.

Why?

Because people who have memory problems have a lot of liabilities entailed with them. They easily get agitated and irritable prone to harming other patients and staff by hitting them. They are prone to falls and injury because they forgot that they are not able to do a task just like what they did before. They think they are still independent to do everything but literally they cannot. They are very persistent despite explaining to them that they cannot do it anymore to a point that they will stretch out your patience. These I have experienced right now while watching these two patients.

One of the patient I am baby sitting is a Thailander, who appears very frail and contracted yet she was trying to moved out of her wheelchair despite being guarded by a lap belt. She thinks she can stand and walk but obviously she can't because of her contorted feature. She had had history of nasty falls before because of her attempts to get out of bed due to the fact that she forgot she cannot function anymore. Yet despite of telling her she can't she's still very insistent.

Another one is a hospice patient, very old lady, appears very vulnerable and weak, and only speaks Spanish. She babbles in her rapid Spanish tongue able to attract my attention while trying to get out of bed despite of her tiny weak features. Despite telling her that she cannot stand she's still insistent that she can and that she wanted to go home because the facility is not her home. I explained to her that if she keeps getting out of her wheelchair she can injure herself but she tells me in her Spanish language that she is fine and that she can function well.

I mean having these two tobaby sit had me pondered; "What if I get old will I be like them?" It's a scary thought that had dawned on me. I remember my mom who had lost her memory due to Alzheimer's disease. The pain I had experienced watching her deteriorate and lost her senses had me realized how fragile she was and how vulnerable she was. I missed her a lot.

Yes.... my job requires a lot of patience, empathy, and understanding of my patients. Had I not been like this I never been a nurse in the first place. I love my profession and I am proud to be one. It is my calling and I loved taking care of people who needed my care most. It is a very challenging job yet very rewarding in many ways sans the monetary issue. I am here to provide services to my patients and I am in full obligations for them as what I pledge when I took the oath.

Lastly, being a nurse is indeed rewarding although it is teh most unappreciated job of all because other people treat nurses like maids. That's the setback sometimes but I don't take it as a blow to my ego. I just smile at the people and remains professional to make them realized that being a nurse is no fun. Then after that they realized how hard it is to be a nurse.

There's no other way I can change other people's opinions about my noble profession but by showing them my professionalism then they will able to back down, understand, and appreciate how hard it is to be a hard-qworking nurse. I am proud of what I do and I'm here to stay as a nurse forever, as long as I breath normally.