Chapter 5: Paralanguage In A Nursing Home

Chapter 5: 1.) Paralanguage is communication that is vocal, but does not use words.
Christopher had to learn how to talk with a ventilator because every time he spoke it would cause gaps in his speech and he had to learn how to communicate over the phone and in front of people so they could understand him and what he was saying.
2.) Haptics is the sense of touch.
For the first five years after Christopher’s accident, he couldn’t feel anything between a pinpoint of a cotton swab. After five years he could start to tell the difference between the two. I have worked in a nursing home for nine years, and I have seen some residents that have come into the nursing home with a disorder in their speech. It isn’t easy to understand them, but if you make the effort you can communicate with them whether it is through making a flash card or just slowing down how you talk to them, and stopping and listening to what the resident is saying.
Chapter 7: 1.) Emotion work is the term from the textbook that I would use for these chapters.
Emotion work is an effort that we generate or try to change emotions because society tells us. I work in a nursing home and deal with a lot of elderly patients. I feel attached when a resident passes away that I care about. I also feel attached from some of my residents because the facility that I work in doesn't want the staff to get attached to the residents. My Director of Nursing (DON) doesn't really like to deal with or listen to staff complaints or their side of things. Sometimes my DON doesn't want to listen to the residents’ complaints or staff complaints, whether it is about how a staff member treats them or how another resident treats them. It is our job to protect these individuals and to keep them
safe.
2.) Surface acting also suits these two chapters. Surface acting is how you control your expressions of emotions and try to put on a brave face. From my own experience a crisis such as the abuse I went through changed me because I saw things that were emotional that bothered me, but after my crisis it changed me for the better instead of for the worse. When I first was getting abused and found out my son was getting abused I behaved differently than I do now. I used to be very shy and timid, afraid, and I wouldn't talk about it or let anyone know what I was going through but now I just say how things are.
Chapter 8: 1.) Commitment is the personal choice we make to keep a personal relationship alive in the future.
2.) Trust develops in a relationship as the people involved do what they will do and support each other.
Dana was committed to Christopher especially after his accident because not only did she stay with him and by his side, but she also trusted and supported whatever decision he made in his life and how he wanted to live. She was devoted to Chris regardless of his paralysis and she helped him with all of his daily activities, along with the staff that they hired. They both trusted the staff to have the knowledge to take care of him and to know how to help him with all of his problems.
I know from personal experience that it isn’t easy staying with someone that has a disability of some kind. It makes things challenging, but if each individual is committed to the relationship whether it is a personal relationship or a family member, then things can work.