helping hands

Helping Hands After about a year of being laid off from work, I was ready to go back to work, but my mother in law was diagnosed with a tumor on her brain. My husband and his brothers were faced with a huge decision because of her age; she was not a good candidate for surgery. She was adamant about not going to a nursing home for care, so the only answer was to move her to Georgia and live with us. Taking care of my mother-in-law inspired me to become a registered nurse because I felt that those individuals in the health care field were not doing a sufficient job, I enjoyed the work and it felt purposeful, and I was successful at caring for others. Individuals in the health care field lack a sense of pride in doing their jobs. I learned about such lack of compassion by some health care individuals during my three-day clinical to complete my certified nursing assistant (CNA) class. I was enrolled in the class to educate myself on caring for my mother-in-law and providing proper care. During my three days of eight hour shifts working alongside of certified nursing assistant, I saw no compassion for patients and half completed tasks in caring for residents. The first day of clinical CNA and I walked into the room and right away there was a smell of the resident needing a diaper changed. The CNA told me to turn around and we would come back to this resident last, which was approximately two hours later. I thought to myself this is neglect because the other two residents we cared for didn’t have priority over this resident laying in a dirty diaper. On the second day of clinical, I was told because of short staff that I would be working by myself, and I had a total of seven patients to feed, bathe, and prepare for bed. I felt great after the end of my shift when one of the residents told me that I was the nicest student nurses that he had in a long time. The next day, I had five residents asking could I care for them. This gave me the strength to know that