Nursing home job

So I’ve been working at my town’s nursing home/rehabilitation center for a little under a month now. I had my state exam. I failed the skills part, but the excelled in the written part. Lemme tell you how relieved I am to know you don’t have to take both the written and the skills again if you fail one!

I got hired along with my high school classmate. We had the same community college nursing assistant class. She told me the administrator wanted us to call her if we passed the state exam so we could get our schedules. Even though I failed the exam, I still get more hours! This is my first ever twelve hour shift, and I’m liking it so far! Plus we were placed in the unit. So relieved. I was dreading coming to work due to being in the same unit.

I don’t need to compare shit but you cannot believe how relieved and thankful I am to have a full-time job. I used to work at Dairy Queen and they barely gave me any hours at all. I’m glad I left it when I did. Also glad I worked there since I ranked up quite a lot of money. I had no access to my bank account so the money just sat there.

It was such a hassle waking up to go to Dairy Queen (I never had more than twenty hours :) 👍) Having a full-time job just fills me up with more purpose. I’m working a job I  know I can do. I don’t have to count money here. I just need to work on other aspects of myself to like do the best job possible. For the residents, my coworkers, and myself.

I love the residents here. I enjoy listening to them and hearing what they have to say. I find it so neat the way some of them have workarounds with communication. About a week ago, I answered a call light for a resident who couldn’t speak. She pulled out a ring with flash cards and pointed to card with “bathroom” on it.

I’m on my break now! This facility has two hypoallergenic animals - some Doodle-mix named Jay and a calico cat named, of course, Callie. I recall a worker when I was doing my clinicals said the cat “useless” and spent most of her time in one resident’s room. Lol

Luv that cat. More than the dog. Which is a shocker since I’m definitely a dog person! A few weeks ago I was sitting for a resident in the unit she stays at and she got up on my lap and fell asleep. She purrs. Not loud, but she does. She also has beautiful big eyes.

So I found the room where she spends her days at. It’s the room of two residents. Lol. A few times I tried to kiss the cat. She luvs me. I’m a walker right now, making sure no residents fall. The cat jumped off the bed while I was gone. I went in their room, and I was like, “where’s the cat?”

The resident closest to the door gestured for me to pick up a paper with letters and numbers on it, and dragged her finger to each word until she spelled out “UNDER THE CHAIR.” It was so nice to see that! Lol. I peeked under the chair that’s always between two beds and sure enough, the cat was under there! Btw, the cat jumped away because I kept trying to kiss her head… She must love these two ladies so much to stay in their room most of the time! Sometimes on my way out I’ll see the cat in the visitation room. I always drop all I’ve got to pet her.

It’s so cool to see these folks have their own way of communication. I love it. Love. I watched a video a few years ago of a man who was in a coma and paralyzed. The details are fuzzy so I’m probably screwing it up here. But he spent over eighty days in the hospital and it was about how he worked up to rehabilitation. When he first woke up, he couldn’t move any limbs. So the doctors implemented a monitor that was synced with his eye movements and it had words and letters. That’s how he spoke to his mother and his medical group. It was such a small part in the video but I was AMAZED.

But yeah only three minutes to go until break is over! Ughhhh I’m loving this! It has its ups and downs, though! Bye!