Success - One Step at a Time

For the last 3.5 years, I've worked at a residential / treatment facility for adults with MR/DD (mental retardation and developmental disabilities). I do very hands-on work with the residents, everything from assisting them in learning new skills to bathing them (depending on their levels of ability).

Many people have asked why I do this sort of work when I have a degree in finance (I can hear my mother in the background saying, "Did you tell them it was 'magna cum laude'?") For one thing it is one of the better paying jobs in the area (Kentucky) that doesn't involve wearing a suit. I hate suits. I hate working with "the suits". And this job is, bar NONE, the most intrinsically rewarding job I've ever had. Few things can beat you walking in a room and having someone call out in utter glee, "AWWW...LUCY COME BACK!"

I actually created this blog a couple of days ago. But this is my first post...and I needed NaBloPoMo to get me motivated! Well...thank goodness they were there and you'uns come on over and join the fun! (I used to say 'y'all' a lot but 'you'uns' is to Kentucky what 'y'all' is to Texas.)

Since the NaBloPoMo theme for the month is "Routine" I will speak to that today.

I leave home about 1:30 pm local time and drive the 4.8 miles to the facility at which I work, trying to avoid the square downtown, where it is h-e-double-toothpicks to make a left turn. Ten minutes later I arrive and struggle to find a parking place, like several hundred other co-workers. I join some of my shift and house-mates at one of the gazebos, which are the approved smoking areas on site. (I started smoking about 6 months after taking the job.)

We used to be able to clock in in my "home" there, along with the workers in two other homes. Now, all six homes in my area (there are 18 homes in all) clock in at the same location, which naturally is the farthest away from my home. We clock in and walk back to the home, where we receive "shift communication" from 1st shift, learning what has happened during the day (dr. visits, illnesses, trips and other things of note).

There is an extensive "Enrichment Center" (aka classroom) system at the facility. For about the past month, I have been sent nearly every day to the swimming pool to help with transporting residents and getting them changed into their swimsuits. All the ladies that swim in the 3:00 class are in wheelchairs, and it is like a sauna. During our recent heat wave, it got hard for me to breathe, and I took the extraordinary step of talking to my shift supervisor, home manager and human resources about getting some relief. That worked for about 2 weeks, now I'm back going to the pool every day. I know the residents enjoy the pool and don't mind doing my share, but they need to rotate people from the cottages that help out...at least at the pool.

At 4:00 pm the last clients (residents) go home and I return to the cottage. All the ladies that come home are toileted and the ones who eat are given a snack. Three of the ladies have g-tubes, which means fluids are passed directly to their stomachs through a tube that has been surgically implanted in their bodies. Staff breaks are started at this time and are usually over by 5pm, when the first supper arrives.

Most homes have all the people on one side eating at the same time, but we have one lady who gets her supper at 5:00, because although she can feed herself, she is quite slow. The other three who eat get their suppers at 6:00 pm.

I think for the purposes of this blog and so I don't run astray of any "privacy" issues, I will refer to "my ladies" by the numbers One - Seven.

After the ladies' suppers, staff suppers start and there is usually an activity on the facility (a dance, a movie, etc) to take what residents we can, depending on the number of staff we have. As my ladies are mostly in wheelchairs and the two who walk need their own staff due to unsteady gait, we can never take everyone...and this is a source of frustration to all concerned.

Then there is the bathing. The ladies in wheelchairs get bathed in a special pedestal bathtub, that raises and lowers. They are assisted or lifted onto a "lift" for transportation to the tub. Since five people use the same tub, we clean and sanitize the tub between each bath. So each 'bath cycle' takes about 30 minutes. If there are any bruises or scratches on the residents, we report them to the nurse to see if medical are aware of them, and if not, we have to do an "incident report".

Meds are passed starting at 8:00 pm. Two of the ladies with the g-tubes are hooked up for an overnight 'enteral nourishment' (the term "tube feeding" is considered "demeaning" and we are actually not allowed to use it in our log). Most of the ladies go to bed soon after their baths (and always at least 1/2 hour after getting their meds, and most of them are asleep by 8:30 or 9:00 even if they are not in their beds.

After 9:00 we do dishes (if they are not already done), take out the laundry and the trash, vacuum the main living area and hallway and start our last round of breaks. At 10:30 pm we do a "bed check" to make sure everyone is clean, dry and otherwise doing ok. Third shift comes in at 10:45 pm and we do shift communication with them, do another cottage check (you'd be amazed how many ladies "go"...or "go again" in those 15 minutes!), heave a sigh of relief and run out the door to sneak in a cigarette before clocking out.

That's my basic work-day.