Nursing The Elderly; Care, Tell And Listen
These past few days for me has been quite busy and tasky. Nursing is a lot of work; both emotional and physical work. Writing on the other hand is also a mental work, you need more than just a table, chair and personal computer to be a good writer. You also need a good mental health; a thinking brain and an open mindset that is ready to dissect and process new information.
Daily I meet patients with health challenges, and most times I have to care for them beyond the doctor's plan. I need to sit by their bedside, tell them stories, listen to their stories. Their stories most times gives me a reflection of what they have gone through, and their present struggles. Whatever their problem is, I do not always have the solutions to it, but then I do have words to help them feel relieved and relaxed after our conversations.
I mean, I have only lived on this earth for few years, most of my patients are old enough to be my parents, yet some of my principles are the solutions to their problems.
Recently, I was transferred to the female medical ward I used to work, and it has been another journey entirely here.
One of my days at the male ward, I admitted an elderly man, in his late sixties one Saturday morning. He had developed swelling on his both feet, and hands, which was why his children decided to bring him to the hospital. I have always loved caring for old people, I hope to own a nursing home where we can manage elderly patients with terminal diseases.
He was well cared for in the hospital, two weeks after admission his relatives stopped visiting him. They stopped bringing him food, stopped paying his drug fee and never picked his calls. I was bothered about the man. I wanted to know why he deserved all that they did to him.
I always asked myself then, why would I choose to abandon my dad at the hospital?
I asked myself a lot of questions about this man, and I was never able to find the right answers to these questions.
However, I did my best to care for the man. I asked my orderly to take up the care for the man. I asked her to run errands for him and see you how he would get breakfast and dinner. It was really difficult convincing my old orderly to do this, but she always agreed go anyway.
Each time I nurse an elderly patient, all that I found when I did my last year research played a great influence in my nursing care. It is not always easy convincing older people to forgive their children, or asking them to forgive themselves. However, with the power of story telling I have always achieved my goal.
How do I get started with these elderly patient.
Life is beautiful, you would agree that life is actually beautiful regardless of what you are facing at the moment.
I make sure that my patient acknowledges that life is beautiful and they can still live some more decades if they believe they can.
I then go further to appreciate them for been a good fighter, resilient people. Caring fathers and good husband to their wife. I make them feel proud and make them believe their children can forgive them of their wrongs. This is not always easy.
I made my patient feel loved, I cared for him like the grandpa I never had. I tried my best by also reaching some of his children who never turned up. The hospital's management eventually found a way to take him home and wrote off his bills. I lived almost everyday dealing with these problems one after the other. In my dealings, I have realized life is worth living, likewise is death worth dying.
However, live and die for the right course by making the right decision.
