Fall Winter 2017

www.ohca.com Fall/Winter 2017 The Oregon Caregiver 23 PROFILE same kind of aggressive treatments you’d see at the hospital, but sometimes it’s just leaving them alone and letting them be peaceful. In long term care settings, the head of the care team is the resident. We become the family for many residents, whether they have family or not. It’s hard to “leave it at work”—most of our employees are thinking about residents on their days off. It's so much more than just a job. Ariana: The key trait is patience. You also have to love the residents. They miss their families and sometimes are lonely, so you have to support them when they’re down. Is there a specific experience from your career that really impacted you? Amanda: When I was working at our facility in Newberg as a medication aid and working through nursing school, I suddenly had all this information that made my job scary. For example, we had a brittle diabetic who wanted popcorn every night and that was a huge deal for her even if it wasn’t the healthiest thing for her. I realized that my role is to find the safest way for them to have what they want in life, but I cannot take away the things that make life full. My ideas of what is right and wrong don’t really matter in terms of their life, and I am not effective if I am pushing someone to do something they don’t want to do. The “golden rule” is treat others as you want to be treated, but we use the “platinum rule”—treat others as they want to be treated. It’s about listening to them and finding the best solution for everyone. You need to give residents something to look forward to every day. Ariana: I had a resident who passed away last winter. The way she talked about her daughter is how I want to talk about my future children, the way she talked about her whole family… her family was always connected. She was an inspiration for how I want to live my life. 