I have just spend 9 days working with and for people who can often do very little by and for themselves, who sleep in single beds with roommates that they may or may not interact with, and who go to meals at which they might not talk to anyone because their tablemates are mostly deaf, or they themselves don't really speak comprehensibly anymore.
This makes me appreciate so many things in my what-I'm-coming-to-view-as-temporary functionality. I have two functioning eyes, two functioning ears, and four mobile limbs. I can walk when and where I want. I can ride my bicycle or drive a car to go places I want to get to. I can talk to people to let them know what I'm thinking, or to pass the time. I wonder about residents' boredom. Are the residents who spend 7 hours a day parked in a wheelchair in front of the nurses' station bored? Or is the level of what engages their interest lowered such that boredom doesn't really apply? I can read, and acquire things to read that I want to read. I can go to the bathroom when I need to and be clean before and after. I can choose what to wear, and put it on myself, or take it off. I have a high degree of control over what I eat, and when. I can listen to music when I want to. I can dance.
I share a bed that I can make myself with someone I love who knows me well, and with whom I feel safe and understood, and whom I can care for as well, so I know that I am useful. I spend time with friends whose company makes me happy. I laugh a lot.
There is a poster up in the physical therapy room of a 70-year-old-ish woman wearing a swimsuit, with the caption: "Growing old is not for the faint of heart." No kidding.
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I commented over on FB and then realized maybe you didn't want everyone reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad for you that you're done with clinic and are happy with your new career path, and I'm glad for the residents that you'll end up working with. I haven't been commenting, but I've been reading your entries and appreciating them. I hope when my loved ones (and/or I) need care, that there's someone around who's as aware and thoughtful about the whole thing as you are. :-)
Costsinker, my dear, you are embarking on a task of empathy that is really one of the most difficult for human beings to grasp. We are a culture that worships the power of the individual. We have designed our society to maximize that power.
ReplyDeleteFoucault tells us that we organize space so as to legitimate that worldview. Hence we organize work space so as to eliminate all but those capable of work. Because we live in spaces strongly segregated by function and since function varies with age, we no longer see the old or the young. This is especially true of the old. If you are an adult without children, you will likely not know those with children. Many do not experience children until they have them. But those of us who reproduce do experience children. If you are too old to work, you are cordoned off into a home. If you are incapable of internalizing discipline or refuse to accept the existing distribution of labor and its product, you are removed from society. Our jails are quite full. All of this creates a world in which individuals maximize their work, in which doing so appears completely natural and appropriate.
In choosing work that brings you into your present work space, you are learning something that is counter-intuitive to most individuals in our society.
> I wonder about residents' boredom.
> Are the residents who spend 7
> hours a day parked in a wheelchair
> in front of the nurses' station
> bored? Or is the level of what
> engages their interest lowered
> such that boredom doesn't really
> apply?
Human beings require meaning in order to live. We need purpose. I imagine for the "wheelchair parkers," this crisis of loss came some time before. If they're just sitting there, they've probably given up. They're waiting.
When the mind checks out, the body isn't far behind.
Hosie--That is highly doubtful. The nature nursing assistant work is that most people who can think critically about it move up the food chain to better pay, where they'll do significantly less of it.
ReplyDelete