What It Was Like to Work In a Nursing Home
by Melissa
half letter / 44 pages
As someone who works in a health care environment very
similar to those that Melissa writes about, I was initially discouraged by her
attitude taken in this zine. She basically worked in nursing homes to make
money. Granted, these nursing homes are in Australia , but in the United States
of Amerika, no one except top administrators make a lot of money caring for the
elderly. “The elderly” is a class that we will all join, if we are lucky.We should care for elders in the way that we would hope to be taken care of if and
when we have serious health issues and can no longer care for ourselves.
Melissa’s zine takes the reader through the variety of
places she worked as a per-diem Personal Care Attendant for a staffing agency. She
talks about the drudgery of toileting, bathing, changing and feeding dementia
patients and other nursing home patients. She paints a fairly realistic
portrait of the sadness, depression, and sense of futility that overshadows
many care facilities. She shares her insights into what qualities make for good
co-workers, and what constitutes quality caregiving. At the end though, I was
still disappointed and felt that something was missing from this zine. I had to
remind myself – this is one person’s experience and perspective. Overall
this zine is a well written but somewhat myopic introduction to what working in
a nursing home is really like.
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