Home Care for Dummies

I am really enjoying this home care gig. I regret I didn’t start a long time ago. One thing I am coming to realize, though, is that my little CNA class was a long time ago, and it makes a difference that I never worked after I got my cert. In fact, I am pretty much winging it most of the time. I know all the important stuff like transfers and fall safety, BLS and all… but the little details, like how to give someone a shower without giving myself a shower…I have yet to get that down. I’m not the most graceful when assisting a client getting dressed, and I can be downright clumsy when changing a diaper (gloves + sticky tape = big bunched-up mess). But I’m getting it, and I’m loving it in the meantime.

I might even like geriatrics as much as psych. Unfortunately, I don’t like a lot of what I know of nursing positions in either of these fields. Lots of paperwork, not a lot of patient contact. I hope I’m mistaken, because I really like both populations. It makes me sad when students talk about how they hate working with old people or the mentally ill. Everyone wants newborns! Newborns are so boring! They don’t even have personalities yet, which, come to think of it, may be their appeal for some people.

Of course, home care isn’t just geriatric care. There’s a lot of variety both in the client and type of care they need. There are developmentally disabled adults who need help with housekeeping, Alzheimer’s clients whose family needs a respite in the evening, and wheelchair bound kids who need total 24-hour care. It’s always excited to walk up to a clients door for the first time; I never know what to expect. I have the Plan of Care, of course, but that is sometimes a little inadequate at describing the actual situation. Other aides have “warned” me of certain things, but I find some of that to do more harm than good. I like to make my own opinions about people. If I get stuck, I do call the agency, but usually it has to do with things like where the key is hidden or who is supposed to come relieve my shift.

Sometimes I just pop in for an hour, sometimes I stay a full 12-hour shift. During the overnights, I have plenty of time to study, and nothing beats getting paid to study! I am even going to start in with the hospital float pool in another month so I can get more clinical experience. Oh, and did I mention the tuition scholarship after 90 days? Bonus!

I tried to get my lil’ Sis interested in the agency, but she is not interested in home care at all. She doesn’t like old people, either. She’s a baby person. Takes all kinds, I guess…

Worst. Logo. Ever.

 

I know that the thing on the right is supposed to be the outline of Florida, and the thing on the left is supposed to be the sun, but it looks like a gun with the starburst of a cartoonish gunshot. Or maybe blood spatter.  It gets worse as it reduces:

I’m just saying.

image credit

SQ3R, or, what the heck happened to my brain over the summer?

Studying at Night, by Qi Baishi

I have been out of school for a single summer and I have completely forgotten how to take notes from a textbook. I actually really like the book, Pharmacology for Nursing Care, it’s not as immature as some of the nursing books, and more nursing focused than some of the other Pharm books I’ve seen. I can’t stand all the cutesy stuff like Incredibly Easy, but I know it really works for some people, which is great. I am all about doing what works. So I need to refresh my memory about notetaking.

What works for me is the SQ3R method, which stands for Skim, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. It may seem tedious, but it really helps me focus on the important concepts and not get distracted by some of the minutia that clutters many textbooks. With practice, it actually goes pretty fast, and I skip over what I don’t need and concentrate on the difficult stuff.

1. Skim: skim the chapter contents, introduction, headings, and summaries to get an overview of the chapter. I make sure to check out all the figures and tables, as well as any key points that are set apart from the text. If I am confident the entire chapter is review, then I move on to a new chapter at this point. If not, I continue to the next four steps.
2. Question: I go back over the main headings of the chapter, and I make each into a question. For example, the heading: Properties of an Ideal Drug, would become: What are three properties that would make an ideal drug? If I can’t answer the question of the top of my head, I write it down. Some people do this step in their heads, but the writing helps me remember and visualize the answers when I need to recall the information later (like during a test).
3. Read: as I read, I keep in mind the questions I prepared. I don’t write anything down at this point, but I am careful to stay actively reading and not just mindlessly look at the words, and I read as slowly as I need to in order to grasp the material. This is sometimes difficult for me, because usually read pretty quickly, and slowing down takes effort.
4. Recall: after I read the chapter, I answer the questions I prepared in my own words, without looking at the book if possible. For the above question, What are three properties that would make an ideal drug?, I might answer: 1) safety: no harmful effects, even at high doses over long periods–no drug is safe; 2) effectiveness: a drug must elicit the intended response, or it is worthless; 3) selectivity: drug does only what is supposed to–all drugs have side effects
5. Review: This seems obvious, but it is the hardest for me to make time for.  It is really important to review the material. You can discuss it with other students, reread the notes, or run through the questions, either alone or with a friend. A particularly effective method of reviewing information is explaining it to someone else. (I have found that no one outside of my field is the least bit interested, so I might try blogging about some of it, and boring you all instead).

As much of a technophile as I am, I still love to take handwritten notes. Though I rarely review them (so much for that 3rd ‘R’), the act of writing them really imprints them into memory, and if I practice,I can sometimes even see the notes in my head during a test.