06/24/1994

4:18 pm

Well, it was my 1st day of volunteering at D.N.H. By 2 weeks from today, I should have my name tag. It was an interesting 2 hours to say the least! When I first got there, Judy said I could help take the patients from the dining-room into their rooms. Then I was instructed to "spend time" with Beverly (a patient w/alzheimers) but, I guess I didn’t hear John say that she had ALZ – I just don’t understand the disease, so I got a book from the library about "the caregiving to a patient w/alzheimers". There was a fire alarm today, and the man that I was supervising got angry – and yanked his hand away from my arm, and hit me in the stomach, I almost started crying, bcause I felt so helpless. But, I must feel it’s worth pursuing, bcause I went to the library to get the book so that I can understand the patients better. I think the next C.N.A. course may be in September, so that gives me a couple of months to REALLY decide. I hope John & Judy weren’t unimpressed w/me, bcause I really like them, and I want to volunteer at least this summer.