My First Day as a LTC Nurse

Well, it was sure an interesting day.
 
First day of actual resident care, and off to the baths I went. In long term care facilities they have two different kinds of tubs they use, a Century Tub, which is like a tall bathtub where you sit in a hydraulic chair, and it lifts you up and then down into the water. There’s also an Arjo tub which is more like a regular bathtub that you can move hydraulicly up and down and has some other gadgets that you can use. Today I got to use both tubs, plus also other gizmos they have called ‘lifts’. They’re basically machines that you can use to either lift people out of bed, or up off the ground. There’s different kinds.
 
So anyways today in the morning I helped with 5 different people as they got baths. One of them was a lady who had dementia I think. The poor thing just shook and whimpered the whole time because she thought we were going to hurt her or something. While we were putting her pj’s back on after the bath, she whimpered "please don’t kill me" or something like that. I had a hard time doing her bath because I didn’t want to make her scared. I felt sorry for her.
 
And then I got to help with a man who had dementia. He was the most ‘interesting’ experience of the day. The RCA I was buddied up with couldn’t haul the dude out of bed so we had to get another person. They still couldn’t get him up very well cuz he was fighting the whole time. Finally they got the guys clothes off, and then he managed to get ahold of his used ‘diaper’ (that’s pretty much what they are) The guy had one hell of a grip on it, and the care aide was all worried he was gonna let go and smack her in the face with it. I was so glad I didn’t have to be the one to haul his ass onto the chair and strap him in. I had a hard enough time giving the guy a bath. I was too gentle though, the RCA said I need to toughen up because if I’m that gentle it’ll take me forever to get a bath done. I’m sure it’ll come in time. I just wasn’t sure how to really approach someone with dementia. Anyways at the end she wanted me to do peri-care (wash his privates) but I was hesitant cuz I had a feeling he’d have a reaction to that, and sure enough, when the RCA did it, he latched onto her arm real good.
 
Not that he was scary or anything. People with dementia are like cornered animals. They lash out because they’re scared and don’t know what’s really going on.
 
Now with my day full of bathing naked seniors, not for a moment did it bother me that I was washing people. Didn’t even bother me when I was doing peri-care. Of course, I didn’t really expect to be bothered anyways. Not like I’ve never seen naked people before. *rolls eyes* Just not anybody naked and old. Lol.
 
Some of the seniors there are so cute though.