There are so many perceptions of nursing and aged care in general that will be good to de-mystify. Do you know of any that you’d like the community to know? Here’s my list:
1. There is always enough staff to do the job.
Not really. One of Because We Care’s campaign themes is this public perception. It’s a myth. We are negotiating to have proper staff to resident ratios.
We would love to be able to attend to requests straight away BUT sometimes more often than not there just isn’t enough of us to go around. So we do the side ways shuffle and priotise whose need has to come first. Families sometimes get ANGRY but my twin has not come through in the mail yet!!!
2. Residents in a Nursing Home is like in the movie where the oldies sit and play Bingo.
Residents in Nursing Homes don’t always behave in a socially acceptable way. We can’t always stop things happening in a public area. Sometimes nurses have to deal with wanderers who are intrusive, aggressive and violent.
3. My personal favourite — Nurses earn a massive amount of money.
That’s what I hear from people. Because We Care campaign exists to fight for wage parity with the public system.
4. Aged Care nurses spend all day simply looking after residents so why do they still make mistakes?
Nurses are people too. We can and do make mistakes BUT we do the best job we can in the environment we are in.
5. Aged Care nurses don’t care about their residents.
One of the main parts of our job is CARING — not just personal care but being an advocate for our residents. If we see they need new equipment, etc….we lobby for it.
6. Nurses only look after residents. That doesn’t take much.
We have to be all things to all people residents, visitors and management. That takes skills, commitment and dedication.
What about you? Have you got your own list of nursing myths and pre-conceptions that you’d like to share?
I work in the aged care industry and im so glad these myths have been exposed.I have found aged care nurses have a very hard job dealing with different behavours and the job can be physically demanding as well.
Aged Care myths I agree with the comment that there are sometimes not enough nurses available this may be for a number of reasons such as they are attending to another resident We do care about our residents but aged care nursing is seen as an easy job which it is not.
To Linda Well-wriiten blog article. Aged care nurses you should feel proud! Keep supporting Because We Care campaign!
aged care Aged care is a hard area to work in and you do a wonderful job that is consistently underestimated. I did it for awhile, but found it confronting and sad to work with people at the ends of their lives. As for the pay well that myth is ridiculous! well done to all nurses in aged care and a louder voice to you all!
Aged Care Myths So glad that I have been able to dispel some of the myths asociated with AGED CARE.Aged Care is very hard work as all areas of NURSING are.AGED CARE takes a toll on you phsically,emotionally and mentally.Actually I personally count it a great privelege to nurse our aged residents at the end stage of thier life.I am fortunate to work with great staff who understand that this is a time where teamwork and understanding are very important.I admit over the years plenty of tears but when you have looked after that resident it is only natural.
Behavours are all part and parcel of the sector we deal with them the best way we can every day.I love my job and wlll continue to support the because we care campaign and try to get a better system for all of us i
We Could All End Up In A Nursing Home Food for thought Linda…you just need a reality TV show to come in and reveal the real daily challenges you face in your workplace. I transport many patients to Nursing Homes and i take my hat off to all the staff that care for Australia’s elderly residents.
Job well done! Rich
Reality tv show Rich every time we have ACCREDITATION it feels like you are on a tv show not a reality one though.All of a sudden everything has to look perfect etc if it wasnt so annoying it would be FUNNY.The wanderers are all kept busy.There is plenty of staff around etc.Meanwhile we are all on tenterhooks waiting for it all to be over.