Di

This is fantastic, Love it

Hi Solange, Thankyou so much for your comment to me.

I will enjoy NZ and be ready to try another facility which is more accepting of our work, when I return to Australia, I love this work it is so enjoyable and hopefully I can volunteer somewhere near where we are living in NZ to keep in the loop

Kind Regards Di

Hi everyone ,
I just love this sight ,
I am leaving my position in 5 weeks time as going to NZ for 12 months with my partners' work .I love my job and all the Residents , However I don't know what my chances will be to be re employed when back in Australia.
sadly I feel My DON does not quite understand what we actually do , she can be very conquer and divide with staff eg our team cannot talk amongst ourselves, office door to be open at all times,"Are we talking about management ?" Nursing staff cannot visit dying people to say goodbye and MUST not be emotional, Im quite disillusioned by this attitude and don't feel a good reference is coming my way from her.
I always have a great review and appraisal this DON told me she had seen me yawning in the dementia unit which was not a good look , did these people make me uninterested ? I told her I am not in the habit of yawning and perhaps I was tired that day ( my mum is having Chemo )and it is the day before my 1 permanent day although I average 3-4 days weekly . I feel I am Totally committed and have always loved the elderly, why can 1 person ruin everything ???

Hi, I have been given the task of compiling thank you cards/letters and photographs to be put together for visitors,families,friends and staff to browse through.. Has previously hap hazardly been put into photograph albums which is a convenient way of presenting them but I would like it to have a bit of pizazz to be of more interest any ideas please ???

Hi great ideas unfortunately this would be deemed childish and not appropriate in our facility, so sad

I work on one of my shifts in a special needs unit one of the Nurses who is in charge seems to have a problem with me, I have asked her and she denies this,However I cant do much right when I'm there.

Sometimes I will be walking around doing a quick 1-1 with the 20 residents and if someone needs more time they've got it. This Nurse will say mmm doesn't seem to be much happening is there going to be an activity today? or You really need to get them active or its going to be hall for afternoon shift.

Yesterday I decided to just dive straight in with bowling I had 8 resis' sitting ready for the game. I was successfully letting a client take a few extra minutes to stand up and use her walker to come over to the bowling area, this nurse walked over grabbed the resident by the arms and said stand up now and get going the resident showed signs of anger and rebellion but did stand up the nurse turned to me and said There not so hard is it ?

Then as I walked this resident around the table another resident (2) who has recently had a broken hip was standing up I stopped to seat her back down and the nurse came over and told me to leave her that resident (1) didn't know where she was going and I should look after her (she was right beside me, lost but beside me).

I suggested resident (2) join us as she loves bowls and it is seated, the nurse agreed and then made a huge point that she should not stand, I agreed. However Resident (2) had 1st bowl, 3 turns each and on 2nd bowl hit another residents ankle which upset that resident.

As I picked the ball up and quickly comforted her Resi(2) stood up concerned. The Nurse flew over and told me that if she broke another hip it would be my fault ps we also have dining chairs with wheels on that every one uses to move residents around on but was told by the nurse today no way that is allowed, Ok won't do it ever again and she made resi walk to game with stand up frame.

I told Nurse I understood danger for resident 2 but then tried to explain what happened where she raised her voice and told me resident 2 was priority nothing else matters. Ok so why was resident that was lost a priority 5 mins ago when she was right with me any way ? with that she wheeled resi 2 away on dining chair got a folder from the nurses station slammed it onto the table and sat right beside resident 2.

I finished our bowling game brought all ambulant resis' to table ready for morning tea non ambulant were wheeled over in dining chairs by PCAs. Help me I'm tryng here but double standards maybe ???

Thanks Catherine, Totally agree work as a team and respect each others role

Where I am working ( I am only new)I find that if I move my residents into an area for an activity suited to the alert/Interested even if only to observe ones at the time,I am finding that nursing staff will move one or two of the more of my already engaged Residents, to replace with another resident they have just brought into the Lounge area who is not capable of for example Bowling or Balloon tennis etc and is being further agitated by the action going on around them (our facility does not think we as Diversional Therapists are doing as important work as Nursing)We are to watch all Residents in the room while they go about other duties, which I can cope with but , I need to be able to conduct my planned Diversion as well how do I get respect without offending ??ps this is a Special needs unit. Diversional staff already there find this unit and staff the least co-operative

Hi what are some suggestions for books to read for lowcare book club ?