by Laura Macario

Created on: December 27, 2008

The story is based on my personal experience at a nursing home as a nurse student.

At seven o'clock the clients are waked up as the nurses would pas ever room yelling good morning'. The once that needed assistance were helped with washing and dressing. Of course a shower everyday is not possible as there is a high lack of the number of staff members. So most clients had a quick was at the washbasin with a washcloth and a little soap. The ones that needed more assistance they were helped at the bed.

Clients feel embarrassed to require assistance, but mostly uncomfortable is to stand naked and be helped by a different nurse each day. In addition there was no consideration with the client's desires, requirements and religion. Thus the lack of staff and indifference from the nurses caused that Muslim men where washed by a woman nurse.

The clients in a wheelchair would receive incontinent pants even tough they were not incontinent. Subsequently there was no need for the nurses to help them each time at the lavatory.

Clients were often wearing the same cloths for a few days. If the cloths were dirty or broke it did not bother to the nurses as much. Some even were the cloths of deceased patients, since they have no one to escort them for shopping.

As soon as the clock ticket ten thirty the nurses would rush to the coffee table for a break and some cake, even tough some patients still needed toilet assistance. The nurses would not be bothered by the patients' needs, as their brake was imposed by the floor manager.

The whole day the patients sit at their fixed seat at the dinner table in the living room. An occasion to have a discussion with the clients was not created. Also each day of the week had a fixed meal, often poor and overcooked, with a glass of apple juice.

Most of the patients would never leave the nursing home, since the nurses did not have time to walk a block. Moreover most of the patients have no friends of relatives living in the neighborhood that could visit them and these people felt very lonely.

The care provided by the nurses is basic, with no consideration of the life standards that the clients, such as the clients habits and interests. The patients experience that they are treated with a lack of respect and with no consideration of their past accomplishments. Some of the clients feel they are treated like children. As a consequence protesting as their standards of living deteriorated so rapidly

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