“Physio is the reason patients go home after coming to us. Without the Rehab Assistants and physio, they would just be in a dumping ground and stay there forever.
Seeing the difference from when a patient first comes to us to when they get to go home is the most rewarding part of my job. At first, the exercises for them take twice as long as they should, and are twice as hard as they should be. And then, after a week, they are quite a bit easier, and then the ease just continues until the patient can go home.
I work with seniors as a Rehabilitation Assistant. The physiotherapist sees the patient one time, and then decides all the rehabilitative exercises they are going to do. I’m the person who ensures they do it and do it right. I isolate the specific muscles they want to strengthen, and practice the movement they want to coordinate.
With COVID, we have to wash our hands and change Personal Protective Equipment between each patient. Everything we touch that isn’t the patient, and if the patient touches anything, we have to follow the patient’s footsteps and wipe down everything.
We have to keep our exercise group in the morning to the maximum of 10 people because we run out of room. We form a social distance semicircle around us, while we play ‘Simon Says’ and do a bunch of exercises.
I wear a mask and eye goggles. For the patients with droplet precautions, I wear a gown and gloves.
We’re contained at the moment, knock on wood. We don’t allow any outside visitors, and we don’t allow patients to go out and see their visitors. They only can do window visits.
A family found a way to visit their mother and grandmother in spite of the pandemic. It was her birthday, and they had a window visit with her. Tons of people were hanging outside the window visiting her. She had an awesome birthday window visit. And she passed on the next day. I think that’s a good way to go.”
- Carl, Rehab Assistant, part of the health care team