“We have a purpose. We have a very important job to do right now. Everyone working is really focused on protecting the seniors that we take care of. We take it really seriously, and everybody is on top of their game.
We have such close relationships with our residents, and we love and care for them as they really are our extended family.
Right now, the residents don’t have as many connections as they would to their family members, because they’re not allowed to visit. We are filling in those voids constantly now.
The daily connections that we’re making with the residents have gotten that much more important. It’s everything to them. We have to provide residents a lot of additional emotional support.
COVID brought a whole new element to a crushing workload. Sometimes, you don’t know if you’re going to be able to manage it, not to mention that our co-workers are experiencing huge amounts of anxiety and stress in the workplace.
We’re trying to be positive, and find the bright side of each day.
We get through the challenges because we have a super group of dedicated staff. We take turns to prop each other up because if it’s my bad day, it’s somebody else’s good day.
You get through a hard day when your work partner says, ‘We got this’ and ‘What can I do for you?’
Another thing that’s positive is we are now being acknowledged and respected. We feel that we’re getting some of the recognition that probably should have been there all along.
This is a very hard and thankless job. The general public doesn’t really understand how important the job is.
We do a lot of hands-on nursing. We are the eyes and the ears. And we have our thumbs on the pulse of the floor.”
- Chrystal, Care Aide, part of the health care team