“I work the night shift so I start around 11 p.m. I like working in the peace and quiet. This way, if a resident is awake or restless, I can give them lots of attention.
When I start my shift I always do a round. I have one resident that I sing with. We sing gospel songs and go back and forth to see if one of us knows the song. If I don’t know it, I’ll follow her. It’s pretty magical and really fills me spiritually. When I sing, I can see the residents smiling. I use to sing at church, but there’s no singing right now, so it’s so nice to have this connection with this senior.
Before the pandemic, we use to have lots of potlucks before our shifts started. We’d come in 30 minutes early to eat together.
I like to make pancit and cassava cake and other delicacies from the Philippines. One of my Punjabi colleagues always brings in roti and butter chicken, and I love that!
Our night shift team has a really strong bond. We are unable to spend as much social time together under COVID-19 so that’s hard.
But we all have the same goal right now to keep ourselves healthy for our residents. The most important thing for us is to focus on caring for our residents. We need to support them because they still miss their families.
Our government has been very supportive with regards to the health protocols. We’re continuously learning more and being educated to follow all of the protocols. “
Tes, Care Aide, part of the health care team