Elderly care becoming big priority so nurses need to learn new skills
For young nurses graduating today, demographics dictate that 70 per cent of their patients will be elderly.
Working as a geriatric nurse presents some challenges not faced in other areas of nursing. But it can also bring great rewards, says Barb Walls.
The Fredericton registered nurse cares for seniors and teaches courses on caring for the elderly.
"I tell the students no matter where they work, there will be geriatrics because of the aging population living longer and the numbers,"said Walls.
"This is what the face of health care is, and what nurses need is a good grounding in gerontology nursing. And the training programs are providing that."
Walls has been an RN for 23 years and worked in many areas, from hospitals and home care to public health and administration to teaching. Her career is indicative of the many career paths nurses can follow.
She did a masters degree in nursing but did not take special training to work in gerontology. She gravitated towards the field after working with seniors in a Nova Scotia hospital and in home care elsewhere.
She now works part time at the Veterans Health Unit, a 47-bed long-term care residence for veterans of Canada's army, navy and air force.
The residence, next to the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton, is managed by the River Valley Health Authority on behalf of Veteran Affairs Canada.
Many of the vets, by far a majority of them men now in their 80s and 90s, have seen war service.
That alone sets them apart from others in their age group, said Walls.
They have a special appeal for her because her own father was also a war vet.
The unit is used as a gerontology teaching facility for RNs and LPNs.
This is an opportunity for students to find out if this is what they really want as a career, said Walls.
"We can teach them the tasks, but the caring for another person has to come from your heart," she said. "I believe it is almost like a calling".
In this field of medicine, the patients aren't going to get better and go home. So the goals and the measures of success are different.
"You live in the present. Each day we will come in and we will make it the best shift we can," said Walls.
"It may seem ordinary but if they are clean and they're shaven and dressed and their dignity is maintained," those are things for which the staff strives.
Some elderly people have learned to take a day-to-day approach to this phase of their lives.
Many of the vets, said Walls, appreciate simple gestures, such as a nurse covering them with a warm blanket.
Other elderly people have a more negative attitude to aging and simply "endure" the time they have left, she said. Some can become insulting or aggressive, and nurses have to learn to deal with that behaviour and accept that it is not personal, said Walls.
The veterans unit includes an Alzheimer's section. This disease of the elderly requires special skills, one of them being communicating with people who are no longer cognizant and or may have lost the ability to speak.
"What I like about it is it is so personal. We are able to really be involved, unlike the acute care setting where people are acutely or critically ill and patients have different needs," said Walls.
The nurses and staff here not only get to know about the veteran's lives but the veterans also take an interest in their caretakers' lives.
Walls likes to sing, and dance and joke with the elderly residents. She knows some old songs from the war years and some will join her in a sing-song.
"I come to work with an attitude that I am here for eight hours and I love being here," said Walls.
Because they are in their 80s and 90s, the vets can be healthy one day and critically ill the next. A nurse can go home after her shift and come back to find one of her charges has died on her day off.
Because they have come to know these men and women on a personal level they need to deal with their death in a personal way, Walls said. One aide that she uses is a favourite walking stick. She puts the name of each deceased vet she has cared for on her stick.
Another is the unit holds its own memorial service, similar to Remembrance Day services. This year it is being held on May 13 and will honour all of the residents who have passed away.
Families, other residents and staff take part as well as the Royal Canadian Legion.
Walls gets great personal gratification in caring for these elderly patients in their twilight years.
"Even though there are bad days and hard days there are also fun days ... And obviously I get enough of a reward from the people I care for, and that appreciate what I do."
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