I have been offered a job as a care assistant in a nursing home, I have no experience in this field as have worked as a nursery nurse for over 17yrs.
I am still considering the offer, my main concerns…
moving residents re lymphodema risk,
I suffer from social/general anxiety disorder…can I actually go through with this!
I have poblems with my knees…will the position aggrevate this?
I did declare my medical conditions on medical form.
Hi karen, i work in a care home so would offer the following observations which might help ( ooh, that sounded a bit formal didn’t it, wasn’t meant to!!) As far as lifting/ moving residents goes, most homes have a minimal lifting policy which basically means you shouldn’t be man handling residents, all lifting should be done with hoists. POVA guidelines should mean you do paired working so you shouldn’t have to do stuff you cant. I would have thought the main risk might come if you are working with dementia type patients who could scratch or kick out, but that depends on the care group your home has. It is a lot of walking up and down which may impact on your knees, but most care assisstants are a friendly bunch and if your manager is aware of any issues you have, they should be able to compensate for this. it is hugely rewarding though, and on a good day you come away feeling like you have really made a difference to someones day.
On the not so good side, pay is pretty poor on the whole, and although i work for one of the biggest care providers inn the country they only pay SSP so this might be worth checking out,
Hope this helps, take care,
PS, i’m on here as i’ve just been diagnosed.
Thank you for your reply.
Sorry to hear you too have joined this horrible club.
Some of the residents do suffer from Dementia. The pay is actually better than what I am now, which is NMW plus an extra 10p an hour for being NVQ3 qualifed!!! and sick pay is only SSP.
The company is quite a big care provider, I’m still contemplating lol .
Not Barchester by any chance? Glad to know u r returning to work - there is an end to all this then. I’m right at the start of treatment and i can’t imagine anything ever being normal again!
Take care, herbi
No…Order of St Johns Care Trust.
There is light at the end of the tunnel…eventually…but you’ll feel like its a long time before you see it.
I was dx in January 2004…returned to work in November of that year…though have reduced to part-time hours since rerurning.
As for things ever being normal again…I don’t think your life is ever what it was before dx…you definetly look at life differently after this. x