After numerous days volunteering at Evergreen Gardens and Evergreen Meadows Assisted Living Facility. I have learned so much. I understand now, how much hard work it takes to look after the residents, but how much fun it is to get to know them and be able to grow a bond so close, that you can basically call them your family.
Whenever I volunteered there was always a new experience to have. I did things from cleaning the bathrooms, and making beds, to preparing the dinner table, and handing out food to the residents. That just showed me how much hard work the worker's at Evergreen Gardens and Evergreen Meadows do. They make sure that the resident's don't see the residency as a Assisted living facility, but as a home. Which, the caregivers so proudly made it seem like. I was very happy that I got the chance to become a part of that and experience what a great, but hardworking job, it is to do. In addition to helping the caregivers keep the facility nice, and clean, I also got the chance to meet the residents, and learn a lot about them and their life. The other volunteers and I would sit down and have conversations about our lives, and just get to know each other. It meant a lot to have the residents be able to open up and tell us stories about their personal life, and all of their accomplishments, hobbies, travels, and families. |
Not only did I sit down and chat with the residents, but accompanied them in their activities of daily living. Such as, walks around the facility's garden, and playing some of the residents favorite board games. As well as, help them keep the house in festivity when important holidays came up. We decorated the facility with spooky, ghoulish Halloween decorations in October. Then, decorated the Christmas tree, and house in December, and most recently, set up cute little Easter stickers on the windows of the facility, and popped little decorations around the house in March.
Although I did a lot of activities with the residents, I also made time to incorporate the caretaker's of the facility. So, the other volunteers and I made an Alzheimer's Awareness PowerPoint and presented it to the Caretakers in order to give them a little more informational insight as to what Alzheimer's is and how the people in the patients life are affected because of it. The PowerPoint also included how to handle the Alzheimer's patient in a positive way, and how to learn to understand how the Alzheimer's patient might be feeling due to all of the confusion, and forgetfulness. The caretaker's really appreciated the time we took to put together this PowerPoint and present it to them, especially because a lot of the information we had included in our PowerPoint were things they had yet to know. Overall, my experience volunteering at Evergreen Gardens and Evergreen Meadows Assisted Living Facility was a very good one. I really enjoyed every second I was there, and would not take it back for a thing. It only helped push me to become what I want to be in life, which is a Registered Nurse. Although, as a Registered Nurse I wont have so much one on one time with people like the residents at the facility, but being a CNA or a caretaker is just a step in the process of my future career, and it has showed me that I can get to where I want to be I just have to work hard. Exactly how the caretakers at the facility do, I learned to appreciate the caretakers and what they do for the residents. Not only did I learn to appreciate the caretakers, but the elderly as well because they are so wise and comforting to be around. |