What I Do

Usually I have a pretty boring answer for the "What do you do as a CNA?" question that people ask.  I help them bathe, to get dressed to eat, to go to bed...every day things.  I've started to realize though that CNAs do much more than that.  We help people live their lives.  I literally remember everything about everyone that I possibly can to help them live their lives as normally as possible.  I remember things about them that I probably don't even know or remember about myself...I know where each resident's personal belongings are so that, when they forget where something is, I know where it is as if it were my own.  I know small little things like who's allergic to tomato seeds, who likes lots of lotion at bath time as opposed to who likes only a little lotion...what temperature to have the bath water...favorite colors...what side of the bed they get on...I can tell how people are feeling by the way they hold themselves up in their wheelchair and their attention spans.  With one resident I know that our conversation as I help her get ready for bed will focus on one of four topics:  how she named her daughter, why her daughter married a doctor, why she likes Bailey's when she goes to bed, or why she doesn't like beer.  I get to hear about who doesn't like who and what so-and-so said at suppertime.  I literally am helping people live their lives.  On one hand, this helps me understand why CNAs who have been working their job for so long get burnt out...living your life to live other peoples' lives for them makes you miss your own life, in a sense.  My whole job is all about making other people comfortable, to the point that I forget that I, too, sometimes need some comfort.  When one of the residents says I'm a hard worker, or that I look pretty that day, it reminds me why I do what I do...people are lovely.  People need love, I give it to them...that's what I do.