Staff writer
According to Joyce Ford, a licensed practical nurse at St. Luke Living Center, Marion, caring for residents goes beyond just providing for their medical needs. She sees herself as part of a team that strives to make residents feel at home.
“I work for them,” she said. “This is their home and they should do what they want. I think it is an honor to take care of someone who is placed in the nursing home. I try to treat them as if they were my mom or dad.”
She said nurse aides are her eyes and ears. They bring residents’ concerns to her.
Her time as the nurse in charge on the floor Monday began at 6 a.m. She reviewed reports of issues that arose during the past 24 hours. She checked residents’ charts to see which ones were flagged to indicate critical issues that needed immediate attention and acted accordingly.
After helping an aide move a resident from his bed to his wheel chair, she spent the next two hours, from 7 to 9 a.m., dispensing medications and supplements. She was especially busy because the medic who was scheduled to share those duties was sick.
She dispensed the pills from a large medicine cabinet on wheels, placing them in little plastic cups and distributing them to residents as they were eating breakfast in the dining room. Some residents received the medications in their rooms.
As she carried out her responsibilities, Ford took the time to speak with residents and listen to their comments.
She gave a few insulin injections to diabetics, doing so while visiting cheerfully with them.
Her passion for the job really showed itself in the next few hours, in which she flitted from one hall to another, doing a multitude of things. These included taking a resident to the bathroom, explaining a doctor’s appointment to another, and making a resident’s bed.
“I don’t want other workers to think I’m too good to do certain things,” Ford said.
She paid special attention to a resident who had been failing for a week and was not eating. After taking his temperature and checking his lungs, she went to the hospital kitchen to find something that he might like.
He could not eat, but she talked to him, rubbed his back, and got assistance in changing his position. She returned to his room several times throughout the morning.
Another resident had a bandaged hand that she unwrapped and treated before rewrapping it.
She checked blood sugar levels on a resident who recently had received a change in her insulin.
Ford praised Janet Herzet, the director of aging services, for being supportive. She said she interacts with employees, listens, and acts.
Just then, Herzet came down the hall and showed her support. “Do you need anything?” she asked.
By then, Ford was due for a 15-minute break. She went home, a block from the living center, but was back in 10 minutes. She said she thought of something she needed to do. She said she sometimes calls to the living center in the evening if she thinks she may have forgotten something while on duty.
Henry the dog was brought into the nursing home. He roamed the halls for an hour, always looking for a pat on the head.
As Ford passed one resident in a wheelchair in the hall, she asked, “Do you need something? Do you want to sit in a recliner?”
When the woman indicated she did, Ford and an assistant helped her into one.
“Can you do something for me?” someone else asked. Ford asked what she wanted and granted her request.
At 10:20 a.m., another nurse arrived to help Ford. They consulted for several minutes.
Ford then greeted visitors, updating them on their relative’s condition. She sat down to write orders for prescriptions and update residents’ charts. She made a trip to the nurses’ station for a pain patch and delivered the prescription orders to Dr. Hodson at Marion Family Physicians Clinic.
At 11:30 a.m., Ford again dispensed medications, but not as many as in the morning. She also helped deliver food trays to people in the dining room.
Ford then received delivery of a pain medication she had ordered. She struggled to open the bottle and unwrap the syringe that came with it. “Sometimes it seems this is my hardest job,” she said.
She delivered the injectable pain medication to a resident, who soon visibly relaxed and stretched out on his back. She spoke to him soothingly and stroked his back until he stopped his restless movements.
At 12:30 p.m., Ford finally was able to take a lunch break. She was planning to go home.
“I may get 30 minutes or I may not,” she said.
Her day was scheduled to end at 2 p.m.
Residents obviously appreciated Ford.
“She is a jewel,” O’Linda Meier said. She related an incident when Ford went beyond her normal duties to help her find a way out of a locked car.
“She gets it done,” John Hett said. “She doesn’t mess around.”
Ford’s career began as a “candy striper” under the nuns who operated St. Luke Hospital. She obtained a nursing license in 1976 and worked first in a hospital, then in a clinic, before coming to the living center. She spends several days a week in an office as a Resident Care Manager. One change she has noticed is the increase in paperwork.
When she started nursing, she said, she could just be a nurse and take care of people. Now, all the required paperwork takes away from the time a nurse spends with a person, she said.
Ford not only ministers to residents, she also interacts with their families. She said it is important to reassure them and listen to their concerns. Sometimes they need a touch or a hug, she said.
Through the years, Ford has often been at the bedside of a dying resident. She said she has learned that hearing is the last thing to go, and the person needs reassurance that those left behind will be all right.
“My goal for my day is to give the best care I can and to leave here at the end of the day knowing I did that,” she said. “If I know that, I feel good.”