My Caregiver Trainee Experiences

 (Related News about the word  "Trainee Caregiver" )

1. I have read a related news before, and I hope you also read during the lesson. 
2. Please go to the web site:  News De Eikaiwa. (please click the title.) 
3. The news was broadcasted in Japan, and I use this website for my daily English practices.   
4. In the news, they used the term, "Trainee Caregiver" instead of "Caregiver Trainee." 
5. In the Philippines, do you use the word "Caregiver Trainee" more frequently?
6. I thought your suggestion "Caregiver Trainee" sounds more natural English than the news.
7. The comparison of the licence "Caregiver" and "Caregiver trainee."
8. In Japan, we need three years experience as a caregiver trainee before we are entitled to take the examination to become a caregiver.
9. Japanese-licensed nurses can work in the elderly homes / home-for-the-aged as a nurse.
10. Indonesian and Filipino-licenced nurses may have an opportunity to come to Japan if they want to. 
11. But they have to work hard and they have to pass the caregiver exam within 4 years.
12. If they fail, they must go back to their countries.
13. The language barrier is the most difficult problem in the national test for them. 

(My experience)

  I wrote these sentences very recently to reminisce my caregiver trainee experiences from Aug. 2012 to May 2013, but due to the hard work, I was hospitalized in May, even though I disapproved it.  I followed the doctor’s advice; I quit the work last May.  I am writing this to practice English, and to send to my American friend who is a nurse.

 

1. I worked as an office clerk at different import-and-export businesses in Tokyo. (correct)
2. I often visited foreign embassies in Tokyo to hand in necessary documents regarding the businesses. (correct)
3. At the age of 40, I married and my husband is currently a local high school teacher in Himeji city. 
4. I depend on him financially.
5. I live in Himeji which is a countryside and as far as I have seen, there are not many import-and-export businesses here.
6. I considered working as an employee in Osaka where there are many import-and-export businesses.  It is also the largest city in Kansai area.
7. However, it is far from my place because it takes 2 hours to go to Osaka.
8. So I decided two years ago to take caregiver classes and get a license as a caregiver trainee for senior citizens in Japan.
9. With the licence, I would be able to visit individual homes where elderly people live to work as a caregiver trainee.
10. The job is demanding because here in Japan life expectancy is getting longer and the number of senior citizens are growing rapidly.
11. Everywhere in Japan, we can easily find employment as a caregiver trainee.
12. I found a job opening in the newspaper for an elderly home in my neighborhood, I made an appointment on the phone and went there for a job interview.
13. A male and a female manager were expecting me, and they interviewed me for about 15 minutes. 
14. During the interview, they asked me if had a trainee licence, and some experience at the elderly home.  I told them I have a licence.   
15. I was willing to take care of the elderly in order to give back to them for taking care of our area before.
16. In addition to taking care of our area, they also maintained our tradition like the famous festival of "Nada Fighting Festival". It is a two-day event held in October in my neighborhood and it has been celebrated every year since 1345 or 1352.

                                          Picture No.1
　　　　　

1. The picture above shows the festival "Nada Fighting Festival."  
2. Only men can participate in the event / festival.
3. There used to be as many as 8 villages in this area and each village has one "Yatai" or portable shrine.
4. The villages are now towns, which is more populated, but each town still has one "Yatai."  
5. The main event of the festival is men carrying the "Yatai" on their shoulders, then colliding them with other "Yatai."
6. Could you please find the appropriate word for "clash," "crash" or "fight" from  the video (length: 1 minute and half) on youtube.  (the appropriate word: collide)
7. After asking me about the experience, they explained the structure of the elderly home.
8. There were 29 beds for residents who suffer from Alzheimer's disease and another 10 beds for temporary users.
9. There were 4 units in their 3-floor building. 
10. The first floor has only one unit which contains 10 private rooms for "short stay" users. 
11. They stay there temporarily for reasons like their family is on a vacation elsewhere.
12. Younger family members want to enjoy their vacation sometimes without taking care of their elderly parents.  
13. On the other hand, they worry about leaving them home alone. 
14. There's a chance that an accident might happen.
15. In that case, they may use the local elderly home temporarily.
16. People who use the first floor are generally younger and physically stronger compared to the residents in the 2nd and 3rd floors.

                                        Picture No.2

                                  

  

1. The illustration above shows the unit in the 1st floor.
2. The first floor also has an office for nurses where medical equipments and medicines are stored, and offices for the employers and employees (presidents, managers, and care givers, etc.)
3. There are two kinds of units on the second floor.
4. The second floor has two units.
5. Designs and sizes of the units are almost the same.  
6. But one has 10 private rooms, and the other, 9 private rooms.
7. The residents can stay there for as long as they want to.
8. The third floor has one unit for 10 people. 
9. There is a large bath so that wheel chaired people can easily use it with the help of caregivers.
10. The residents' condition are almost the same as the people on the second floor.  Most of them are in their 90s.
11. The male manager gave me a tour showing each sections of the building for about 15 minutes.
12. We finished the meeting but before we separated, he said, he would contact me after his discussion with other managers and presidents.
13. They have two presidents.  The couple runs several care-giving related businesses.  The husband's role is the head of their group companies, and also the honorary president for the elderly home while the wife's role is the president of the elderly home. 
14. One day after the interview, I received a phone call from the office telling me they were willing to hire me.    I was very glad to hear that. 
15. The next week, on my first day of work, I was assigned to work at a unit on the 2nd floor. 
16. There is a woman who is 100 years old.  
17. She cannot communicate very well since she has Alzheimer's.  She is always confused. 
18. According to her daughter, her mother used to be a restaurant owner whose specialty were  egg dishes, but they closed the business decades ago.   
19. She was always concerned about making money as a restaurateur before and that is why she would often ask us, the caregivers,  "How many customers are coming to our restaurant today?" 
20.  --
21. Lesson feedback on Sept. 21
22. affect ..... If a disease affects someone, it causes them to become ill. (=afflict) 
23. effect ..... If you effect something that you are trying to achieve, you succeed in causing it to happen.

                                   Picture No.3
                               

　
                                   "Kusudama" - a kind of Origami

1. There was another woman, aged 94, likes to enjoy making Kusudama in bed, one of the Japanese "Origami" crafts. 
2. She is so special as she has no Alzheimer's disease, so we are able to communicate very well.
3. She cannot walk because of her age, but she can drive her wheelchair by herself and go everywhere in the elderly home. 
4. Once I asked her why not go to the living room, and sit in front of the table to make Kusudama, but she said staying bed is comfortable.
5. Every time I went into her room in the morning, I would greet her "Hello.  How are you?" 
6. One day, she smiled and showed me the kusudama.  She said, "I made this yesterday."    She  lied down on her a bed mostly alone, so she was glad to have a visitor. 
7. Her daughter who is working, visits her only once a week for as long as one hour.  I sometimes worked overtime as a volunteer.  As overtime working is unpaid, so I used the words "a volunteer."
8. I like Origami, too, and we enjoyed making kusudama together.
9. My main work was taking their body temperature, blood pressure, and oxygen in the morning, and reporting the data to the nurses.  If there are some concerns about their condition such as someone may be suffering from a cold, cough, or itchiness, I also reported it to the nurses. 
10. I also cleaned their private rooms with vacuum cleaner, prepared their meal, took them go to the toilet, or changed their diapers, or help them take their bath. 
11. Even though I worked as a part-timer, I was very busy.  I often worked 30 minutes overtime.
12. A regular caregiver has to work for about 8 hours a day.  However, they sometimes work for 12 hours and that means an additional of 4 hours overtime work which is unpaid.  This sometimes causes some health problems.
13. I thought I had to work overtime due to the needs of the elderlies, so as with the regular caregivers.
14. I also like to communicate with them even though some of them were not communicative due to (or because of) Alzheimer's.
15. ------------------------------------------------------
16. new vocabulary (I looked into the online dictionary "Cobuild"
17. communicative ..... Communicative means relating to the ability to communicate
18. conversant ..... If you are conversant with something, you are familiar with it and able to deal with it. 
19. Those in business are not, on the whole, conversant with bacis scientific principles.
20. ------------------------------------------------------
21. After 3 months of working, I was assigned unexpectedly in the first floor.   I felt blue ( or sad) because I already got use to communicating well with the elderies on the 2nd floor.  I didn't want to move to the 1st floor, but I had to.
22. At that time there were only 5 caregivers including myself (one male and four females) who were taking care of 10 elderlies in the first floor. All of us followed a shifting schedule and we see to it that our tasks will be finished in our respective shifts.
23. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24. Lesson feedback on Thursday, Sept. 26.
25. vocabulary
26. efficient (adjective)
    efficacy (noun)
    efficiency - effectiveness, efficiency
    a cinch (expression) - something that's easy to do
27. -----------------------------------------------------
28. Working Shift 
29. Morning Shift  8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
30. Lunch Shift    12:00 a.m (Noon) to 10:00 p.m. 
31. Night Shift     10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.  (2 hours of sleep included.)
32. --------------------------------------------------------
33. 5 caregivers take turns  (e.g. one day -----> the following day)
34. A san (caregiver)    Morning shift -----> Lunch Shift
35. B san (caregiver)    Morning shiftt ----> Morning shift 
36. C san (caregiver)    Night shift ---->  Holiday
37. D san (caregiver)    Lunch shift ----> Night shift
38. Myself (caregiver)  9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ----> 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.    
39. ---------------------------------------------------------
40. Morning Duties  (There are 10 rooms in our unit, but sometimes we have empty rooms.)
41. In every shift, taking vital signs (body temperature, blood pressure, oxygen saturation) is significant.
42. Welcoming the new comers in our unit.  (As we are the unit for elderlies who stay for a short time. They stay with us only from one night to a few months while their family members cannot take care of them because they are scheduled to have their holiday such as going to their relatives' wedding who live far away from them or  family members became too sick to take care of their elderly fathers or mothers.)
43. Checking the newcomers' baggages as well as the clothes they are wearing upon their arrival.  (We need to have a consent from the elderlies before we check them because they sometimes shout on us by asking why do we do such a thing?)
44. We have many elderlies with Alzheimers. 
45. Their family members explain to their fathers or mothers at home why they want him or her to stay with our elderly home for a short while.  Some of them may say, "Yes, I understand." However, once they arrive at the elderly home, they show annoyance.
46. One of the most common reasons why children bring their aging parents to elderly homes is for their "convenience."
47. Writing down their belongings for a report.  Most of them bring things like one pair of blue trousers, two polo shirt (one in white, and the other grey color, three pieces towels, four  pieces of diapers, etc. 
48. Helping them take their baths.
49. Preparing their lunch & washing the dishes.
50. Changing their diapers in bed, or helping them go to toilet  because some of them do not remember the a toilet anymore.
51. Cleaning the unit with a vacuum cleaner, and washing the elderies' clothes.
52. --------------------------------------------------------------
53. Lunch Duties
54. Inputting elderlies' data into PC including blood pressure, and how many times of changing diapers, and others.
55. Taking out the dried clothes from the laundry machine, and and returning them to each elderlies.
56. Asking elderlies to do recreational activities for for their rehabilitation.
57. Preparing some snacks and coffee at 3:00 p.m.
58. Performing checking out duties for some visitors.  Some of them go back home, so we check their stuff using the report we made earlier to be sure that  all of their belongings are in their baggage.
59. Cleaning the private room after the elderlies have checked out.
60. Preparing supper
61. Washing dishes   
62. -------------------------------------------------------------
63. Night Duties
64. Checking on the elderlies regularly because some of them need assistance even in the middle of the night.
65. Some of them try to escape through their room's window, some shout while others need diaper change.
66. We check them regularly.
67. --------------------------------------------------------------
68. Lesson feedback Friday, Sept. 26.
69. a cinch - something that's easy to do
70. up the wall - very upset
    pulse oximeter
71. http://www.daviddarling.info/images/pulse_oximeter.jpg
72. ------------------------------------------------------------------
73. One example from my experience was helping M-san take a bath.  She is in her 80s.
74. Compared with other elderlies, she is relatively stronger.  She can walk by herself, but shows signs of Alzheimer's. 
75. When it comes to myself, taking a bath is a cinch.  I can take a bath within 10 minutes if I am in a hurry.  But I worked as a caregiver trainee in the elderly home,  it took much time for the procedure to avoid accidents from happening.  One example is the following.
76. One hour after breakfast, I saw M-san coloring picture in the living room.  
77. I told her,  "You seem to be enjoying coloring the picture, M-san!  Wow!  Your choices of colors are fantastic!  How nice!" 
78. M-san answered, "No.  I am not good at coloring pictures."  But she smiled after hearing my words.  Then I asked her, "Sorry for the interruption, but I would like to help you take a bath now.  Will that be okay?" 
79. She said, "Sure." Then I said, "I would be glad if you please go into your private room and get some clothes, so that you can change clothes after the bath.  Please put them in this basket and come back here." 
80. Then she answered, "Yes, I will." 
81. She took the basket and went into her private room.  Five minutes later she came back to me with the basket filled with her pajamas.  
82. I said to her, "Ohhhh... you put in your pajamas in the basket... but...it's still at 10:00 a.m.  I think it's too early to wear pajamas after the bath as you usually stay at the living room with another elderlies, some of them are gentlemen.  So, could you please go back to your private room and put the pajamas back in your drawer, and get some another clothes, and come back to the living room??"
83. M-san said, "Then, please go with me, Kay-san.  I would like you to help choose which clothes I should wear after the bath???"
84. "All right.  Then I will go with you!"
85. Then I selected a shirt and a pair of trousers, socks, and the underwear for her.
86. Then we went to the bath room.
87. "Could you please take your clothes off, M-san." 
88. M-san sat down on a chair and took her clothes off.  M-san said, "Sorry that I have been asking you for help me everything...," while taking her clothes off slowly due to her age.
89. I helped her wash her hair with the shampoo, and washed her back with liquid soap, and she took a bathtub for about 10 minutes or so.
90. I watched her all the way through taking the bathtub in case she stumbles or an accident might happen.
91. After the bath, I helped her put an ointment on her back because she has been suffering from itchiness.
92. I am one of the caregiver trainees who was taught to act this way.  If we had offered every help from the beginning, he or her loses their ability quite easily.   Caregivers always try to be patient and watch elderlies to do their activity by their own to maintain their ability. 
93. ------------------------------------------------
94. In January, W-san, who is also a caregiver trainee at the same age as myself, made a big mistake.  
95. It happened when we, 3 caregivers (W-san, H-san, and myself) were working for 10 erderlies in the unit.
96. H-san, another caregiver, was just finished her assignment, which was having users take their bath at 11:00. 
97. In the elderly home, the bath time is strictly limited to 9:30-11:00 in the morning, or in the afternoon 1:00-2:30p.m.   She was in a hurry to help them their bath.
98. She was all wet, and asked us if she could change her clothes in the locker right away.  I said why not, otherwise she could catch a cold.  She rushed to the employee's locker to change her clothes.
99. It was around 11:10 a.m. as I was busy with preparing their lunch when W-san, who tried to move one elderly woman.  
100. E-san has been her right-side paralyzed and also Alzheimer's, 
101. W-san asked her up for lunch time, and tried to move her from bed to wheel chair. 

                   The following blue letters were already corrected by M sensei.
          
Please view the 1 minute example video on how to move an elderly person from the bed to the chair by YouTube.   The process  

As you can see in the video, the caregiver places her right arm between the neck and the shoulder while the left arm is below the shoulder on the waistline. That is how we transfer an elderly from the bed to the wheelchair.

One time at the elderly home, one of my colleagues, W-san, was too hasty in doing the procedure so it was unsuccessful. She placed both her arms on E-san's waist and it was unstable so she slipped and fell by accident. E-san also fell and hit her forehead on the drawer beside her.  W-san was terrified and called me, "Please come!  I made a terrible mistake." I called a nurse immediately. She came and checked for injuries from head to toe.

E-san, the elderly lady, was bleeding on the forehead that the nurse needed to use a gauze to stop it.  She kept on changing the soaked gauze for some time, but the bleeding didn't stop. The nurse then called her supervisor and after a few minutes, they decided to call an ambulance.

Five minutes later, the ambulance arrived with three emergency medical team  (EMT) members. They carefully positioned E-san on the stretcher.  W-san, the caregiver trainee, and one office manager left for the hospital together with E-san on the ambulance.

W-san was back from the hospital hours later and apologized to E-san's family as well as to the staff in the elderly home.  E-san was hospitalized for 2 weeks.

She wrote an incident report about the accident. The managers asked her to review and revise the document several times before submitting it to the city office. We also had a unit meeting wherein we talked about why the accident happened and how to avoid such in the future.

Here is another story.

At the end of February, two caregiver trainees in our unit quit their job. As a result the remaining caregiver trainees worked 24 hours per shift. The 2 caregiver trainees who left their work were hard workers, so I was afraid that we would have to work harder from March onwards. 

One of the two caregivers who left, was a team leader who worked as a caregiver for 20 years. As a beginner then, I had admired her great work and dedication as a caregiver.  In fact, I always sought her advice on how to do things in the workplace. There were times when I would be the only caregiver trainee in the unit  thus I would have to take care as many as 10 elderlies all at the same time.  Attending to two or three elderlies all at the same time in their toilet needs would just be impossible without compromising effective and quality health care. So, before she left, I asked her how we could possibly handle things being short-staffed. 

To my surprise, she gave an answer that changed my impression of her she said, “There are three toilets in our unit so you can use all of them at the same time.  You can help them simultaneously by starting with one, and starting the second while the first is seated on the toilet, and so on. As soon as you are done with maybe the third, it would be timely then to go back to the first, then to second and so on. "

I said, "I don't like to act that way!   Please imagine what can happen next.  While I am attending to someone, others might call me for emergency. Unable to go instantly because of a patient I may be attending to at the moment, the calling patient might stumble or fall to the floor while trying to help herself alone instead. This can lead to serious consequences – even death which I would be fully responsible of and answerable for. I can’t take things for granted.

Such was an expected situation and yes, I encountered it many times. I didn’t handle it though, as suggested by the leader then. Rather, I explained to the patients that we were short-staffed and advised them to do their thing with their diapers on for their safety’s sake.

Here is another story.

The male trainee, who became our new team leader had been over worked and stumbled in his home toilet at around 2:00 a.m.   He was lucky because he lived with his parents and one of them found him unconscious in the toilet bleeding from his head at around 5:00 a.m. At 8:30 a.m., his parent took him to the hospital, which opens at 9:00a.m.  They wanted to be treated ahead of all other patients as emergency. He was CT-scanned his, and fortunately no serious problem was found except a wound that was had seven stitches.   Our nurses advised him to take 4 or 5 days off due to the injury.

1. I worked hard from the beginning of employment, but I was even forced to work harder.
2. In early April, the new team leader asked me to take care of help as many as 6 people bathing within 90 minutes.  He said that I should do the task every once in two day.
3. The elderlies are ranging from the youngest in their 70s, and the oldest late in their 90s.  We must do them individually.
4. (Take a bath individually so that their naked cannot be seen to another elderlies.)
5. I thought the work I was assigned was too much for me.  (I am physically not so strong to hold them and have them take a bath.   Otherwise I am totally tired before preparing supper and housewife cores in my place,)     So, at the end of April, I handed in the retirement request to the president.  She was so surprised but accepted it.
6. W-san, who was as the same age as myself, also overworked and became physically bad condition, and often have her days off due to going to hospital to have intravenous drip.
7. I liked the job there, but in the middle of May, I felt a keen pain in my right side abdomen. 
8. I went to work, but I felt that with my keen abdomen pain, holding resident to move bed to wheel chair or wheel chair to bed was difficult. 
9. I worked only 4 hours five days a week.
10. I enjoyed working there, however, my physical condition gradually declined from the hard work.   Last May, I felt a keen and sudden pain on the right side of my abdomen .  I thought I could not perform the chair-to-bed transfer as a caregiver at that time, so I did not do it.   I felt sorry to my colleagues.
11. The next morning, I didn't work in the morning, my working hour was from 2:00 p.m. to 6 p.m. that after noon. 
12. I took advantage of the working schedule, I rushed to the hospital at 8:00 a.m. in the morning.  40-minute bicyle ride got me to the nearlist hospital.  Firstly, I talked to a physician, and his nurse took my body temperature and it was 38 degrees, measured my blood pressure and it was 150/78, took some of my blood.
13. Then he asked another doctor, a surgeon whose specialty is performing operations, asked for help, about my condition.  
14. I went to the surgeon's room and I had CT CT scanned, had my echo done.
15. I was diagnosed with ileocecal diverticulitis by the surgeon.   I was immediately hospitalized for a week. 
16. It was my first experience to be hospitalized and I was really shocked.  But the worst part was, I was told not to eat for 5 days by my surgeon.  I felt so hungry because I took nutrition only by drop infusion.
17. While I was in hospital, I had a lot of time to think about my work in the future.
18. I thought I liked the work as a caregiver trainee as I enjoyed talking to the elderlies, but I realized it's not good for me to work in the elderly home.
19. Caregiver trainee job in the elderly home required too much physical work.   There were some femele caregiver trainees in their 60s, but I thought they probably used to be the kind of people who participated as a team leaders' of mama's volleyball team.  I guess, only younger caregivers or such people can continue working longer periods.
20. As I am getting older, I experience pre-menopausal symptoms.  I have been going through the changes for the last five years.
21. I feel irritated about everything, so I go to a small clinic nearby run by a physician (a Japanese medical doctor who prescribes medicine) who practices and prescribes Chinese herbal medicines for these years.
22. He prescribes some herbal medicines to me, and I take them two times a day.  After 30 minutes or so, I feel relaxed and feel better.    Without medicines, I always feel tensed and irriated at everything and I cannot go to sleep. 
23. When I went to the clinic some months ago, I told him about my work at the elderly home. 
24. Since he knew my physical condition these years, he recommend that I do not do that kind of work.  It requires too much physical activity compared with my condition.  He says I need a good rest whenever I can.     He also says my nerves don't work very well.  I thought so, because of my experience when I was hospitalized in May.  I chose to go to hospital by bicycle even I had a temperature of 38 degrees and needed to be hospitalized then.  I was supposed to go to hospital by a taxi under those conditions when my husband attends to work. 
25. Since he knew my physical condition, he recommend that I do not do that kind of work.  It requires too much physical activity compared with my condition.  He says I need a good rest whenever I can. 
26. These days, I feel all right in the morning, but very dull and drowsy in the afternoon.
27. I take a nap after lunch, which sometimes takes as long as 2 hours.  Being a housewife, requires me to do many chores, but hardly finish them, so I feel sad sometimes. 
28. But I figured that my friends who are in the same generation with me also complain about the same things. 
29. So I am not the only one. 
30. I am thinking, maybe I can just choose the work that requires me to visit those individual elderlies who need caregivers' help in their own home.  
31. I imagine that I will go to one place and work in about one or one and half hours.  One in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Total working hours would be just 2 or 3 hours a day.