HW 30 - Illness & Dying - Culminating Experiential Project

My classmates and I decided to go to a nursing home to see what life there was like. The nursing home is Mary Manning Walsh on 72 Street. When we first go there, it reminded me when i went to go visit my great-aunt. It looks like a regular building maybe to make the elderly feel "comfortable" as if they are living normally but there aren't. Both nursing homes were very simliar. The fact that it looked like they had own their own apartment and go about their business any other day as if it wasn't a nursing home. It was as if the nurses weren't there and they only responded when assisstance was needed. Like as if, the old people live like did 20 years ago.

As we you go up more floors that "homing" feeling began to go away. We all looked at each other like "what the hell?". It smelled digusting. There was the smell of urine and all kinds of medications. Most of the patients look like they didn't enjoy being there and seemed depressed compared to all the pictures on the walls as walked. Lots of them where in wheelchairs and honestly i think they would probably want to die in their own home than be here. Why stick a whole bunch of depressed lifeless people in one building and make more sad, it just doesn't seem right.

It's funny because in cartoons and things, old people seem grumpy and don't ever want to talk to people because they are alone. The majority of the people there, you could tell do not get enough vistors. We talked to a two elderly people and it looked like they were enjoying the company. It was like a warm feeling inside they had which made me feel good as well. Going there kind of made think that i don't want to end up there or any of my family members because it's just not a good feeling. I want to be able to take care of my family especially my mom and dad till their very last day. It's easy to give the responsiblitiy to a stranger who gets paid to take care of old people.

I was reading an article and it talked about how the nurses don't really get to know that patients very well because they are always rotating.

Visitor: How’s my father doing today?
Aide: Which one is your father?

Or:
Visitor: Is my mother’s appetite better today?
Aide: I’m not sure; I wasn’t here yesterday.

Or:
Visitor: How’s my aunt getting along with her new roommate?
Aide: I’m sorry, I don’t know. I usually work on the third floor.

The nurses do not establish a relationship with their patients because there isn't enough of them. Its like a revolving door. It's always someone new each day. I wouldn't want someone taking care of my loved one and know nothing about them. I think these are the few reasons why dying/ill feel the way they do. "Nearly 43 percent of nursing homes have signed on to the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Home campaign, which began four years ago. Yet Dr. Mary Jane Koren, the geriatrician who is leading the campaign, estimates that only a quarter of homes practice consistent assignment on weekdays and perhaps only 10 percent for all shifts on all days." They should be able to have that "homing" feeling while they are "guests" just as people do in hotels.

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/getting-to-know-you/?ref=nursinghomes