iSavta | 24.01.2021

As home care Caregivers, our training is limited and we oftentimes ask ourselves if we are really capable of doing the job.

 

When I first came to Israel to work as a caregiver, I was totally sure that my job is to take care of the elderly but the majority of it will be cleaning her toilet, cooking food for her, and doing the laundry. I was not really thinking about how I will change her diaper or lift her from bed or even how to bathe her. 

 

One of the things that influenced my conclusion on how my job will be are the stories of my fellow caregivers who were in Israel before me. Although we were trained to be home care caregivers before they send us to Israel, we were expecting the job to be more like a domestic helper rather than a caregiver.

 

Cleaning toilets, washing dishes, cooking, and doing the laundry is a walk in the park for us. For everyone grew up doing these things for sure. So confidence was not an issue if you think about it. There’s nothing there that we cannot do, we said.

 

Indeed, my first job was with an able patient with cancer. She was driving, cooking, showering on her own, and even went for a swim from time to time. And me, I was cleaning the carpet, cooking, doing laundry, and accompanying her to her appointments every day (including a bridge game session with friends). Easy right?

 

When she started to succumb to her illness, that’s when I questioned my confidence as a caregiver. I was more intimidated when I learned that one of her daughters is a retired chief nurse in one of the hospitals in Tel-Aviv. Oh boy! 

 

I started to regret the fact that I didn’t do well with Caregiving training back home when I had the chance. If only I took the “how to change the diaper correctly” and the “how to lift the patient from bed to wheelchair” lessons we had with our trainer. 

 

But then, the experience is the best teacher. After my first patient passed away, I was given a job in Tel-Aviv. It was with a woman who was confined to bed and wheelchair. Meaning, I have to do everything for her. I worked with her for more than a year until she also passed away. But during those months, I learned a hefty lot from that experience. That gave me the confidence boost I need to say that I am a full-fledged caregiver and not a domestic helper.

 

I realized that no matter how technically-lacked you are in terms of caregiving, as long as you have compassion and empathy, you will do your job right. You see, caregiving is not about how technically equipped you are or how much training you have. It is about loving your job and sincerely compassionate enough to do the job.

 

Caregiving will test your patient not your confidence or your knowledge. I learned from my 10 years of working as one that no matter how much you know about things and how to’s, it is still your heart that will dictate you what to do.

 

The way you change the diaper and the way you bathe your patient will depend on how much empathy you give to her. Always put yourself in your patient’s shoes. What will you feel when someone does this to you? What will be your reaction if someone just poured cold water on you without even thinking how you would feel. What will you say if someone fed you with cold porridge and let you sit there without a bath for two days?

 

You see, some caregivers know how to do things but they don’t do the right things. What is right is not always what’s written in the book or what’s being practiced for a long time. Sometimes, what is right is your capability to be kind and compassionate. When you have compassion, you will do everything you can to make your patient’s life comfortable and easy. That’s what you are called to do. That’s what caregivers do. That’s the way of the confident caregiver.