This is why I love being a caregiver!
What is volunteering? Volunteering, to me, is doing something nice for someone without asking for anything in return. It’s almost like the gift of a smile or two. It’s something amazing that only by doing it will we know what it feels like. At the end of a volunteer day, nothing can take off that feeling of accomplishment.
I’ve been thinking about volunteering for a long time now. Except for I’ve always been too busy with school and work. That and I just never really called anybody to see if they needed my help. When I was prompted with an outside project in this class that gave me the option to do the volunteer work I had always wanted to do, I was very tempted to do it from the very beginning. After I missed all the due dates for all of the other outside projects because of my schedule, I decided to pull through and actually go and volunteer. I work at Las Fuentes Resort Village-Assisted Living as a certified caregiver already, so I figure that would be the easiest place to do it since I know the residents and I know what their needs are. Plus, I put in my resignation and I was really motivated to do something nice for the residents that are unable to help themselves before I leave.
I was there at nine in the morning on my day off. On Monday, I had promised a couple that lives there that I would do their nails. As soon as I got to the facility, I automatically went to the couple’s room first. As I was doing both of their nails, we had a very nice conversation about their son and other random things that when I’m on shift, we never really have time to talk about. We enjoyed having that conversation. When I finished clipping his nails, he was very happy that he didn’t have to deal with those long and uncomfortable nails anymore. The poor guy’s nails probably hadn’t been clipped in weeks. As for the wife, I finished with her nails and she was glowing! She couldn’t really see what they looked like because she can’t see very well but she could tell they were shiny. I told her she was beautiful and that her nails were going to be seen from space because of how shiny they were. She couldn’t take that big smile off her face.
I went to a little elderly lady’s room to do her nails as well. She is very sweet and very cute. Her nails are very fragile and they break very easily. She picked out a pink color for her nails. She is very quiet and doesn’t talk often unless she needs something, but by doing her nails we had the bonding time we never had. By the time I was finished, she was very happy with her nails and how nice they looked. She mentioned she didn’t even remember the last time she had her nails done so I knew I had made a difference. She even tried to pay me, but I told her that I did them out of the goodness of my heart and to not be surprised if I went back to do them again. I don’t remember her smiling at me so much since I’ve been working there.
Las Fuentes has a beautiful pond with real water lilies and huge orange, white, and mixed goldfish. I decided that would be the perfect place to take some residents that never get out of their room. I figured I would take each of them on a long walk around the facility. Then I would take them outside and end up at the pond before I took them back to their room. Every resident that I took to the pond was absolutely thrilled about the beauty of it. They all thanked me very much for taking time to take them outside because nobody ever does. All of their faces were glowing with joy and I could definitely tell that going out, even for an hour, really made their whole day. I know I made a difference and I really love the feeling. I would love to not have to work to be able to give them the time they need and deserve.
One of the most memorable things I did while volunteering was to take care of a dying resident. She is very ill and bed bound at this point. She is one of the residents that never complained while she was still healthier than she is now. She is very little and sweet and had the cutest scratchy voice. It was impossible to not like her. She has stopped eating and has been drinking very minimally. While I was taking care of her, I managed to get 20 ounces of water with thick-it down her. She’s always loved her cold water. Although, we did have an incident while I was there. One of the times I went to check on her I realized that her oxygen concentrator wasn’t working and she wasn’t getting oxygen. She was breathing very hard. If I wouldn’t have noticed, I’m sure she would have probably not made it a couple more hours. We fixed the concentrator and I continued to take care of her through the day. These are the things that make me realize I really am a good person.
The last thing I did while volunteering was reward the caregivers for their hard work by painting their nails. Sometimes we work so hard that we forget we are still women and we like to feel pretty too. They were all so happy that I took the time to do that. Our hands, because of all the hand washing, are not really that girly so a good color makes us feel better about ourselves.
Volunteering was a wonderful experience. I wish I had more time to do it. Now that I’ve done it once though, I feel more comfortable going out there is doing it again. More volunteering is definitely in my future. I will do my best to at least do it once a month. I would absolutely love to volunteer for Hospice with dying patients. I think it will be very rewarding, just like this experience. Words cannot explain how good I feel about myself.
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