Words of Wisdom from a Nursing Student: Marla Coyne, Freshman Nursing Student, University of Pennsylvania
Article Outline
Dr. Barbara Resnick, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP
I firmly believe, however, that seeing and experiencing the joys of geriatrics is the only way to convert new nurses, or those returning to nursing, to consider working with older adults in long-term care settings. These words of wisdom from a nursing student, Marla Coyne, at the University of Pennsylvania, reminded me yet again of the importance of exposure of nursing students to geriatrics and the world of long-term care.
Marla’s Summer Experience in Assisted Living
Whenever I had a job in the past, it was always working with little kids, either as a day-camp counselor or as a babysitter. Needless to say, I got pretty used to changing diapers, cleaning up spilled apple juice, and breaking up fights over whose turn it was to go down the slide. So when I started working at an assisted living facility last summer, I had no idea what to expect. My job title, “dietary aide,” didn’t explain much, and I wasn’t sure how to act around the residents. It would obviously be different from talking to 3-year-olds, so would I know what to say? Would I be awkward? Would they like me?
I went in my first day wondering about these things, but I immediately discovered that I would have to get used to a whole lot more than I thought. The cook pointed at me the second I walked in the door and said, “You dish!,” which I understood to be an abbreviated form of, “It’s nice to meet you. Today you’ll be washing dishes, so get ready to lift a lot of heavy trays in and out of the dishwasher and try not to accidentally spray yourself too much.” There wouldn’t have been time to say all of that, anyway, because we were all busy the entire time, and after 3 hours of washing load after load of dirty plates, glasses, and silverware, I came home soaked and exhausted. That was my first lesson about working at the assisted living—it’s not all easy work. Not only did I have to get used to the dish washing, I also had to remember what everyone wanted, running back and forth while carrying multiple plates of hot food, making sure everyone had what they needed, clearing and resetting the tables, mopping and vacuuming, taking out the garbage, doing the laundry—it took several days to master everything.
Although I did learn a lot of valuable lessons from all of those tasks, what was really important to me was the other lesson I learned—the one about interacting with the residents living in the facility. The first week or so, when I was still unsure about how to act, I just focused on learning everyone’s name, the premade conversation starter: “Hi, I’m Marla, I’m new working here. And you are
…?” Once they knew who I was, I found that I didn’t have to worry about knowing what to say; the residents talked to me. Sometimes they would complain: “The forks are wet!” “The grilled cheese is burnt!” “There’s not enough ice in my iced tea!” or “This place is a dump!” Sometimes they’d start on long-winded stories about how they used to work as a fireman or a teacher, or how they used to live in Vermont; maybe they would talk about their granddaughter’s upcoming ballet recital. They’d ask me questions about myself: what grade I’m in, where I want to go to college, what I do for fun. On multiple occasions, one of the residents would be in a nosy mood and, pointing to one of the male workers, ask, “Is he your boyfriend? He’s a very good looking young man, you know,” and I’d just smile and offer more orange juice.
Naturally, during the course of these conversations, I learned a lot about all of the residents. I learned their eating habits—who likes coffee and who likes tea, who likes their cake smothered in chocolate syrup and who likes it plain, who likes mayonnaise on their salads and who likes milk from the refrigerator instead of the creamers. I learned who to serve right away because they’ll get angry if they wait for more than 2 minutes and who to save until last because they’ll talk for at least 15 minutes. I even got a lot of good laughs, like when everyone kept hearing “deli sandwiches” as “jelly sandwiches” or when one man told me that his meal was so bad, I should “feed it to the cattle out back!”
Through all that, the main thing I took away from my work experience was that it’s not as hard as I thought connecting with different age groups. At times, working at the assisted living site wasn’t all that different from working at the summer camp—I still had to clean up spilled apple juice, and, although there was no slide to squabble over, I did have to break up fights over whose seat was whose! I learned that people—no matter what age—just like having someone to talk to, and that lesson will stay with me for the rest of my life.
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While Marla may or may not work as a nurse in the nursing home or assisted living setting, let’s hope she will carry her learned experience with her in all nursing encounters.
The many benefits of use of long-term care settings for clinical placements of students was supported in a recent survey reported in Nursing Education Today.1 The findings from this survey noted some of the benefits of long-term care clinical rotations: the nursing students were able to learn basic nursing skills, work with willing and helpful nursing home residents and staff, and develop positive attitudes toward aging. Unfortunately, the study also identified the lack of preceptors and role models as a major challenge to use of these sites for undergraduate clinical experiences. As someone who was adamant as an undergraduate that I wanted to do geriatric nursing I was able to convince my advisor to let me do my final semester of clinical work in a nursing home. I have no recall of any of the nurses I may have worked with; but I sure do remember many of the residents I cared for. I remember a resident with end-stage rheumatoid arthritis who scared me initially with her gruff and demanding ways as she ruled her world from her bed. This resident and I soon became partners in care, forever negotiating getting up and moving and me putting her back to bed. Despite the 30-plus years that have passed, I remember that this gruff, angry woman participated in planning a surprise party the residents had for me when I finished the semester and graduated! So those of you in education, let’s be flexible about preceptors—match nurse practitioners and staff nurses (regardless of degree) in these sites as preceptors and bring in more and more undergraduate students to show them the best that nursing can be!
Reference
PII: S0197-4572(07)00377-1
doi:10.1016/j.gerinurse.2007.11.003
© 2008 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
