Today has been much better than I expected – and certainly better than yesterday. The residents’ conditions seem to have stabilized, and some even seem to be improving. For example, Evon, the man who lost his wife yesterday, is getting out of bed and walking by himself into the residential activity hall for meals again. Gennadiy took one man to the hospital for chest X-rays, and the hospital kept him in-patient for further treatment and observation. Gennadiy also brought back another batch of medications.
Yesterday I again started the morning before Yevhenia arrived by checking quickly to see which bed-ridden residents needed to have their diapers changed before breakfast. I found two residents with leaky diapers. But because of all the ill residents, when Evhenia arrived she was too busy checking temperatures and other “vital signs” to help me change diapers. So a few residents ended up eating breakfast in wet diapers. Yevhenia got completely fed up with me too, for harping about it, and she shunned me for the rest of the day. I made a point of apologizing before she left at the end of the day.
Also, I didn’t bother to check for wet diapers this morning because I knew even if I found one, I wouldn’t dare tell Yevhenia about it (and, because of the language barrier between me and the residents, I’m not ready to change diapers by myself yet).
Yevhenia was still angry this morning, so I was careful not to get underfoot. After I worked diligently for a couple of hours without bothering her, I think she realized I had gotten the message, and she resumed responding when I spoke to her. By noon, things were OK between us again.
Chatting for a few minutes during her short lunch break, she explained that before the refugee exodus ensuing from the Russian invasion last year, the nursing home had quite a few more employees. But since so many people have left the country, there is now a labor shortage, and the nursing home can’t afford to hire enough help. This explains why a single nurse is not only responsible for monitoring the health of all the residents, but also for changing diapers and soiled bedding, giving bed-baths, sweeping and mop floors, and washing and hang-drying all the laundry. Incredible! She’s tasked with the work of three or four people.
Clearly, it’s important for me, as an outsider, to be very respectful of settled practices and workflows and be careful to “fly in formation”, because there are a lot of conflicting factors I don’t understand, or may not even be aware of.
If any readers are nurses or are in nursing school and are interested in spending a few months volunteering here, please feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected]. If any readers are interested in contributing cash to defray some of the related expenses and facilitate such volunteer work in Ukraine, please feel free to look at the RAYA community page for more details.