Nurse Aide?

Author © Scott D. Zachary

       Anyone who knew me well prior to taking that intensive, five-month EMT course would have laughed in your face if you had told them that I am a licensed EMT. Why? Because my disdain for anything medical could not have been more comprehensive. Furthermore, if you’d been able to convince them of this folly, they would’ve laughed even harder had you told them I would be anything less than the top of the class. My wife Bobbie often says, “You never do anything half-way, Scott. You always shoot for the stars.”

       Too, had you told them I would attend Nurse Aide school, you would have lost all inklings of credibility. But, sure enough, I did! And it was one of the most enjoyable and most satisfying experiences of my entire life, especially caring for the elderly, as well as the mentally and physically disabled patients, during the clinical (practical training) portion of our curriculum.

       My whole reason for taking these courses was to prepare for going on Christian medical missions of which I knew absolutely nothing—Zilch! What I did know was that an inner voice had been nudging me, then needling me, and finally goading me to become a registered nurse in preparation for becoming a medical missionary. Rebecca, a good friend and nurse aide who lived next door to me in Louisville, suggested I begin with EMT school, saying it would be excellent practical training for working with patients in remote areas. I did, and then she suggested nurse aide training since that’s required by most registered nursing schools nowadays. So here I am, a 55-year-old man, dressed in my purple medical scrubs, sitting in a nurse aide class.

       I also lassoed Ryan Shannon, an EMT classmate, into joining me in this endeavor. It took a bit of wrangling, but I finally convinced Ryan to take the class by telling him that if he was competing for an EMT position against someone with similar qualifications, Nurse Aide Certification could put him over the top. I’m glad Ryan did sign up because he is perhaps the most likable fellow I’ve ever met. It’s a joy to be around him—he always sees a humorous angle on everything.

       The Right Choice Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) training instructor Don Rucker stood at the podium, introduced himself, and described his decades of experience training nurse aides. I knew I was going to enjoy the course when I realized that Don was the most eloquent instructor I’d ever heard.

       Each of us students described our backgrounds and explained why we were attending Nurse Aide school. Don had never had a licensed EMT in his classes, much less two of them. He was excited about the prospect of hearing mine and Ryan’s perspective as EMTs on the many nursing procedures he’d be teaching us.

       Even at 55, I wasn’t the oldest student. Bob, who worked at the Louisville Courthouse, was nearing retirement and looking for something productive to do in his free time. He planned to volunteer as a CNA after he retired. Bob was 65.

       All the other students were women ranging from about 18 to 30 years old. One young Filipino girl captured my admiration with her zealous efforts to triumph despite her minimal knowledge of the English language.

       Classes began every Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 a.m. and ended at 5:00 p.m. for six weeks. The first five weekends consisted of intensive classroom instruction combined with practical nursing skills training. Our instructor, Don Rucker, took a dry curriculum and made it fun with his mixed bag of stories. He had a tale for everything—often funny, sometimes sad, and other times factual, but never dull. Don had a passion for teaching nurse aides, and it showed clearly in his presentation. It was an absolute pleasure listening to him.

       Echoing our lead EMT instructor Kathy Dorman’s admonition, Don stressed, “Document, document, document. If you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen.”

       We covered a lot of material in five weekends, including patients’ rights, proper use of fire extinguishers, nutrition and fluids, anatomy, prevention of pressure ulcers (bed sores), nervous system and musculoskeletal disorders, care after joint replacement surgery, respiratory disorders, CPR, digestive and endocrine disorders, administering enemas, urinary and reproductive disorders, intravenous therapy, types of pain, mental health problems, communicating with patients that have diminished cognitive abilities, the stages of dying, quality of life, and much, much more.

       Skills evaluation was a breeze compared to that of EMT school. Each of the skills had no more than six or seven fixed steps compared to the dozens of variable steps in EMT skills. Not being timed like we were on the EMT skills eliminated a lot of the stress. Many of the skills involved methods for safely maneuvering immobile patients, such as how to use a gait belt to transfer patients from their bed into a wheelchair and moving patients from their wheelchair onto a toilet. Most of the other skills involved helping residents with their daily hygiene and grooming; feeding patients; measuring vital signs such as blood pressure, temperature, intake and output, and glucose; gathering specimens for medical analysis; dressing/undressing patients; and assisting them with exercises such as range-of-motion techniques. I think the trickiest skill was changing the bedding with the patient still in the bed.

       Ryan and I were in close competition for top student among all the students throughout the classroom portion of our training. After receiving our final test scores, Ryan grinned confidently as he showed me his calculations. He was one point up on me when totaling the points from all the exams. What Ryan didn’t consider was that I had higher scores overall on the exams that had fewer questions which made my average percentage higher. Ryan’s forehead wrinkled with disgust at my revelation. Since he was gracious enough to attend the class with me, I should’ve kept quiet and congratulated him. But my usual generous nature doesn’t extend to academic competition.

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       Our Nurse Aide class performed for clinical evaluation in The Forum at Brookside, a five-star continuous care retirement community in Louisville. I’d visited numerous nursing homes throughout my life, but none compared to this one. Their facility was spacious and elegant. They were well-staffed even without our class assisting them.

       Ryan and I spent most of the first morning assisting the residents with their daily showers. Some needed to steady themselves on a walker while we scrubbed them down. Others needed to be transferred to a bathing chair.

       The morning vanished. Every experience was brand-new.

       As I wheeled one of the elderly ladies to her table in the dining room, an RN called me over and asked me if I could take Fred, a wheelchair-bound patient, to use the toilet for a bowel movement. “Sure!” I said. I wasn’t quite as sure as my enthusiastic response proclaimed, but I gave it my all. At least Fred was able to stand while I pulled his pants down. He did his business, and I cleaned him up good afterward. There is nothing more humbling than wiping another man’s butt. I could not forget this experience even if I tried. I think the nurses were impressed with my enthusiasm for performing such a crappy task.

       I spoon-fed Miss Gertie during lunch. After she finished her dessert, I began asking her questions about her past. She was initially reticent, but I kept asking and asking her more and more questions. Certain memories are branded into one’s mind and don’t need refreshing. I’ve learned, though, through writing 45 of these stories so far, if you don’t refresh your memories, you will lose them.

       Miss Gertie began to spread the fabric of her past. We journeyed to her bluegrass pastures, the two of us delving into her life’s failures and successes. Miss Gertie’s sparkle for raising and training horses on her ranch won my heart.

       I felt a tap on my shoulder, turned, and the administrator said, “I think you can take Gertie back to her room now, Scott.” When we began chatting, the dining room was full of people. I looked around the cafeteria; it was empty except for the three of us. As I settled Miss Gertie into her room, it was clear that my fascination with her life had rejuvenated her.

       That afternoon, the head nurse instructed the trainees to pair up with one of the nurse aides on staff. I quickly latched onto Cherie who had displayed an exceptional fondness for the residents. She truly loved her job. We attended to a young girl who had muscular dystrophy. Isabelle couldn’t move; she communicated with her beautiful smile. Upon seeing Cherie, Isabelle beamed. Watching and helping Cherie give Isabelle a sponge bath, I could see why Isabelle smiled so grandly. Cherie loved the patients and enjoyed caring for them. I delighted in chatting with the folks as we went from room to room performing whatever tasks were needed. Cherie and I made a good team.

       Another school’s nurse aide trainees joined us on Sunday for the second day of our clinical evaluation. The nursing home was abundantly staffed. I recalled the mutually enjoyable experience I’d had chatting with Miss Gertie during lunch the previous day. That prompted me to wander around and visit with some of the residents I’d met on Saturday and dive into their lives with them. I loved hearing their life stories as much as they enjoyed sharing them!

       I remembered seeing a picture of B-17 bombers on the wall of one of the rooms, so I went to visit that gentleman. I knocked on Mr. Parker’s door and asked him if I could come in and talk about those pictures. When I told Mr. Parker that I had served in the Air Force, our souls meshed. He insisted that I call him Sam. I listened intently as he reveled back in time. Sam shared numerous adventures with me about his service in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II as a navigator aboard those B-17 bombers. Sam’s stories about their harrowing escapes from probable death were riveting. His eyes lit up when he described flying through the bursting anti-aircraft shells over Cologne, Germany. I perceived the same rejuvenation in Sam that I’d seen in Miss Gertie.

       Why can’t I rally myself to drop into some nursing home and chat with the old folks now? I made such a dramatic difference in the outlook of all the people I visited. Why?

       I walked back to the nurses’ station and stood together with two Cubans as we waited for the signal to begin taking residents into the dining room. That gave me an opportunity to practice my hard-earned Spanish. Lucerna, a doctor, and Antonio, a nurse, told me that their credentials were worthless in the United States and that they were starting their studies from the beginning. That made me appreciate having chosen computer science as my profession. I didn’t even need to recertify when I went to South Africa to work. Many professionals, such as doctors and nurses, are required to recertify in every state where they work. That would’ve been madness as I bounced around from Arkansas to Kentucky to Florida to Arkansas to Kentucky to Indiana. The one thing I understood clearly is that those Cubans were grateful to be here in the USA.

       After lunch, I responded to the call lights above patients’ doors to assist them. Scouting the hallways, I noticed that many of the residents were gathering in the dining room for bingo. I walked in and sat down next to Miss Nelly who looked like she might need some help. That was one of the most delightful things I’ve ever done! Her attention span was fleeting. She would get all tickled when I’d remind her to cover one of her numbers.

       When Miss Nelly got a bingo and didn’t realize it, I whispered in her ear, “Say ‘Bingo,’ Miss Nelly, say ‘Bingo!’ ”

       Nelly started waving her arms and hollering, “Bingo! Bingo! Bingo! Bingo! Bingo! Bingo!” What a delight! She was like a little girl full of joy at her birthday party. Miss Nelly hit bingo two more times with the same jubilation.

       After bingo, I asked Miss Olivia to go for a walk with me. She struggled a little with her walker and apologized. I encouraged her and assured her that I was in no hurry. We returned to Miss Olivia’s room, and she told me that she doesn’t often have such a nice young man courting her. I smiled.

       “Scott, there you are,” said the Nursing Home Administrator. “Your class is gathering in the dayroom for debriefing. Would you mind if I walk there with you?”

       “Not at all, ma’am.”

       We walked down a long, glassed-in breezeway. “I’ve been watching you, Scott, yesterday and today. You have a special talent with the elderly.”

       “I treat them the way I’d want to be treated. Besides, it’s fun!”

       “It shows. I think I can speak for many patients with whom you’ve befriended. We’d be honored to have you come to work for us, Scott.”

       “I would love to, ma’am, except that the Lord has called me to be a Christian medical missionary. Nurse Aide school is part of my training plan to prepare myself. First was EMT school. Next is Registered Nursing school. I’ve resigned my job as a systems analyst so that I can go to school full time. I hope they speak Spanish wherever the Lord sends me because I’ve sure put a lot of effort into learning it, too.”

       “I’m sure you’ll do well, Scott. Thank you for brightening our home.”

       My classmates were streaming into the dayroom when the owner of Right Choice CNA school offered me another job. I hated saying “No” again.

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       I asked our instructor for a letter of recommendation, which follows this story. I picked up the letter at Don Rucker’s office the following week.

       “You are the most eloquent instructor I’ve ever had,” I declared. “You made the class fun, Don.”

       “Thank you, Scott. You were an outstanding student. All of the nurses enjoyed working with you. Right Choice Training and Brookside rarely offer a job to a student upon graduation. You are the first to get an offer from both. You should be proud of that.”

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Right Choice

Health Care Training Institute

Training the health care providers of tomorrow

July 19, 2012

To Whom It May Concern:

       It is my pleasure to write a letter of recommendation on behalf of Scott Zachary. He completed his state-approved Nurse Aide Training Program at our facility on July 15, 2012. Scott was an excellent student. He was always prepared for class and demonstrated an excellent understanding of the material as evidenced by his insightful comments and questions.

       Scott received excellent reviews, both verbal and in writing, from his clinical supervisor as well as the staff at the facility (The Forum at Brookside). Scott demonstrated an in-depth understanding of what it means to be a true caregiver. Not only were his professional skills of caregiving well demonstrated, he also proved to be adept at interpersonal relations with elderly people who had a wide range of cognitive abilities.

       Scott is intelligent, intuitive and has a heart for health care. I can recommend him without reservation as an excellent candidate for any position available to him in the health care field.

       Should you have any questions, feel free to call me to personally discuss Scott.

Sincerely,

Don Rucker

Don Rucker

Co-Instructor

Right Choice Health Care Training Institute

NOTE: To protect the patients’ privacy, the names mentioned in this story are not their real names. Any that happen to be the same is luck of the draw.