The Designated Assisted Living facility at the Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge is a world of its own: a closed facility with its own courtyard, living room and kitchen.
It鈥檚 attached to the Lodge and Seton Healthcare Centre, and 16 residents make their homes there, cared for by a small team of licensed practical nurses and healthcare aides.
On the morning of May 4, quiet harp music wafted through the living room, where most of the residents had gathered for music therapy. The healthcare workers running the facility bustled around, checking on patients in their rooms, or wheeling them through the halls.
Annemarie Pilgrim is the care manager for Acute and Designated Assisted Living with Alberta Health Services. Part of her job is to oversee the workers at the DAL facility, who she said are an integral part of healthcare in the town.
Five LPNs and six healthcare aides make up the core staff, and 11 other casual staff help them out. Because they鈥檙e not often as visible as other front-line medical professionals, Pilgrim said, these workers sometimes don鈥檛 get the recognition they deserve.
National Nurses Week, which runs from May 12鈥�18 this year, provides the perfect opportunity to provide that recognition.
鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of sad sometimes when perhaps people don鈥檛 recognize the work that they do, when they do such a good job,鈥� Pilgrim said.
And that job can be a very challenging one. It takes two workers and a special machine to help some patients out of bed, not to mention the hyper-close attention the workers must devote to the residents at all times, because an accident like a slip or fall is potentially fatal.
鈥淭hey know everything about each other, they鈥檙e just one big family,鈥� Pilgrim said. 鈥淎nd they do an excellent job.鈥�
A lot of residents require assistance with most aspects of their daily lives, and the healthcare workers are there 24 hours a day to provide that for them. They wake residents up in the morning, feed them their breakfast, help them bathe, nap, get into bed and even file their nails.
Few professionals have to deal with such frequent and condensed episodes of human joy and suffering as nurses, and because of that they have a knack for talking about the intimate and profound with a pragmatic matter-of-factness.
Melissa Rogers is no different. The LPN has been working at the DAL since 2011, and May 4 explained that working at a long-term assisted living facility means she gets to know her clients extremely well. From Monday to Sunday this week, she said, she will spend 60 hours with them.
This much close contact means Rogers and other workers at the DAL are connected to their patients in extraordinary ways.
鈥淵ou know your client: you can tell by a face if they need to go to the bathroom; you can tell by them sleeping if they have some kind of infection; you can tell by them walking if they have an injury,鈥� Rogers said, as if that kind of attunement to another human being wasn鈥檛 something short of magic.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e like your family. I can just look at someone, and be like, 鈥榦h yes, I have to get her a round of antibiotics today,鈥欌�� she said, adding that she also picks up on things not necessarily linked to medical issues, like a patient having a bad day.
The healthcare aides who work at the facility are no different.
Rosaio Landry has been one of those aides since 2005, and she said her favourite part of the job is getting to know the residents. Most of them are close to, or older than, 100 and Landry said she knows almost everything about their lives, their past and their families.
Her job, she said, is just as much about being a friend as it is about providing healthcare services, whether that means losing 20 games of cribbage in a row to a whip-smart resident, or helping someone find the motivation to take their daily bath.
鈥淪ometimes you have to encourage them also, because there鈥檚 times when they don鈥檛 want to do anything, and you have to help them want to,鈥� said Susan Sabellano, another healthcare aide.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a challenge, every day is a different day,鈥� Landry added. But, she said she approaches it with as much caring, love and understanding as she can, because she feels connected to her patients.
Rogers said she feels that connection as well, likening her job to 鈥渉aving 16 grandparents that can speak to you openly about whatever they want.
鈥淭here are some things grandparents won鈥檛 say to their grandchildren, but there鈥檚 nothing they won鈥檛 say to their nurse,鈥� she laughed.
Trevor Nichols
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