Dementia Student Research Paper

I currently work full time at a nursing home as a state-tested nurse aide. My job is to assist people who cannot care for themselves to perform basic care that is required on a daily basis. A few of my job duties include helping residents of this facility with bathing, getting dressed each morning, brushing their teeth, assisting them in eating their meals, and taking them to the restroom,. That is just a small amount of tasks I complete in during an exhausting 12-hour shift. In the medical field, this care is called activities of daily living, or ADL’s for short. I chose this job because I am studying to become a nurse, and I want to work in the field for which I am attending school in order to gain useful experience. I have had a full-time position on a locked dementia unit for three years. A locked unit means every door is locked and a five-digit code is required to unlock the door to leave. Only employees are allowed to have this code. This is for the safety of the residents since everyone who lives on this unit has a medical diagnosis of dementia. …show more content…
This building also includes a therapy unit for people who have had a recent surgery and need physical therapy during their recovery process, a unit for retired people who can no longer care for themselves at home alone, and a unit dedicated to people with a tracheostomy that require a ventilator to assist them in breathing. A tracheostomy is a surgical opening through the trachea. This is necessary for someone who is unable to maintain their own airway. The ventilator is connected to the tracheostomy which will then maintain a constant airflow for the patient to breathe. For the first time in my three years of employment at this facility I worked on the “vent” unit, as it is refer to it in the medical field. This unit is similar to an intensive care unit. Everyone who lives on this unit has a ventilator for one reason or another. Some temporary, others