Personal Narrative: A Career As A Personal Care Assistant

As I entered my senior year of undergrad, I began looking for an opportunity to work with people requiring any form of health care assistance. Luckily, I came across an opening for a Personal Care Assistant (PCA) position in the school newspaper. At the time, I didn’t know exactly what a PCA was, but I knew I wanted to work one-on-one with patients, and this job would allow me to do exactly that. After I went through all the training that was required, it was finally time to meet my client. The only details my supervisor told me about my client were: his name, that I would be assisting in driving him around in his handicap accessible van, getting him dressed, monitoring him during his walking exercises, and that he was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy as a child and was bound to a wheelchair.

Confidentiality laws prohibit me from disclosing the name of my client, but for the sake of this essay, I will refer to him as GG. At first, our interactions were a little awkward, …show more content…
GG’s experiences were a bit different than the potential psychological issues that I knew I would likely experience as a Chiropractor. However, it made me realize that developing the skills to spot potential cases of psychosomatic pain or realizing that a patient is suffering from depression would give me an advantage over others in my profession.

I worked as a PCA for a little over a year, and I couldn’t possibly put into words all the lessons that I learned during that time. Prior to working with GG I knew that I wanted to enter the field of healthcare, but it wasn’t until afterwards that I knew I was capable of doing so. Moreover, it was a truly humbling experience, and I will utilize this knowledge in order to provide better care for my future