7:40pm August 2, 2014

When you’re in a nursing home

And you keep asking for your pain meds, and hear others asking for their pain meds, and you have to wait for what feels like hours. This can feel like torture. A friend who works at a different nursing home (private pay though) says folks are treated better where she works - time of day may matter, I don’t know? It’s been over an hour though - aha, four call lights later, they are here with my meds (they would just answer, say ok, and not reply earlier. Maybe I wasn’t due yet but they could tell me that instead of just making me wait).

Course the pain makes if feel like hours and it may not actually be that bad but it feels like a pattern. And yeah I am nice to the CNAs and nurses - not rude and don’t complain and do try to always have empathy for them. But it can feel disrespectful and ableist of them. So I wonder if this is a pattern/because they are overworked & ridiculously underpaid. I want to make it clear I do empathize because here in RI CNAs get minimum wage and not much respect.

It’s funny how I jump to make that clear though…

And it’s not just here. It happens at the ER a lot too, inpatient at hospitals. Maybe private pay gets treated differently? I used to be on my dad’s insurance… Anyway.

This is an area in which advocacy work could and should be done.