Even after 26 years, I haven't gotten better at cutting nails
Hello, I'm KEN😃
I've been working in the nursing care field for 26 years.
I write about all sorts of things in this note, but
to be honest, there are many things I'm not good at.
I'm weak when it comes to blood.
I often encounter scenes involving bloodshed.
When I was young, I was even more timid and shy than I am now.
There were times when I felt sick
and had to leave the scene.
But now, perhaps out of habit,
I've become able to see scenes of bloodshed and perform first aid.
I think this is something I've managed to overcome.
However, there is still one thing I'm not good at.
Cutting nails.
Isn't cutting nails a fairly basic task in the nursing care field?
But frankly speaking, I'm not good at it.
Even after 26 years,
I still don't have confidence in cutting nails.
How many fingers have I injured so far?
How many incident reports have I written?
Because I'm not good at it, I end up succumbing to that sense of inadequacy.
I'm acting high and mighty again.
Being able to act high and mighty about things I can't do
is also
experience, I suppose.
Recently, presbyopia has been added to that.
I can't see things close up clearly.
Because I'm not good at it, I end up being timid.
Even so, when a user asks me, or
when I notice it myself, I do it properly.
I wrote about two incident reports last year.
I have confidence that I can write incident reports
better than anyone else.
Just kidding.
Even though I'm laughably bad at it,
'KEN-chan, please cut my nails'
if I'm asked,
I end up doing it.
Am I just too nice?
Is it because I have a personality where I can't ask others?
It's just that at my current workplace,
there's no one I can ask even if I wanted to,
so in the end, I have no choice but to do it myself.
I really don't want to do this.
While muttering that in my heart,
I'm facing nail cutting again today.
Newcomers
To me, having lived with something I'm not good at for 26 years, the sight of newcomers looks strangely dazzling.
It's April, and a new graduate has joined my facility as well.
She's a teenager, though she's in a different unit.
The other day, that newcomer was following
a male user with dementia around with all her might.
He has a somewhat large build, wanders a lot,
and has left the facility many times before.
She must have heard the precautions
from her seniors.
To the user trying to go outside,
she was desperately calling out,
'Please don't go outside.'
However, the user looked like he was about to get angry.
I was doing other work, so I was watching from a little distance away.
It's raining today.
He surely won't go outside.
His legs and hips are sturdy, so
it's fine to just watch over him while keeping some distance.
That's what I called out to the newcomer from afar.
After a while, I couldn't see the two of them anymore, so
I thought they had settled down.
However, what I heard in the subsequent handover was
the user got angry,
yelled at her,
and the newcomer started crying.
That was the story.
To be honest,
I thought it was a cute episode.
I thought, how typical of a newcomer.
Because, a teenager
thinking with all her might,
calling out desperately,
doing her job.
I think that figure alone is more than enough.
But at the same time,
I also reflect that I should have
given her more specific advice.
Well, she's a newcomer in another unit,
and since I'm not her supervisor,
I think she'll become a solid caregiver.
If I were to supervise her,
I'm sure
I'd be sloppy
and I can't even cut nails, after all.
But you know,
young people are just cute, aren't they?
Both boys and girls.
Yeah.
I'm an old man.
I work while being careful not to commit sexual harassment,
so please rest assured.
I think an episode like this at the beginning of April
is nice once in a while.
I think it's a time of change in various workplaces,
with newcomers joining,
and work increasing or decreasing.
My workplace is also scheduled to have one new caregiver join next month.
I'm hoping that the time spent interacting with users
will increase a little bit.
Anyway, these days I just hope to spend every day happily.
When newcomers make mistakes or errors,
please watch over them with a big heart at first.
While saying to have a big heart for newcomers,
I'm still afraid of cutting nails today.
While fighting the feeling that it's a hassle.
Thank you for reading until the end😊
The magazine I participate in is here