This was the first rotation for all of us, I was very excited to learn as much as I could in a Long-term Care facility, even though other classmates warned me that I would not have many procedural tasks. However, I was determined, I would tell all the nurses to let me know when they would do wound dressings, urinary catheters, EKG recordings, injection (IV and IM), and aspirations. They were very nice to teach me and let me do some of the procedures, and since in a LTC facility, residents (the patients) have a schedule for all their procedure, I would know what time to go to which floor.

Another important learning experience was being part of the LTC team consists of a social worker, a nurse, dietitian, physical therapist and speech therapies for their weekly rounds. Each staff would have their expertise on the resident’s recovery and explained the resident’s progress to their family. It is essential to understand that the care of a resident in a LTC facility is not only in the hands of nurses and clinicians, but it is also supplemented by different points of care to accommodate the resident’s needs.

• How your perspective may have changed as a result of this rotation (e.g. elderly patients, kids, IV drug users, etc).

I used to believe that elderly patients always had something to complain about, however, I noticed that they are the gentlest and agreeable people I met. In reality it was their family members which were complaining all the time. I could understand why this was the case, it must be frustrating and scary to see your love ones in a LTC facility, they want to voice all their worries, negative experiences in the health care facilities.

• What was a memorable patient or experience that I’ll carry with me?

It may be the saddest and most memorable patient I had but I would care for this gentle lady who only speaks my language so I would spend time with her as much as I could. The first time I met her was when we admitted her, she complained of severe nausea. When I reported it to my preceptor, he said that we could not do much for her. After I studied her file, I realized she was already taking a lot of medication and already suffering from polypharmacy. This was a valuable lesson about not giving more medication to cure a condition probably caused by another drug. In my last day, I went to her and seeing that nobody had come to her to change her diaper, I did it myself, she was thanking me all the time. At the end, I could not bring myself to say farewell, I wanted to keep the happy memory of her.

• Managing new types of patients and the challenges that arise from that

In our LTC we also cared for residents who had a stroke and are here for rehabilitation. Many of them come with a baggage of mixed feelings: anger, sadness, confusion, disbelief. I had a patient who was rather difficult, and uncooperative – some of us thought he was rude. Then we found out from the social worker that he is a man loved by many people from his community and he is a member of a charity, very active in his community. All those mixed negative feelings were due to his condition of sudden stroke that left him weak on one side of his body. He needed time to adjust to his new situation and I understood that with time he was becoming more agreeable and willing to participate in the rehabilitation program. The beauty of a LTC is that you have around 3 months to work on their recovery.

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