By Deirdre Godwin, Program Assistant, Professional Development and Training, Faculties of Health and Human Services & Trades and Applied Technology, VIU
Getting on to 30 years ago, I took what was then the Long-term Care/Homemakers certificate at Malaspina College. I didn’t graduate. You could say that I withdrew, flunked out, explored other options, or chose another career path – I guess it all fits.
So, there I was, having put in about four months’ training and gone to a not-inconsiderable expense to end up with nothing, right?
Nope, no learning is ever wasted. It might take you in a totally unexpected direction, but it’s not wasted.
About seven years and several non-medically-related jobs after I had done my training, my mother was struck by a car as she was standing in a parking lot. It was a day of pouring rain, and a car had hydroplaned right into her. She spent the next four months in hospital, first in Victoria General, then in Nanaimo Regional. It presented a lot of learning experiences, if nothing else.
I learned that I could drive to and from Victoria. I learned that I could hold down a full-time job, visit my mother regularly, and take care of things at home – which included milking two cows, raising steers, and bucket-feeding calves. I was fortunate in that there was a lot of family and neighbour help to be had.
When taking Long-term Care, I had learned how to wash the hair of somebody bed-ridden, which my mother was for the first two months following the accident. At first, I improvised a hair basin the way I had been taught, using a large plastic garbage bag with rolls of newspaper forming a horseshoe shape inside it to catch, hold, and channel the water. Later, I was able to purchase an inflatable basin which was much more efficient.
The nurse I first approached for permission to wash Mom’s hair seemed a bit defensive until I explained that I did have formal training and that I felt this was a service I could take off the nurses’ shoulders, given their enormous task of getting my mother healed. Realizing that I was not being critical, she immediately became very supportive of my endeavours.
After she was finally home again, my mother started experiencing some skin break-down due to the leg brace she had to wear. The answer popped into my mind without conscious thought. I had immediately segued back to my earlier training. I knew what to do, and I did it. Some careful tending took care of the incipient problem, and no outside medical intervention was required.
It didn’t become my career, but I am forever grateful for my training in Long-term Care. No learning is ever wasted.