My resident view of nursing home life of over 21 years. Kathleen Mears won the 2016 American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA) Journalism Award winner for her blog at iadvanceseniorcare.com which began in 2008.
Monday, October 23, 2017
Writing about involuntary discharge
For the last several days I have been writing drafts for my freelance blog about my recent involuntary discharge. The first one I wrote quite quickly. But after I went back I realized it wasn't right. It didn't quite say what I wanted it to say. I thought I wanted to explain what happened, thank my caregivers, and declare I would always be honest about the care I expected from nursing homes.
Today I worked diligently to get a draft I liked. In the past few days I wrote six of them. However, when I went back to read them, I no longer liked what they had to say.
I don't want anyone at either of the facilities where I was involuntarily discharged to feel I had any malice toward them. I wanted them to know I tried my best and I thought they did too.
Though I would've liked to have detailed many of the things that happened before, during, and after the move to this facility because some were strange. But, in that draft I decided not to share them.
I wanted so badly to include in one of them that I hope someday nursing homes will no longer have to involuntarily discharge residents forcibly. Perhaps a government agency or a nonprofit can assist nursing homes to outplace residents who are causing trouble, or those the facility's feels should be in a different environment. Caring for facility residents can be impersonal. I've overheard conversations where nurses and aides talk about residents as though we are items in a warehouse.
I didn't think it was necessary to blame anybody for anything. I also didn't want to infer that I was to blame.
I wanted to be sure that the aides and nurses all knew, that I appreciated all of them, even those who weren't my favorites.
I'm wondering what I will do with the blog drafts that are no longer useful. I suppose they will go to the recycle bin in the sky. But maybe, I'll decide to keep them for posterity.
I wish I knew if this nursing home will work out for me. I don't even know what I would've picked if I'd picked one. I know I would have preferred a private room. However, even though my roommate incessantly watches TV here, I don't want to be in a room by myself.
Perhaps as things change, they still remain the same.
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