Day 4

April usually doesn't come in on a Thursday or Friday. So in the morning it was just Tim and I all alone. We were instructed previously to do walks in the Nursing Home with a list of patients. 

Tim and I then proceeded to do passive movements in the nursing home until Trudy (a PTA) came to help us with the more difficult 2 assist walks. 

After lunch, we went to do walks in the hostel. One interesting patient is a man i'll call mr W. Mr W is an alcoholic who likes to stay in bed all day. Apprently he stayed in bed for 5 weeks previously while April was on holiday. No showers. No walking. My job was to walk this difficult patient. As we had only met in passing once before he wasn't very compliant. I spent 15mins just talking to him and at the end of it he promised to walk with me tomorrow. A victory? apparently.

Big news fellow bloggers! I got to use a hoist today!!!!!! When Tim, Trudy and I were doing walking rounds, we walked in a patients (Mr D) room, to find him on the floor with his head on the corner of a table next to his chair. Now this is where I got pretty frustrated as this facility has a no lift policy so we were not allowed to assist Mr D to a comfortable position. He was lying on his back all embarressed while Trudy went to find the head nurse to examine him before we were allow to touch him. When Trudy and Chris (the nurse) arrived, we got to assist in using the hoist machine to lift Mr D into his chair but you should have seen the shocking manutention of the nurse! They didn't know how to get the hoist out from under mr D after hoisting and Tim had to talk them throught it. Also as Mr D wasn't quite in his chair properly, Chris tried moving Mr D back my grabbing under his armpits. I think that I could have handled that whole situation better if given the chance and if that no lift policy wasn't there. 

The day finished with the weekly's men's group which Tim and I will possibly be given the oppurtunity to take by ourselves in the following weeks. About 5 men participate and the objective is to just get them exercising for fitness or working on strength or balance. Each exercise Rx plan in catered for their specific needs.