To the Editor,
Bonnyville Extendicare provides care for 50 residents, mostly seniors, whose average age is 83 years and older. These loved ones live with a variety of physical limitations or cognitive impairments, including dementia, requiring professional nursing care on a daily basis and access to 24 hours of supervision. Most are in wheelchairs.
There are six caregivers per shift for 50 patients. There are two caregivers for the entire group at night. This means that 12 staffers need to give 100 baths a week. This also means that every morning, every resident needs help changing their pull-ups, dressing, brushing their teeth (dentures), their hair, donning their hearing aids and some others, their oxygen hoses before wheeling them down to the dining room for breakfast.
It can take up to 40 minutes to get each senior ready for the day. In the dining room, some are waiting to be fed. This does not include the messes they have to clean, the cajoling, the counselling and the attending to each of their likes and dislikes.
This job demands gifted workers with outstanding stamina and resilience. They do it with a smile. Each staff member must be commended for his and her dedication and service. How long will we keep them with this kind of workload?
Changes need to happen. If politicians, Alberta Health Services, health authorities and Extendicare management are serious about their commitment to improving the care of our vulnerable population, they need to start listening to families who rely on that promise.
They need to distribute the funds where they matter most. They need to hire more compassionate and dedicated staff, conscientious about what is written on the wall of the Extendicare: “To help people live better.”
Aline Rondeau, Bonnyville