Advice re work experience for DD, medical/ health Care

[Blueskytoday]

DD is 17 , taking A levels, thinking about ? Medical /paramedic type career . She is usually very calm and not easily ruffled.
Sixth form have arranged work experience for her in a nursing home as it is a care setting.
She has been today to take the form for the nursing home to sign and has freaked out because a lady resident has “screamed at me - i didn’t know what to do - it smelt really badly of pee -there was old people dying “
She has come away quite shaken and crying - saying there’s no way she could spend a full week there on work experience.
She has been into sixth form and told the staff this, the staff member has said you are not going to be able to pursue career in health if this has upset you so much.
I’m finding it difficult to understand Dd reaction, but I’ve been a nurse a long time and am probably de sensitised to this kind of setting , my dad was in a nursing home for 10 years .
I keep saying to myself she’s only 17 , but I’m quite thrown by her reaction.
I’ve explained that the lady in the home is probably very confused/ dementia and won’t have had capacity to understand she was screaming at visitors.
I’ve said to her if you become health worker you have to deal with people screaming at you/awful smells/ bodily fluids etc as part of every day and have the resilience to deal with it.
She said I will be fine - just couldn’t cope with this setting for a week.
She has done part time work in shops and waiting on but not any care kind of work.
Dh said get on with it, it’s only a week, but he’s not very supportive at the best of times.
We now have to try and find another place for her to do the work experience-any suggestions.?

I'm inclined to agree with what you've said. If she is thinking of doing something like a paramedic training, then it is better to know now if it isn't for her, than after she starts training

The other issue with trying to find somewhere else is that most schools won't let you do we if they haven't risk assessed the placement, so it isn't usually easy to switch at the last minute.

Ok, that's quite a challenge to overcome if she's aiming for a healthcare career and although care homes can be overwhelming experiences for young people (my first care job was in an EMI secure care home - that was fun!), I think that there has to be a baseline affinity for the environment to survive it. By that, I mean that I think it's ok to have 1 or 2 areas that you struggle with and need to build resilience for, but you need to be able to handle the rest to allow you to build that resilience in your weak areas.

For me, I have a strong gag reflex, so vomit and sputum were problematic for me. In my first job, one of the clients could vomit at will if they didn't like any decision their carers made. I had to teach myself to deal with the vomit, by talking to myself: "Lougle, you're going to take a deep breath, hold it, go in, count to 10, and come out again." At first, it helped to know that I could get through it, deep breath at a time. Over time, I trained my gag reflex to be less sensitive. Now, 20 years on, it's rare for me to get caught out, but the odd patient still triggers it (not their fault at all!) and I have to consciously overcome it. Other nurses really struggle with blood. Or wounds.

There are so many areas in nursing once you are qualified, that you can avoid the bits that don't appeal, but during training, you really do have to be able to cope with anything. Also, at the end of the day, if someone is covered in blood, poo and urine, they need our assistance with dignity and compassion to restore them to a clean and comfortable state, regardless of our sensitivities.

My sister fainted watching someone get their tonsils out aged 19 - last week she took out a mans appendix.

Then again that’s a bit different from being frightened by a dementia patient and the smell of pee.

She could do bio-med and be a scientist ? She’ll see fat worse in a hospital I’m afraid

I used to work in a hospital and there was a dedicated person to arrange work experience placements there. Might be worth giving your local one a call. My dd did work experience there and tried a range of professions out - none of which she has pursued but it gave her a bit of an insight.
Speech therapy, Dietician, Nurse, Dr, Biochemist, Radiographer...

DS2 (21) is a 3rd year student nurse. He volunteered one afternoon a week in a care home. He loved it, but he’d had experience with people with dementia because both my nan and DH’s grandpa had it.

I’d try to get her to do it, tbh. Universities like to see some caring experience on your UCAS form. It’s the first day that’s the hardest where ever you go.

Not sure if this helps but anyway...!
I am bizarrely calm in a crisis, I did CPR on a guy who was bleeding from his eyes/nose, urine everywhere etc and dealt with other emergencies
Started as a care/support worker and really struggled with poo. Walked away from first shift thinking I can't do this, I don't know what to do and how to deal with people etc
Anyway it's 3 months on, I don't get too bothered with poo now! And I have a reputation as the calm, unflappable, not bothered by anything person. And I love doing care and making people feel comfortable
I think sometimes it's just overwhelming at first especially if you've not been in that sort of environment. I struggle with dementia patients but give me someone's arm hanging off and I'm all "oops. Oh dear. Let's get this sorted"

Oh could she shadow a care/support worker? That's a thought. Massive variety of calls from making food and a chat to full care but range of ages, medical conditions and needs etc. May be less overwhelming

All the other kids on WE are also "only 17". Some even just 16yo. Maybe they all freaked out initially & lied to me about it in interview, I suppose. The thing is, it could be a great story about overcoming initial aversion and difficulty, too -- if she could go back & make a success of it.

Finding WE placements IS difficult. Your DD is foolish to throw away this opportunity.

I did my placement in a carehome thinking I would hate it and absolutely loved it, I did things I never thought I’d do. Replace catheters, give some of my clients baths which I thought would be weird but my client said “your tits will look like this one day” did arts and crafts with the dementia clients, assisted feeding the blind clients, and mostly you just learn how you should talk to clients in a health care setting. They don’t want to be there, so the language you use is different. Tell her to go, she might surprise herself! But agree a career in health/social care wont be for her if she can’t stomach it.

TBH, I think that this is exactly what WE is for - if by the end of the week your dd can't hack the smell and environment, then she's learnt that nursing/paramedic isn't for her. But maybe radiographer/speech therapist/OT would and she'd need to look at what she loves and is good at vs the bits she doesn't like

She has to try if she is planning a medicine or paramedic degree application. Lots will have a weekly volunteer slot in their application. It’s ridiculous not to, it’ll be hard but she’ll feel so pleased and prepared or she won’t be able to and will know she needs to think about different directions.

If she’s thinking of medicine or being a paramedic, has she looked st the entry criterial? Our local Med School wants experience of this kind in the application form. Agree with others that if she thinks this really isn’t for her she will need to rethink her career plans.

She's 17, it was her first exposure to one area of the medical profession. There are plenty of other options. At the moment she needs experience for her personal statement, is she looking at reading medicine? By the time she has completed her degree she will have experienced many different areas of it and become de-sensitised to things like this.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone- lot t think about

I do think care homes are at the sharp end of healthcare and it does take a while to get use to it if you haven’t had experience of elderly people or looking after people who are unwell. I think she should just get on with it as she may surprise herself.

I’m a qualified staff nurse and have been for 10 years. I work in psychiatry and have lots of direction I can go in the future.

I don’t do elderly care at all. Some people love elderly care I’m definitely not one of those people. Lots of areas of health care that don’t involve elderly care

If she trains as a paramedic she will be 'only 18'when she starts.She needs to do this work experience or start looking for other careers.

You do get used to the smell, and it does fade in your senses. I used to notice it when I'd been on annual leave, the first day back always hit me and I'd think "wow it smells!"

But the fact is, as an 18 year old, if she wants to pursue a career in direct healthcare (that is care assistant, nurse, doctor, paramedic) straight out of college, then she will have to become accepting with dealing with poo, vomit, urine, sputum, blood, genitals, breasts, and death, including dead bodies. Because that's what it's about. People, at their most vulnerable, in their hour of need, who generally need you to deal with any or all of the above.

I would say the same if she wants to be a physio (chest physios deal with sputum day in, day out), because physios can't just leave people to sit in their own poo/wee if they find them that way when they attend to give therapy, and often end up helping with turns, sheet changes, etc.

Similarly, speech and language therapists deal with sputum and vomit frequently, as they do swallow assessments and food challenges.

Occupational Therapists do masses of functional work, which involves toileting, walking, etc.

You really can't escape it. If she wants in with healthcare, she needs to dive in and pinch her nose. Or, she may just have found out how much she wants it.