For one local family, going to work is a labor of love

 At first glance, the scene in the hallway of the Good Samaritan Health Center seems quite commonplace: two young women in medical scrubs are bringing an elderly resident in a wheelchair into the center’s dining room.
But their situation is far from ordinary: the women are sisters. And the resident is their great-grandfather.
  This week is National Certified Nursing Assistant Week, which honors those who work in this caring, demanding profession. For CNA Jeena Bradburn and her sister JoJean, coming to work each day is now even more special. Their great-grandfather, John Bradburn, whom they lovingly call “Grandpa John,” lives at the care center in International Falls.
“It’s great” Jeena says. “I get to see him more now than I did before he moved here.”
“I was excited” says JoJean, of when she learned her great-grandpa would be moving to the care center.
  JoJean, the eldest of the two sisters, works as a dietary aide in the kitchen. Both women have been with the Good Samaritan Health Center for several years. It seems a natural fit. Their grandmother and mother were both in nursing care.
“Grandma was a nursing assistant and mom was a volunteer candy striper” says Jeena.
Sitting with the three of them in the center’s dining room, it’s easy to see why Shawnda Shofer, the center’s marketing coordinator, called their situation a touching story.
“John is such a nice man, and it’s so great to walk down the hall and hear ‘Hi Grandpa!’ and see his face light up”, Shofer says, smiling.  And it does.  As we sit and talk, the girls reminisce about times spent with their grandpa and grandma in Littlefork. The senior Bradburn, his hands folded lightly in his lap and wearing a patriotic ball cap, sits serenely between the girls. A warm smile spreads across his face. At 88 years old, he has led a full life. He was a logger, school bus driver, and a car salesman. The father of three sons, Bradburn has several grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren with a third on the way.
“We’re the only ones who still live here in town,” the sisters say. Virginia, their grandma and John’s wife of over 60 years who also lived at the care center, died recently.
“We called her Grandma Jimma, she didn’t like to be called Virginia,” JoJean clarifies, laughing. “About a month before moving here, Grandma and Grandpa renewed their wedding vows “ says Jeena. “Grandpa admitted himself last year so the two of them could be together,” recalls Jeena.
 As the girls talk, John sits between them sipping from the mug of hot chocolate JoJean brought him. It’s his favorite, she says, and they talk about their many childhood nights as children when Grandma Jimma would make it for Grandpa and the girls.
“We were always there on weekends,” remembers JoJean, “Mom would bring us down to Grandpa’s and we would go to church and then out for breakfast.”
“Yeah, in their big blue Cadillac” Jeena adds. Before moving into nursing care, the elder Bradburns lived across from the Littlefork fairgrounds. “We would sit out front of their house and listen to the music coming across the street,” says Jeena.
John Bradburn decides to share his own memory from years past — that of the Airport Bar that he and his wife ran from their home basement.
Visitor Carol Miller, wife of care center resident Roy Miller, also remembers. “We were there back in 1972” she recalls. “So many people they couldn’t get in,” Bradburn says softly, his warm, easy smile still lingering. His great-granddaughters remember, too. “It was way before we were born” they say, “but everybody seemed to know about it and talk about it.”     
Although John Bradburn is not a patient of Jeena’s, she and JoJean do get the chance to see him everyday. Jeena enjoys her work as a CNA, especially now that her grandfather is there, and gives each of the residents the same careful, compassionate care.
“It can be very exhausting work, physically” she says, “but I treat all of the patients the same, the way I would hope the other CNA’s treat my grandpa.”
Jeena Bradburn has it right. According to the National Network of CNA’s Web site, nursing assistants have chosen a profession that demands caring.
“CNA's daily attend the school of patience and compassion. Granted, the work isn’t always pretty and it's not the most glamorous occupation in the eyes of the world. But to the people we care for every day, our job is an admirable and much appreciated one. You have the opportunity every day to impact people's lives in a positive and much needed way” the site says. “In fact, CNA’s frequently provide over 80 percent of the daily care of patients in nursing homes and other long term care facilities.”
 Today, nearly three million caregivers provide hands-on care to those in nursing homes and other long term care facilities. “They provide predictability and stability, and security for our aging, frail, or physically challenged citizens. They bring wisdom, patience, humor, and a general attitude of caring to the daily lives of these people,” the site says.
For the Bradburn sisters, it is also a labor of love.

 I’m Only a CNA...

By RACHEL GIARRIZZO, RN

I am the one, in many people's lives, who provides them with their basic human needs. What others may take for granted; washing, dressing, bathing, eating-- some people are unable to perform these tasks for themselves anymore and they depend on me. I am the one who goes to great lengths to maintain their privacy and dignity while helping them do things that only a few years ago they were doing on their own. I am the one they rage at, venting their frustration, anger, confusion and fear. I am the one who performs care, even though doing so will often put me in the position of being physically and verbally abused at the hands of those I care for.
I am the one who rides out the storms of my Alzheimers patients right alongside of them. I am the one who searches high and low throughout the building for a misplaced item that one of my patients is desperately looking for. I am the one who hears "I want to go home" from the lips of my patients sometimes several times a night, and comforts them the best way I know how.
I am the one offering hugs and smiles in a dark and lonely world, where many times, the staff becomes the only family a patient has. I become their source of love, acceptance and friendship. I am the one who tries to quell loneliness and depression in the people I care for, sometimes resorting to singing, sometimes just acting silly to coax a smile. I am the one who makes them know that someone still cares about them.
I am the one who listens when no one else listens. I listen as my patients repeat stories from their past over and over again, and offer my words of amazement or encouragement over their accomplishments and memories. I am the one who validates them as a person, who ensures they know they still have great worth as a human being, even though they may be physically or mentally ill and their lives have changed, I always try to offer hope where it is needed.
I am the one who comforts and holds the hand of my patient as they slowly slip away. I am the one who has been there by their side, when no one else was, so they were not alone when they left this world. I am the one who offered a prayer and words of peace, while gently stroking their head and reassuring them it was "ok to let go".
All of these things and more, that is what we are, not just myself but nursing assistants everywhere.
Hold your head high and realize, there is no greater calling than to provide compassion and love to those in need.
 
Copyright 2000-2007 and beyond; Rachel Giarrizzo
www.NursingAssistantCentral.com
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