In every system, in every group of people, there are some who are good at what they do, and others who are problematic. Even my Home Care has its problems. One example comes in the form of the HCA who cared for me today. It's not that she is incompetent. Technically she is competent; she knows what to do. However she is at the low end of that competency scale.
This particular HCA is one of those people who is continually slow moving; she moves at some pace based on an internal rhythm running at a tempo lento, a lifetime lentando. She shuffles, her feet dragging on the floor; if she had soft pads on her soles, she could shine the floor at the same time as she moves about. Her responses are slow, lethargic. She doesn't seem to want to, or care to, understand instructions unless I demonstrate them and repeat them. She's just plain slow and sloppy.
For example, today as I sat wet in the shower, she shambled her way from what seemed to be a tremendous distance, appearing hesitantly at my bathroom door, as if uncertain what to do next. After a clear pause for thought, while I sat and shivered, she grabbed a hand towel, passing it to me so I could dry my body. I pointed out the bath towel; the light bulb lit, she passed it to me. She helped me to my bed, put on my creams and powders, then disappeared into the hallway to play with her phone while I dressed myself. I don't need a lot of help dressing, but it's nice if the HCA is standing by just in case.
Oddly enough, while she was slow in every extent, she seemed to be in a hurry to complete my exercises, not that she moved quickly in any manner. What were supposed to be repetitions of five became possibly four, or so, maybe. What were supposed to be 30 second holds became 10 seconds until I started to count to 30 out loud. When I tired of counting, time shortened once again.
It's not that she is, or was, a bad person in any way. She seems fairly something or other. I just don't know what. All I can say for sure is that she is clearly not terribly interested in her job, or at least not interested in doing her best at it. She is a slow moving, close is good enough kind of person. Her care is not faulty, mostly. It's just not all that good. When it comes to health care, close is certainly not good enough. Unfortunately, since she is not doing anything really wrong, I feel like I cannot ask for a replacement.
This irks me, too. She shouldn't have her job if she doesn't like it or she is not trained properly. You're probably doing her a favor to get into another line of work so she is happier in life. Nobody wants to see somebody not have their job, but she needs to learn new skills. She will never learn and she may get fired if you don't speak up and explain what she is doing that is not working. If it's not working for you, it's probably not working for other people. Regarxless, you have to have a better day and that means getting a better person to do their job right.
ReplyDelete