In this caregiver contribution by architectural standards design director Erin Couch, Erin shares her experience in October at Providence Portland Medical Center, volunteering as a patient sitter, a caregiver who stays with hospital patients who need monitoring and can’t be left alone, due to dementia or behavioral health issues.
With my two-hour training session by Providence completed, I was prepared to be a “sitter.”
My first introduction to the patient “JB” was by the CNA coming off the night shift. She warned me he was angry, argumentative, and that his mood could “turn on a dime,” which was hard to imagine, as I saw this 92-year man sleeping soundly with a PIC (I would later find out was for nutrition).
His nurse on duty, Gary, shared that JB was being treated for throat cancer and had been at PPMC for over 30 days, and, while not officially diagnosed with dementia, it was evident he suffered from it.
After JB was awakened at 7:45 a.m. and hustled off to his last radiation treatment, I was asked to be with him as he awaited transport back to his room on 4G. As I introduced myself, he demanded I bring him “the person in charge” … That “he should be fired for being incompetent!”
Back in his room, JB was still clearly agitated and insisted that I find someone to “take a letter.” Having a mother with dementia myself, I told JB that I had those skills, and that I could take dictation. He agreed and started right in (and, yes, I wrote down every word) with the topic, “Dolan’s Termination”. There was some gibberish to be sure, but there was so much lawyerly language embedded in that letter that JB’s history was starting to reveal itself. My hunch played out when we got to talking about where he went to college. JB not only graduated from Colorado with a degree in accounting, but joked he had to learn a “foreign language” when he went to Harvard law school in Boston. He meant he couldn’t understand Boston Irish brogue, which was actually quite hilarious. We laughed together on that one.
I noticed he was wearing a shirt with a “Sun River Gun Club” logo, so I asked him what his favorite firearm was. That eventually led into a discussion about hunting for ducks on Sauvie Island with his beloved Cocker Spaniel, Riley. We talked for a solid hour about the animal that meant so much to him, and after 15 years, died the day JB got his cancer diagnosis. Despite his tears, JB was so excited when I brought up pictures of that breed on my phone and he quickly pointed out Riley’s coloring, chocolate brown.
What a gift, even if only for eight hours, to be part of one patient’s life, as he journeyed toward getting well, or at least discharged and back home. And the other bonus? Watching Providence caregivers—from nursing to IS, from dietary to physicians, from EVS staff to security—provide loving, thoughtful care to JB. The Mission of Providence is very much at work.