Victorian Village Care Partner Focuses on Positives
Now, over 20 years later, she’s still a Care Partner at Providence, now at Victorian Village Health & Wellness Center. “I’m a family person,” she says. “I have a large family, and I have old-school values. Elders are given the utmost respect.”
Pam says she meets specific needs by getting to know her residents personally. “I make a point to know you. I listen. I ask little things so I can figure out who you are as a person,” she says. “I know birthdays. I know when grandbabies are born, when someone dies or graduates.”
Recently, one of her residents with limited mobility was unable to attend a family wedding. The resident was heartbroken, but Pam saw an opportunity. It started with working out a way for the resident to attend the wedding via Zoom, but it didn’t end there.
“I could see from her pictures that she had always been an elegant woman,” she says. “So we asked her son to bring in one of her beautiful dresses, and the aides did her hair and makeup. We got her looking like the elegant person she is. I made a photo frame for her, decorated her wheelchair and her room, and brought in a special meal for the reception.”
This is just one example that exemplifies the way Pam cares deeply. “I want to figure out what’s going to make the quality of their life better, because they should be able to live their best lives at any age,” she says. “When I see someone who’s sad, who had another life they miss, I do what I can to get them a new norm that they can still enjoy.”
Pam says going the extra mile is just the way she and her fellow staff have always been. “Over the years, I’ve worked with lots of like-minded co-workers, some people like me who have worked here for 15-20 years,” she says. “No one has to tell you something needs to be done. You just do it because you care. You give 110 percent even when you don’t have to. No one stays that long at this kind of job without that gift of caring.”
She says it’s clear from her trainings that Providence wants staff who truly believe in the work they do, and some of that is hard to train people. “You can teach someone how to do certain medical tasks, but you can’t teach them how to care. You can’t teach them to be kind. The staff here are just naturals, and they never stop working at it.”
Pam’s hard work helped get her daughter through college, and now she’s the proud mother of a computer engineer. She’s down to just one job now, and she’s thinking about furthering her own career with a nursing degree. “I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without Providence,” she says. “And I wouldn’t be able to care for residents in the same way without the Providence way of doing things. For that, I will always be grateful.”
