I Survived Full Moon...in a Nursing Home!

To think that at one time I heartily scoffed the idea that full moon increased restlessness and anxiety!  That obviously was before I came to work in a long term care facility for the elderly.

Last night was 'one of those nights'.  I never do particularly rejoice when I'm on the schedule to work Sunday evenings.  I'm not sure what it is, but something about having to go in at 2 pm on a Sunday, when everyone else is planning some fun or relaxing Sunday afternoon activity really isn't fun.  Anyways, yesterday I dragged myself out of bed from my short nap and made my way over to the Home for my shift on the Alzheimer's/dementia unit.

The shift began smoothly enough.  I went about my normal routine of caring for my ladies and making sure they were clean, dry and comfortable.  Supper neared and our routine flowed smoothly from one thing to the next.  It was shortly after supper when I noticed that things seemed to be rapidly spinning downhill.  I looked at Caitlin, my coworker, and shook my head, "this is the kind of night when you wonder if you will ever get done!"  It wasn't anything major that slowed down progress, rather, accumulated interruptions that unceremoniously surfaced.  A huge bowel movement to clean up all over anything close to it, alarms constantly going off in all directions, and increased confusion in the minds of our dear residents. 

I must have ran front to the nurses station 5 times to answer one personal alarm as the lady tried over and over to climb out of her recliner.  Finally I got the brilliant idea to transfer her to her wheelchair, and bring her with me where ever I go!  That's why, if you would have walked in on the Dogwood hall late evening you would have found her sitting outside various doorways as I popped in and out of rooms assisting my ladies to bed.

I kept finding another one of our ladies in all sorts of odd corners.  Multiple times I had to pull her out of residents room and set the room straight again.  She pulled covers off the beds, overturned night stands and left her boots crumpled under the sink.  She usually was on her spur of the moment snoozes when I'd find her, refueling for her next adventure; her current destruction complete.  She's known to do things like this every day, but certainly not so many in such a short amount of time!

We were able to breathe a bit easier around 8:30 when it finally began to look like we were reigning the hall into a resemblance of order.  By 9:00, I looked around and realized that we actually had managed to keep up with the demands and everything looked good!  But then I was left as the only aid on the hall for the remaining hour.  That last hour is usually very quiet.  We do rounds and finish up the last odds and ends that got pushed off earlier.  Rounds usually don't take me more then maybe 20 minutes, as there are very few people wet that early in the night.  Tonight tho, people kept popping up out of bed, pulling their personal alarms and I was constantly sidetracked from my routine to answer them and try to calm the confused minds.  It took me almost an hour to finally get my rounds done.  It was with great relief that I handed the hall over to the night aides, rolled our brutes full the day's laundry down to the laundry room and clocked out.

And that is when I found out that it was two nights away from full moon.  I was reminded again very strongly of why I now believe what I used to call an 'old wives tale'.  Full moon definitely does play a big part in the level of restlessness that goes on in our nursing home, and we are the privileged aides who get to practice our hand at learning patience!  If you want to come join us, we'd be glad to share the blessings with you! =)