The Male Nurse

The Male Nurse

We let go of the male day nurse yesterday.  I think he lasted about a month?

This nurse was not able to separate his work from his personal business.  He was supposed to be coming to take care of Hajime, but he didn't much.  He would sit on the sofa next to me in the living room and get carried away with watching TV and talking.  He would take Hajime's only pleasure in life, his soda, saying, "I have a headache.  Can I have some?" and then drink two cans.  If he sat down next to Hajime, he wouldn't talk to him; he would watch what I was doing.  It did not seem at all that he was coming to do any work.

With regard to his work,  he would make mistakes with his medications too.  (Hajime has a schedule of what weeks he is supposed to take his antibiotics and when not to, but the nurse would give him the medicine in an off week). Even when these things happened, he would always lie in response to my husband's questions.

It was terrible when he changed Hajime's diapers.  He was supposed to wipe him up, but he would get it on the bedsheets.  It seemed he did not have much experience with diaper-changing.  Diaper-changing is an important part of Hajime's care, so we always ask about it in interviews.

Washing hands is also important, but he was too much.  He would go wash his hands every three minutes, use a lot of handsoap, and leave a mountain of paper towels.  Even if he used gloves to handle Hajime,  he would go wash his hands after each step.

At the beginning,  when he arrived in the morning, he would start taking Hajime's vitals without washing his hands.  Since he was coming in from the outside, it was required that he wash his hands.  Then when the person from the agency talked to him about it and he still didn't wash his hands, my husband warned him directly.
After that, this three-minute interval handwashing began.

He is supposed to be a professional, so it really makes me wonder why he can't do home care properly.  And the fact that he would lie about making a mistake giving Hajime his medication makes me doubt him as an individual. I also had a problem with his inability to set male/female boundaries.

So, starting today, my daytime nursing begins again, but when I think about the stress I've had, I can feel more relaxed at home now.  I will do my best until we find a new nurse.


(translated by MS)