Introducing Scott, healthcare worker spreading kindness through helping patients regain mobility and motivation
What service are you offering in your community?
I work in an acute care trauma hospital. Currently I’m working with patients on mobility, physiotherapy. I work on getting people up, getting them moving, loosening up the limbs and opening the lungs, that sort of thing. When people are super sick, sometimes it’s just getting them up to the chair from the bed, and then having them sit up in the chair for a while just to change the body position.
How do you believe this particular service can help people? What are the benefits?
Often, people are not having their best days and we get them to the point where they can either go to a rehab hospital or facility, or they can actually just go home. What we do gets people motivated and stronger. They don’t always like us because initially we cause them pain, but we work through that and they get better and stronger, and that’s the path to home.
People first, patients second, is my personal angle. I like interacting with people – I’m a bit of a goof. It speaks volumes with rapport when you shake someone’s hand or something. They’re a person, scared, sick, in a place they don’t want to be. I really think people appreciate that sort of thing. They’re not having their best day, so you try to come in and, it’s going to sound kind of corny, but make a difference.
Right now, I’m working on the vascular unit, so we have a lot of amputations. That’s a whole mind and body change for the people. Phantom pains are often very common, and they don’t understand that they can’t put their foot down because it’s no longer there but they can feel it. So we don’t make light of it, but bring them to reality and say, yeah, this is how it’s going to be from now on, but this is what we have to do to get you to the point where you can go home, function and be independent. So we try to pump up tires, if you will.
In this particular hospital, we rotate every six months. I like all the units for different reasons. When I was a student, I was on the vascular unit as well as critical care. This is going to sound weird, but I loved the energy of ICU and the high acuity units where you have to be on the ball every time because patients are so sick. They have so many different lines and you have to be very careful, but at the same time, it’s exhilarating. How has COVID-19 affected the hospital and your day to day work?
There’s been a lot of changes in the hospital. The biggest change for a lot of us is no visitors. It’s not that we don’t want people to visit their family members, but it’s been better in terms of therapy because you don’t have to worry about family members. You can just focus on the patient.
In terms of personal protective equipment, we’ve got a few different cohort units that have been locked down and where we have COVID-positive people or pending. We just follow our donning and doffing protocol. I have to admit, the first couple of hours I worked on the COVID unit were a little nerve-wracking, but at the end of the day, you still go see people and try to get them well. As soon as you put that stuff on in the room, it’s nothing different, you’re not treating them any different.
The thing that we’ve had to really pay attention to (not that we didn’t always, but we’re super vigilant now) is that doffing procedure where it’s gloves off, wash hands, gown off, wash hands, wash the mask, wash the shield, wash your goggles, between every single visit. We don’t see as many people as we’d like because of the time it takes to do all these things.
We’ve had a few unfortunate incidents where people come to the hospital to see their loved ones and they’re not allowed in. What the hospital has done is set everybody up in these cohort units, especially the COVID unit, with Ipads and the ability to face time family. So they may not be able to receive visitors in person, but they can certainly face time and what not. Some of the patients are elderly and don’t know how to work those things, so we have nurses and other people that are setting it up for them so they can have that interaction. The food tray and moveable table on every bed has an Ipad attached to it now. It’s kind of neat. What got you into this activity? Why are you passionate about it?
I’ve tried many different career paths and none seemed to really fit. I’ve always been an active person and have had a number of broken bones and a number of sprains and concussion and things, so the field speaks to me. And it allows me to interact with people in a positive way. I just love helping and working with people, and I feel very lucky to have the job that I want to go to. Why does kindness count? Because there’s not enough of it. And who doesn’t like someone being kind to them? Especially living in Vancouver, it’s not a very kind place, so kindness changes everything. And it certainly builds relationships and rapport, even a smile. As you know, I’m a Maritimer, so I’m not saying people are better or worse, but they’re certainly friendlier there. Vancouver does have its moments as a society, there are kind times, but as a whole people are just heads down, I need to be somewhere. I don’t think it’s a secret that it’s hard to make friends in Vancouver.
Is kindness contagious?
I would like to think so. I try to be kind most of the time, but I have my limits as well. When someone doesn’t receive it as it was intended, sometimes I’ll be a little jaded and feel that’s it, I’m done! But then you have a moment, and think, well I’m not going to make you change me. You don’t do it for acknowledgement or perception, you just do it because it’s the right thing or the nice thing to do.
How can people support health care workers right now?
I don’t know if people could do any more. We’ve been supported so well by so many places and just the general public too. The first time I heard the 7 o’clock cheers, I didn’t know what it was. My wife told me and it actually brought tears to my eyes. Just that support and acknowledgement choked me up a bit. But it’s not just for hospital workers, it’s beyond that now. It’s for grocery stores and every other place that’s been open to help people get through this. At the hospital, we have the foundation that’s been incredible. I haven’t paid for a coffee in 2 months now. Lunches and things have been donated, it’s been incredible. And Kruger donated 3000 paper packages with toilet paper, paper towels and cleaner when the whole paper towel and toilet paper scare was happening. That was nice!
The managers and everybody has also been super supportive with mental health, telling us “whatever you need”, and it’s just been an incredible time. I couldn’t be more thankful for all the support we get.