Has anyone here volunteered at a nursing home? What was the experience like?

Answer 1

I had to volunteer at a nursing home for a couple weeks for my health occupations class in high school. It all depends on the person really, some people love it and some people don't. I liked some aspects of it, like interacting with people and helping, but I didn't like the fact that you have to lift them up into the bathtub/shower, change their "diaper" (which includes "wiping" them), and some of the men are kinda perverted. It just depends on how patient you are and how willing to help you are as well. :)

Answer 2

I worked at a nursing home for almost ten years. When we had volunteers they usually were just in the way. Also you may want to remember that most nursing homes are owned by someone very rich. Why would you want to spend your time saving them money? A lot of nursing homes feed the residents very cheap food. And I mean VERY CHEAP. Not only are the owners of the homes very rich but they are greedy rich. If you want to help out in a nursing home, try visiting residents that never have visitors. Or you could become an advocate for the residents to help those poor people avoid abuse which is rampant in nursing homes.

Answer 3

I've never volunteered at a nursing home, but I've worked at one for several years. We have student and adult volunteers. They mostly work with the Activities Department, providing support during activities such as calling out numbers during bingo, or helping blind residents play bingo, transporting residents to and from activities, and helping to host special events.

We do have one 15 year old volunteer who files, answers the switch board, and assists in data entry, and she's there to earn service learning credits for high school.

We love volunteers. The more the merrier! We don't expect them to do our jobs for us...we just expect them to have fun while they are in our facility. If they aren't having fun, and if they start to feel like it's a job, then we always suggest "moving on" to something different.

It really depends on the person as to what the experience will be like. If you don't have patience, dedication, and an interest in helping people in general, then it's going to be a rotten volunteer job. But if you enjoy making people smile, listening patiently to stories, and can accept that people are still people, even if they have no clue who they are, well then you will probably get a lot of gratification out of it.

And for the record, you rarely find abuse in nursing homes anymore. Employees are screened extensively, the Ombudsman is prevalent in the facility quite often, and a state survey is done periodically...at least that's how it is in Florida Not to mention that there are tons of safeguards in place to protect residents. We are not owned by a rich person, we are owned by our stakeholders....the employees. Oh, and one last thing, we don't serve cheap food to our residents. In fact, once a week, our managers make a homecooked meal for our residents, and our kitchen makes at least half the food from scratch. We have families who come eat with us every single day.

There is something called a Resident Council. The group is a requirement in most states now. This consists of high level functioning residents who WILL speak up on their behalf if they feel changes need to be made.

Answer 4

When I was in a youth group at my chuch. It was kind of neat. The people really liked young people and they loved to play cards! They liked to tell the same stories over and over so you need to have patience. Sometimes they pass gas and don't realize it because they are hard of hearing, but it's ok. it is a good feeling to be so wanted!