I have a problem. I am a completionist. I can get into TV
shows, but I like to marathon them instead of watching week to week. I like
reading book series that are finished putting books out, so that I can read
from the beginning of the story to the end without having to stop or wait. I am
the same way for TV shows. I ABSOLUTELY have to begin from the beginning in any
form of media, I can not just jump in halfway through the series and be fine. I
am sharing all of this, as a way to explain why this is my first blog post in
over a month. The truth is, so much has been happing, so many things have been
changing and shifting, and there has been some uncertainty to the future of
things here, that I have been unwilling to sit down and write a blog that I do
not know the end to yet. There are still some things that are unknown out
there, but I will do my best to give an accurate update on my placement.
My last blog spoke about the resource I had put together and
the training I was planning on carrying out for the inside carers and the home
based carers. That went really well. Over the two and a half weeks following
that post I carried out numerous sessions to ensure that all the carers had
been covered. I believe that all the carers learned from the sessions, and my
hope is that they will continue to employ the skills I taught them. That went as
well as could be hoped.
The uncertainty has arisen from other sources in the center.
I spoke in the last blog about the passing of Martin, the nursing co-ordinator.
The waves from that are still being felt to this day, and honestly, in the best
of circumstances, the care center might not have stood the greatest chance of
returning to its former status after his passing. Unfortunately, the changes
kept coming.
A new board for the center was elected in February at the
annual general meeting. That, itself, was marred by some difficulties, as the
first meeting came to an abrupt end after the community rejected the budget
report since it was impossible to verify completely. The second meeting went
much smoother, with the corrected report being accepted and a new board
elected. The new board seemed excited and energized to come in and make changes
to the center to improve it. Some of the officers of the board were present in
the center almost every day since then, trying to get paperwork sorted and
figure out how to move forward. This caused some individuals to feel that the
board was stepping into territory that they shouldn’t be in, and that the day
to day of the center should be handled by the staff already there.
About halfway through March, Ingrid, the centers
administrator, resigned from her position. She was the member of the front
office (comprised of her, Julia the project manager, and Wendy, the HBC
administrator and office admin) that I worked with the closest. She was
responsible for the direct oversite of the inside of the center, so she was
above the nursing coordinator. Her leaving further destabilized the oversite of
the center.
A little over a week age, it was announced that the
department of Health, which funds part of the center, would be transferring the
home based care program from the care center, to another organization in the
area. Around the same time it was discussed that both Julia and Wendy might not
be continuing in their positions past the end of March.
All of these changes and shifts in the center has made it
feel like I am on uneven footing. Luckily for myself, and for the patients
themselves, the carer staff itself is pretty solid. The center will remain and
continue to provide its service, hopefully to the best of its ability, for some
time more. My specific role in it, and in South Africa in general, may change
though. Only the future can reveal in what way, and this is very much a book
that hasn’t been finished yet.
