My sister is six years older than I am and when I was ten, she took a class at the local nursing home to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. In the following years, she would come home with stories about her nights working with her older patients...and some of them weren't very appealing to say the least. I told my mom more than once in no uncertain terms, that I definitely did not plan on following in her footsteps. Working with old people sounded terrible in my limited, pre-teen mind.
Luckily, in the few years following, I matured somewhat and, during the summer after my 16th birthday, found myself doing the very thing I said I never would.
Looking back, it was one of the most beneficial and life-altering things I could've done because, in doing so, I found my niche. I love the...
My sister is six years older than I am and when I was ten, she took a class at the local nursing home to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. In the following years, she would come home with stories about her nights working with her older patients...and some of them weren't very appealing to say the least. I told my mom more than once in no uncertain terms, that I definitely did not plan on following in her footsteps. Working with old people sounded terrible in my limited, pre-teen mind.
Luckily, in the few years following, I matured somewhat and, during the summer after my 16th birthday, found myself doing the very thing I said I never would.
Looking back, it was one of the most beneficial and life-altering things I could've done because, in doing so, I found my niche. I love the geriatric population! On one hand, it's hard for me to believe I've been working in nursing homes for close to a decade already. On the other, they say time flies when you love what you do, so I guess that makes sense.
Over the last eight years, I've transitioned from being a CNA (working one on one with patients during their activities of daily living), to being a PTA (helping them gain strength and return to their prior level of function in the therapy room) to an LMT (doing massage therapy as an independent contractor).
During that time, I've been blessed to not only gain academic knowledge through my schooling, but to also form and maintain relationships with people four times my age who have taught me more about life than I'm sure they even realize.
That all being said, it's incredibly exciting to me that I'm finally in a position to work with patients and families on a one-on-one basis with a goal of educating them on how to improve their own and their loved ones quality of life.
Research is now showing what bodywork professionals have hypothesized for years; that massage yields numerous benefits in the geriatric population including improvements in sleep, faster healing time following surgery and injury, increased circulation, greater mobility, decreased need for medications, and reduction in stress.
For those of you who never know what to get your elderly loved ones and are constantly met with the frustrating answer, 'I don't really need anything, honey' when you ask about Christmas or birthday gifts, consider a massage gift certificate.
I encourage you to continue researching the benefits of this type of massage and to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.