Better Must Come

I am a nurse aide working in the home care field. Having lived in Hawaii all of my life, I have been exposed to many different ethnicities and cultures, or so I thought. The following are my experiences with a client who defines transcultural.

As soon as I finished my nurse aide training, I started job hunting and took the first position that was offered to me, which was home care. I was so nervous! I didn't know what to expect or even exactly what to do. With the address in hand, I was off to see my very first client, whom we will call "Camilla".

Upon my arrival, I began to introduce myself and was quickly interrupted by her daughter that lives with her. I was told that she did not speak or understand any English. Oh my God!! I thought. Not only was I learning how to do my job, but how was I supposed to do that with this communication barrier? Okay, I thought, I will deal with it and do my best right? Well.....

So it turns out that Camilla speaks about five other languages. She and her family are Turkish but lived in Armenia. Camilla also attended an Italian school and studied German and Arabic. Thus, she spoke Turkish, Aremenian, Itailian, German, and Arabic. I was not familiar with any of these languages or cultures. As an added bonus, Camilla has Alzheimers disease that is in the more advanced stage. I spent hours researching Alzheimers and ways to deal with these type of patients and everywhere I looked, the solution involved communicating with the patient. How was I supposed to do that? How was I supposed help through any aggitation or hallucination or explain that I needed to change her brief now? I had no idea what to do. For the first couple of days, I had an extremely difficult time. She would yell and I had no idea what she was saying. I could not reply in a way she could understand to try to get her to calm down. I realized that I would have to learn some words to help us, so I bought a Turkish dictionary and learned some keys words that I thought would help. Problem solved? Not exactly...Since Camilla spoke so many languages and because of her disease, she would often intertwine two or three different languages into one sentence and she sometimes didn't understand me when I spoke to her in Turkish. So, I learned some more key words in all of the other languages. So, as far as the language problems go, better has come and I continue to learn more everyday.

There was one incident when I was asking Camilla if she had to "sheesh" or "kaka" (those are the words they use for urinate and BM). She answered me with a phrase that I have heard from her before but was never able to pick up enough to translate. It just so happened that her daughter was home that day and she began to chuckle. "What did she say?" I asked. "She said that she had it, but she doesn't know where it went and if you find it, let her know" she replied. I could not help but to chuckle. And then I thought, my God, what else does she say to me?

Another time, we were at the dining table and I was helping her with her breakfast. She was asking me something and it seemed pretty serious but I could not understand her. Usually when she is asking me something, I try to read her facial expression and decide whether I should answer it with a yes or no. So, this time , I guessed yes. She let out a huge gasp and started yelling "Policia! Policia!" (police)

I quickly changed my answer to no and later found out that she had asked me if I was poisioning her. And once again, all I could do was chuckle. Atleast there is never a dull moment

She and I have our own special way of communicating and the more we work together, the more we understand each other. And now when I am feeling frustrated inside, I just think how frustrating it must be for Camilla as she too must deal with the difficulties of this language barrier. And that makes me feel better and want to strive even more to do the absolute best that I can do for her.There are a couple of things that I have learned that are universal for any culture. There is no mistaking a smile and there is no mistaking love. Another girl used to talk to Camilla as if she were deaf and retarded. They are the same as any other client or patient so treat them with love, and they will love you back. I have been Camilla's caregiver for four months now and I am learning more and more everyday. But for now, better has definitely come!