Residential Aged Care Workers
Provide general assistance, emotional support, and direct person-centred care for older people residing in aged care homes.
Four o'clock in the memory wing
You are a residential aged care worker on an afternoon shift in the memory support wing, with eight residents and one other carer. It is 3:50pm and the wing is starting to get restless. Dinner is at five. Several residents are getting up from their chairs and heading for the corridor.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I have to go now. My husband is waiting at the gate and he will be so cross if I am late. Please, let me out. Where is my coat? Why is everyone telling me to sit down? I have to go!
Gently remind her that her husband passed away years ago, so she understands why she cannot go
Margaret looks stunned, and then grief floods in as if she were hearing it for the first time. Correcting a memory can feel like fresh loss. Truth is not always kind when it is repeated this way.
Walk with her, ask about her husband, and gently steer toward a cup of tea and a seat
Margaret talks about meeting him at a dance. By the time you reach the lounge she is calmer, and you sit together. Meeting the feeling first worked better than arguing with the facts.
Tell her the gate is locked and the bus will not come until tomorrow, so she should wait inside
She settles for a while, but a few minutes later is at the door again, more upset. A made-up answer buys time, and does not meet what she needs.
I brought Dad his favourite chicken sandwiches. I know he is meant to have the soft diet, but he hates it and he's losing weight. One little sandwich will not hurt. Please, just let me give it to him.
Let him give the sandwich, since he knows his dad best and the diet is making him sad
Dad coughs badly on the first bite, and the nurse is called. He recovers, but Dennis is shaken. The soft diet is there for a reason that is not always visible.
Explain why the diet is needed, and promise to ask the team about what safe foods Dad might enjoy
Dennis is still upset, but he feels heard. The nurse and cook work out a soft version of a chicken meal that Dad enjoys. His son watches him eat, and smiles.
Say no firmly, as the rules are clear, and ask him to take the sandwiches home
The rules are protected, but Dennis feels dismissed and drives away upset. Explaining why and offering a way forward would have kept the rule and the relationship.
I'm running behind on the evening drinks round. Could you do my last four residents' fluid charts as well as yours? Just fill them in, you were in the room earlier anyway. Nobody will check.
Fill them in from what you remember, to help her out because she is a friend and it is busy
The charts are wrong for two residents, and the next shift acts on them. A record is something other people rely on. Helping a friend with a guess turned into a bigger problem.
Tell her no, you have your own work to finish, and she will have to find the time somewhere
Faye is annoyed and the charts are late. You were honest about not guessing, but you missed the chance to share the load in an honest way.
Offer to help with the drinks round so she can fill in her charts herself
You split the round and she finishes her own charts with accurate numbers. The two of you finish quicker than expected. Helping with the work was better than faking the paperwork.
How it went
At five o'clock the wing was calm, Dennis had a plan for Dad's dinner, and Faye's charts were true. Aged care work asks for patience, accurate records and the sense to meet people where they are. Could you stay gentle at the end of a long afternoon?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: Walking Eileen home
A fictional case set in a memory support wing of a residential aged care home, on an afternoon shift.
The situation
Sione worked afternoons in the memory support wing. Around four each day, Eileen, a resident with dementia, would become distressed and head for the door, saying she had to get home to pick up her children from school. Other staff usually told her gently that her children were grown up, which upset her every time. The afternoon routine was hectic and she often ended up crying in the corridor.
What they did
One afternoon Sione tried something different. He did not correct her. He said that the children would be waiting and asked her what they liked for dinner. They walked slowly around the courtyard while she described it. By the time they came back to the lounge she was calm and asked for a cup of tea. Sione wrote it in her care plan and showed the other staff what he had noticed.
How it turned out
The team began using the same approach, and Eileen's distress at four o'clock lessened over a few weeks, though not every day. Sione said it did not work for every resident and that he checked with the family and his team leader before treating it as a plan.
What would you do?
- Why might correcting Eileen have made things worse?
- How would you decide when it is kind to go along with someone's reality?
- What does this story say about listening for what a person feels, not only what they say?