Every Wednesday and Sunday, senior Hazel Powers clocks into work like many other teenagers do throughout the week. For Powers, her job is more than just practice because as a certified nursing assistant, the health of many is sustained by her care.
During Powers’s eight hour shifts, she helps in aiding the residents of 52 different rooms from both the assisted living facility and memory care facility.
In between the rush of assisting residents and running from room to room, Powers said she has the time to get to know, form bonds with and discover the personalities of the people she’s taking care of.
“I have certain residents that I love and that I find myself hiding out in their rooms and having long conversations with,” Powers said. “The women are my favorite because of the advice that they give, and they’re so funny; it’s the best thing.”
While Powers said she enjoys getting to know patients, she said it makes it more difficult working with people closer to the end of their life, and the grief can take a toll on her.
“I get to know these people, and that is what’s really hard with jobs like this: where if you leave and go to a different job, or if someone passes away, it can really have an emotional effect on you as if you were related to them,” Powers said.
Despite the unique grief being a CNA can cause, Powers said she is grateful to be there for people when they’re at one of the most physically difficult times of their lives, and get to know them even if it’s not who they were the majority of their life.
“It’s worth it because you get to see the effect that it has on those people who are in that situation where they can’t care for themselves the same way,” Powers said. “It feels worth it after talking to their family members, like their children and grandchildren, who are so thankful that the care that we provide is good for them and they don’t have to worry about the hands that their loved ones are in.”
Powers said she is ultimately grateful she took the opportunity to enter the medical field so early, and it has given her reassurance in her career ambitions. Powers plans to go to college for nursing and continue to work in a care facility immediately out of high school.
“If you think that you want to go into the medical field, you should try it out, especially younger, because you will know, even though it’s barely the medical field and you can hardly practice medicine, you will know if it’s an environment that works for you or not,” Powers said.
