Betty Keller, Kalkaska, MI, is a certified nursing assistant who has been a DCW for 28 years. She talks about the skills needed to be a DCW: technical skills, patience, being able to communicate with all kinds of different people and levels of mental or physical states, recognizing when a person is in trouble medically, problem solving, and for her, “forward thinking” or always thinking about “What can I do next? What’s going to make this situation better for the person?”
It also requires “adaptability” to all possible situations. She once had to protect her client and herself with a frying pan from a violent family member. DCWs need training in adapting, knowing what to do to make each moment safe and successful, situations such as “Oh, I just walked into a home, and it’s trashed, and there’s 30 people living here, and they’re all fighting, and you know, we have to prepare people for things that people don’t think really happen, but they do.”
For Betty, it’s not just the wages affecting the DCW shortage. “There’s lots of need out there, but location. You know, for me living in Kalkaska, to get anywhere it’s a drive. If you have to drive an hour for a 2-hour shift, then the caregiver is putting out more in the gas and the wear and tear and her time then she’s actually able to use that income to support her family.”
DCWs need support, especially from management. Grief counsel is just one example. In Betty’s words, “When someone passes away, I show enough [emotion] to show that I care, but I don’t show it all because this is their time. This is their process. But when I leave the house, I cry like a baby. I pray. I ask the Lord to make sure that they feel his love…and I ask him for my own strength.”