Julissa Martinez

On Saturday, April 21, 2018, I chose to participate in a community service project organized by the Physical Therapy Club at Kean University. To demonstrate community service, I took part in serving breakfast to the elderly at Cornell Hall Nursing Home. The purpose of this community service was to provide meals to the elderly while engaging with them. The time of the event took place from 8:30am until 11:30am. I chose this project because I enjoy interacting with others and understanding their story. I work for BAYADA Home Health Care as Employee Services Manager and it is my job to provide the field staff to the clients in order to provide their personal care in the home. In the last four years, I have dedicated myself to visit our clients to understand their needs and to get to know them as individuals so I can appropriately hire the staff that meets their exact needs.  I believe that home care is very important especially for the elderly. Some people just like to be in the comfort of their own home and that is a service that my company provides. There are instances where the client does not have family or there is no one who can take care of them which results in the placement in the nursing home. I hope by sharing my experience with the class and others can provide an understanding of what the geriatric and elderly clients go through.

When I first got to the nursing home, I was a bit nervous because I did not know what to expect because I’ve never been to a nursing home before. As our group is walking into the cafeteria, we are greeted by the residents and staff. Then, we started to set up by decorating the tables, assembling the food and drinks. By 9:30am, the residents began to arrive. Each volunteer was assigned a task and mine was to gather the order, interact and deliver food. The menu consisted of bagels, sandwiches, croissants, a variety of cheeses, variety of meats, macaroni and potato salad, parfaits, desserts, coffee and orange juice.
While residents started to stroll in, I began to bring them to their seats and introduced myself to each person I was taking care of. I started to feel like one of my home health aides which gave me a great feeling inside. I got a glimpse of what it is like to prepare meals to clients and be able to take care of their needs. As I began my tasks, the residents were so happy to see us as students caring about their needs. One of the residents expressed to me, that her family no longer comes to visit and it saddens her. She expressed that being in the nursing home is not the same as being home because not only are you alone but you feel like no one cares about you. As we began to exchange stories, the resident thanked me for brightening her day, hoped that I would return to visit and wished me luck with my education. I told her that I would make it my mission to visit and participate in any other events in the nursing home such as bingo night.

 Later on during the event, I noticed that there was one resident who was not eating. The reason why she was not eating was that she kept falling asleep. I took initiative and woke her up because she needed to eat. Little by little I was feeding her and she was able to eat a full meal. She was very grateful for my service and it was a pleasure to be able to do that for her. Lastly, we began to clean up as the event was coming to an end and one of the residents was super nice and appreciative that she decided to give each of us a hug and thanked us for taking time out of our day to spend with them. In such a short time we were able to make an impact on the residents. This experience was very heartwarming and it made me want to continue to help not only these residents but my clients in any way I can whether it is a visit, bringing them food, or just being a shoulder to lean on. I felt very grateful for this wonderful opportunity to make a difference. I encourage anyone who has family members that are elderly to do your best to be there for them because it can make a change in their condition in a positive way and I have seen it first hand in my line of work.