So Care Workers Don’t Deserve More Than Minimum Wage

Couldn’t have put it better myself ❤️❤️❤️

So care workers don’t deserve more than minimum wage because they “only sit around and make cups of tea for people” ?!?!? I can give you a list off the top of my head to show what care workers actually have to do, and I can bet it’s not even half of it.

1) Washes

2) Showers/baths

3) Dressing

4)Shaving

5) Apply creams

6) Brushing hair/teeth

7)Changing incontinence pads

8)Emotional support when they’re sad

9)Giving them company, sometimes we’re the only people they see all day

10)Giving medication, even the likes of controlled drugs (doing a nurses job on minimum wage

11)Hoists, stand aids, getting the person from A to B

12) Reassure them when they’re frightened, calming them down when they’re irritated

13) Cleaning their homes

14) Take them out to socialise

15) Shopping calls

16) Chase up medication

17) Call GP’s when new medication/cream may be needed

18)Arrange appointments

19) Make their meals and drinks

20) Catheter care

21)Stoma care

22) Answer all their emergency response calls

23) Handle their finances, in some cases

24) Remain calm and professional when they’re hurling verbal and sometimes physical abuse at you

25) Apologise when they insult the care staff, even though it’s not our fault

26) Take them to the hospital when needed

27) Toilet calls

28) Feeding them

29) Turning them onto each side if bed ridden, to avoid sores

30) Battling with 111 and Doctors when you know they need to be checked over

31) Dementia care

32) Alzheimers care

33) Parkinsons care

34) Many various illnesses and disease care

35) End of life care

36) Supporting families, reassuring them and keeping them informed of everything happening with their relative

37) Dealing with family complaints and apologising even though the situation was often 99% out of your control

38) Pushing people in wheelchairs, along with all their shopping bags when they’re out

39) Acting fast when someone shows symptoms of a stroke, heart attack, fits, various other conditions

40) Keeping people calm when they have fell, assuring them that help is on the way and they need to lay still as possible

41) Recognising when the person you visit numerous times a week is acting out of sorts. Acting upon it and seeking advice because you KNOW that’s not their usual self.

42) Having the patient of a saint. We’re busy, but we don’t and can’t rush. We go at their pace. Always

43) Washing and drying, folding and ironing, putting away clothes

44) Making sure they’re wearing their emergency help button, so that you’re confident they can press it should they need help once you’re gone. It’s not always easy. People can refuse, or throw it away.

45) When a person won’t take medication they critically need, you have no solution, but you need to BE that solution. Figure out ways you can get them to converse with you and listen, so they will take the tablets that will keep their health stable.

46) We’re sometimes verbally and physically abused. We get called all the names under the sun, sometimes we get punched, slapped, kicked and bit, they pull our hair or lash out. It’s not always their fault, illnesses can cause this behaviour. We just have to remove ourselves from the environment and report.

47) We can go hours with no break

48) Sometimes we have to hold our bladder for 2+ hours because we literally don’t have time for the toilet

49) Our calls list is full, but someone calls for help, we need to find ways we can get to them as well as doing everything else we need to do

50) We don’t complain. Our job is hard. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we’re reduced to tears. We do it all for minimum wage, we know we deserve so much more, but we still do it anyway. Because we are care workers, and we genuinely do care 💗💗