Adeline



Hello... My name is Adeline and I'm from Indonesia. I came from a city named Surabaya. I moved to Tasmania in 2009 so I've been here for 2 years now. I went to a university and majored in Secretarial work (Bachelor's degree). I worked for several years and as a secretary and an admin officer. I used to work at the office. Once, I also became a volunteer for two years. My friends and I helped poor kids to get their birth certificates because it wasn't free to get it. It was quite hard and we did it without getting any payment but we loved doing it. It's like a privilege to help those kids since birth certificates are very important for entering schools and universities and as the basic information for all the documents that we want to get. I moved to Tassie because I married my husband and he lives here. I love Tassie because it's totally different compared to the city where I came from. Tassie is quiet, no traffic jam, cooler and it has magnificent views. Since February 2011 I have been studying at Tasmanian Polytechnic in Hobart as an English student. I really enjoy studying here because I meet lots of new friends from many different countries. The teachers are also great and really helpful. In July I took a short course (Community Services Course Certificate 2) in Polytechnic Clarence Campus in Warrane and now I'm studying at Work It Out course. For this course, I choose to work as a carer for aged and disability centre. I'm going to do work experience at St. Ann's Home in Davey Street, Hobart. It will start on 18th October and I'm going to do it for five weeks (twice a week). I want to work in aged care and disability sector because I like being with elderly people and I'm a caring person. I always want to help them to do their activities and talk to them. I'm caring, loving, patient, easy to talk to, have a good sense of humour, reliable, organised and able to work in a team (with other people). I think I will be qualified to be a carer. For this work experience, I'm going to work in a Leisure and Entertainment section. I'm not sure what kind of duties that I will do but I might have lots of conversations with the elderly people. I might talk to some of them (mostly to accompany them), help them to do their daily activities and so on. After doing this course and get a work experience, I would like to continue my study at Aged Care course Certificate 3 and hopefully I will get a job as a carer and eventually I will go to Enrolled Nursing Course.

__My Work Experience Week 1__ I started my work experience on 18th and 19th October (on Tuesday and Wednesday) from 9 am until 4 pm. It was a very good experience and I learned a lot from it. When I came to the nursing home, I had to sign in and then met Kelly Ryan, a member of the Leisure and Lifestyle staff. She was very nice and very keen to help me. She explained what tasks that I needed to do. Kelly also introduced me to other staff and residents. We went to the Dementia Unit and I helped to serve drinks to some of the residents. Then I talked to some of them. It was quite sad to see the residents at the Dementia Unit as they have memory loss and sometimes it's hard for you to talk to them. After I stayed for a while in the Dementia Unit, Kelly took me to the low and high care units to meet some of the residents and talked to them. I was quite happy to interact with these residents because they were nice and welcoming. I had my lunch break at 12 for a half hour. In the afternoon, Kelly and I took some of the residents outside to do the walk near the nursing home. It's a good activity especially because the weather was good and mostly the residents like to go outside. After we finished doing the walk, I went to the activity room and sat together with some residents to play scrabble. It was a very fun game and everybody was happy to play it. While we were playing scrabble, Kelly and I also served drinks and snacks to the residents. A half hour before I finished my work experience, I had a short break (for about 15 minutes) and then came back to Kelly's office to talk to her about my feelings doing this work experience. At 4 pm I signed out and went home. Day 2 of work experience was similar to the first one. In the morning I helped Kelly to serve meals to the residents because we had a Hot Breakfast Club program once a week (on Wednesday). It was like a breakfast time at hotels when you have breakfast and a chef cooks the meal in front of you. After the Hot Breakfast Club finished, I went to the Dementia Unit and talked to some residents. In the afternoon, after I finished having my lunch break, I helped some staff in a dining room to serve meals and drinks to the residents in low and high care units. In the afternoon, we had another program called the Women's Only Program and we had a guest coming to show the flowers arranging (flowers displaying). It was also a very fun activity and all the residents enjoyed it. I also went to a resident's room that afternoon and talked to her (just to accompany her). I like doing this one-on-one conversation because they like to be accompanied and talk to someone. Some of them feel lonely and don't like living in nursing homes. I would like to do this kind of conversation more in the future. After I accompanied the resident, I helped Kelly to clean the activity room and then went home.

__My Work Experience Week 2__ On the second week of work experience I didn't have to go to the nursing home because the members of Leisure and Lifestyle staff were having their training so I'm going to do the work experience next week, three times a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday).

__My Work Experience Week 3__ On week three I worked three times as a subtitute of week two. I came to St. Ann's on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. It was a very busy week. On Tuesday because it was also a Melbourne Cup event, Shelly (another staff member of Leisure and Lifestyle) and I tried to offer the residents the sweep. The sweep was $1 and $2 and the winners would get the first, second and third prizes. We went to every room and offered the sweep and lots of residents were interested in doing it. After lunch, at 1.30 some residents were starting to come to activities room to watch the race. We also served afternoon tea and after the race we got some winners. The winners got some money and also some chocolate bars. On day 2 we had Hot Breakfast Club as usual. It was one of the busiest times in St. Ann's. This time I met another two male chefs. We served breakfast and drinks. After it finished, I took some of the residents back to their rooms and then cleaned the tables and set the chairs for the next activity, exercise program. At 11 about 14 residents attended this activities and it was led by a physiotherapist. We did some light exercises. It went for about an hour and after that we had our lunch. After lunch, we had another activity called Concert. It was a mini concert and we invited a guest to play at this concert. Her name is Glenny and she played keyboard. She was a very good entertainer and lots of residents enjoyed her concert. We also served drinks and snacks during this concert. After it finished, we took some residents back to their rooms and then cleaned up the activities room. On day 3 I went to Dementia Unit and talked to some residents. Kelly and I also took two residents from this unit to walk outside. It was a very good weather and mostly the residents love to walk outside eventhough it's just walking around the neighbourhood. After lunch, we had two activities, indoor and outdoor. The outdoor activity was going to Flower Show at Town Hall. Kelly and another staff member, Jenny, took some residents to go to this show. Meanwhile, my friends and I assisted some residents to play bingo in the activities room. There was a new volunteer and her name is Gloria. She also helped us to assist the residents playing bingo. It was a very fun and exciting game. The winners also got the prizes. We really had great time. The game finished at about 3.45 and after that we cleaned up the room and went home.

__My work Experience Week 4 and Week 5__ On week 4 and 5 I did the same activities like before. We also did the outdoor activities such as doing the gardening, sitting and talking and one day we went to Botanical Gardens. We went to Botanical Gardens by hiring two maxi taxies that provided the service for people with disability. We were at the gardens for about one hour and also had an afternoon tea there. We had a really good time because mostly the elderly people love to go outside and see new different things. On the last day of my work experience (on 16th November) Jenny came to visit me and had the review with me and my supervisors. I've got good comments on the way I worked and Kelly encouraged me to pursue my education at Certificate III in Aged Care Course as it is required to work in aged care sector.