Issue 25 & 26
Some people refer to these professionals as Certified Nursing Assistants, or CNAs, but are also known as nurses aides, orderlies, patient care technicians and home health aides. At Zion’s Way Hospice and Home Health we call them Caring Noble Angels (CNAs). June is National CNA month and we would like to honor and recognize all the CNAs in Southern Utah.
Our CNAs work under the supervision of a nurse and provide assistance to patients, helping them with daily living tasks and activities.
Working closely with patients and their caregivers, CNAs are responsible for basic care services such as bathing, grooming, feeding patients, light housekeeping and checking patients vital signs. The CNAs at Zion’s Way give our Hospice and Home Health patients important social and emotional support as well as providing vital information on patient conditions to our nurses. Many Registered Nurses will agree that some of the best RN’s began their careers as CNAs.
CNAs are a very essential and intricate part of the healing process, whether physical, emotional or spiritual healing. The special tenderness, dedication and compassion they give when delivering the most private and personal cares a person needs is so important in connecting with patients and their families.
We teach our CNAs that the energy and light they carry touches and affects the patient on a very deep level. A gentle touch, soothing words or music can affect the patient’s anxiety and pain level. A cheerful smile and attitude can change a patient’s whole day and make it more pleasant and peaceful. How patients are prepared and set up for eating as well as the manner the food is prepared and fed to the patient can affect how much the patient eats and help improve their nutritional status. A patient’s state of cleanliness and care also influences how they respond to others around them and may affect how they sleep and rest.
We echo the lyrics of the song “Angels Among Us”;
Oh I believe there are Angels among us,
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give,
To guide us with a light of love.
They wear so many faces, show up in the strangest places,
To guide us with their mercy in our time of need,
To guide us with a light of love.
We are so grateful for the positive commitments and kind intentions of the Caring Noble Angels (CNAs) we have at Zion’s Way Hospice and Homehealth, and for all those CNAs we come in contact with, whether at skilled nursing facilities, assisted living homes, other medical offices or at Dixie Regional. Each and every one of them can truly be seen as “Angels” to those they serve.