What is PROFESSIONALISM in Caregiving?

Have you ever experienced this type of interaction in a store?

Employees are more interested in talking endlessly with their colleagues (to use the term loosely) rather than serving you.  If you actually dare try to gain their attention, you get either annoyance in the form of rolled eyeballs or passive-aggressive resistance/avoidance.  You are an inconvenient interruption.  They can’t wait to get rid of you so they can go back to what’s ‘really’ important – like spending their shift gabbing on the phone with friends.

What Is Not PROFESSIONAL?

Think this deplorable state of affairs can’t occur within an agency, facility or organization that claims to serve caregivers of aging parents (or others)?  Well, I can tell you the retail equivalent happened more times than not in the journey of supporting my ailing father.  I could have told you in an instant if I was dealing with a representative deeply dissatisfied with their job.  Given people feel safe to vent around me, providers would outright disclose they hate their jobs!

What Is PROFESSIONAL Caregiver Support?

Conversely, a PROFESSIONAL outfit or solo-entrepreneur never takes out their dissatisfaction on the one receiving care nor the family – legitimate as it may be in cases where they are feeling overburdened and taken advantage of by Un-cope-able Systems themselves.  Internal issues are never inappropriately revealed.  You never get the sense that the individual feels like a small cog in a big wheel.  You willingly receive the attention you rightfully deserve.

Questions for Reflection

To assist you in refining what professionalism means to you, how would you answer the following questions?

1. How might you imagine your service provider’s sense of dissatisfaction (or even victimhood) affects your caregiving experience (because it does)?
2. For what reasons would you need to challenge your provider’s sense of victimhood and the unacceptable ways that is expressed?
3. How will you make sure not to ‘take on’ (absorb) responsibility for your provider’s sources of dissatisfaction?

Next Steps

Speaking of PROFESSIONAL, be sure to catch my next weekly live radio show at  www.boldbravemedia.com/shows/the-conscious-caregiver/.  We’ll be talking about “Creative Caregiving Approaches” with an expert who handles every facet of her care planning business with aplomb.

As well, always remember I stand at the ready to serve your needs via a free Readiness Session so we can together determine how I can best help at www.copingwithuncopeableparents.com.

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Carol-Ann Hamilton

Carol-Ann Hamilton has taken her 25 years of corporate experience and turned it into an issue of personal importance. She is a pioneer-activist on the leading-edge of the exploding aging crisis and seeks to save fellow Sandwich Generation caregivers a fraction of her anguish.

Latest posts by Carol-Ann Hamilton (see all)

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