Lately I have been working at various hospitals as a patient sitter and companion, at minimum wage ($8 an hour). The job is to sit with a patient and help them for the day. Sounds easy enough, but it isn't.
Yesterday I had a guy who had fried his brain on drugs and whom I could not control; he left the ward and the hospital building and went outside in -15 C temperature in his pyjamas to smoke. Most stressful.
The other day I had a biker who survived a bad crash, and had a brain operation. Kept getting out of bed to look for his stash, his MP3 player, his studded boots, and his leather jacket, all of which were in the security lockup. I would get him back into bed by telling him his stuff was securely locked up and guarded by 4 big beefy guys. Ten minutes later, he would bound out of bed again, having forgotten what I said.
Before that I had a blind Somali refugee who was autistic and could not speak, liked to sleep naked then jump up at random moments and flip his mattress upside down. The most stressful part was when he jumped out of bed and went crashing into another bed and then could not be controlled. He was naked, and unfortunately, one of the beds was occupied by an ex-diplomat and he had 4 old friends visiting. They were horrified at the sight of this uncontrollable naked black man charging around the room.
There were others, equally stressful.
The company called today and wanted me to do another one tomorrow. I said, no, I needed a couple of days to recover from these high stress situations. The boss was annoyed that I wouldn't work.
I don't think I will last long at this. No training. Very little pay. High stress. Not your usual McJob.
Working with Mental Patients
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