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ePaper created 2015-12-01, 11:33:23 | version 1.43.00
34 akzente 3/15 COMMITMENT It is breakfast time for the nursing staff. Ngan puts bread and yoghurt on the tablecloth with the pink tulips. ‘N’ Guadn,’ (‘enjoy!’) she says to her colleagues in perfect Bavarian and asks them to pass the jar of nutella. A nurse from Angola chuckles: ‘You trying to put on weight?’ It has been an issue with Ngan since the outset: some of the residents didn’t want to have her as their carer because they thought the tiny Viet- namese wasn’t strong enough to lift them out of the wheelchair. ‘But there are techniques you can learn,’ says Ngan self-confidently. Liselotte K., a cheerful 91-year-old with immaculate white hair and a neat neck scarf agrees unre- servedly – she was Ngan’s model for the nurs- ing exams. ‘Nani just uses a bit of momentum,’ she says, ‘she is a wonderful nurse.’ Everyone at the home says how friendly the Vietnamese nurses are. And for her part, Ngan says she has never experienced any hos- tility towards foreigners. In any case, 60 per cent of the nursing staff at the home are from a migrant background. Any minor irritations have largely been to do with language or be- cause they were new to the job: unfamiliar faces can be unsettling. The oldest resident on Ngan’s ward is 105 years old; and quite a few of her charges suffer from dementia. A sense of fun despite rigid routines Ngan pauses when she finds Hildegard S. sit- ting in her wheelchair in the recreation room, her head slumped on her chest. She carefully helps the 79-year-old to sit up straight, pulling her shoulders back: ‘It’s bet- ter for you to sit up straight,’ she chides gen- Also available on the akzente app for tablets: the video features trainees talking about their day-to-day routines. (only in German) www.giz.de/akzenteapp Top: Playing games with the residents (left) is as important as providing care – from personal hygiene to help with hearing aids (right). Below: Just one of the many day-to-day responsi- bilities of the Vietnamese nurse is to prepare and administer residents’ medicines (left) and take blood pressures (centre). In the evenings, Ngan goes shopping so she can cook with her friends (right).