Our role as a CRW
For this we asked Meghan MacKinnon, a series of questions for an interview look, the following are the questions we asked and the answers she had.
1. As a CRW how often do you see allergies ?
A lot of the residents I work with do not have everyday allergies, usually it is due to a form of medication they are taking. As caregivers when we see the reaction the resident takes we have to take concern to it right away because if I ate something or did something and got a rash from it I may not take any serious concern to it for myself, but if a resident has a rash, then it definitely would be looked into and checked out, and a doctors appointment would be made and it would be written in there notes for future notice. So I’m sure residents in assisted living facilities have a higher prevalent of allergies since there are so many residents living there.
2. What are the main precautions you would take if one of the residents have an allergic reaction ?
Well, we document everything, we would take them to the doctor to see what it was, but if it was an emergency then we would call an ambulance. We as caregivers usually do not wait and see how things are, if a resident has something red on his eye for example, and it never happened before, we would take him immediately to an on calldoctor. But if its in his notes that it happened last year and was just a sty then we would probably go the next day to his regular doctor, but still to get it checked just to make sure. Documentation is key especially with staff turnover, so when in doubt you should always write in their books.
3. If a resident took an allergic reaction, would you know what to do? What would that be ?
If I was there as a staff member, I would know what his allergies are by reading his medical books, you do that when you are trained on as staff and then you would know what follow up to do. If he took some kind of bizarre reaction to something that was obviously serious then I would call 911 and give them his medical book, which has all of his medical info in it, over most of his life while he was in care.
4. If a new client comes in with an allergy is it your responsibility to educate yourself on it or is the education available for you ?
When a new client comes in all his medical info comes with him and it is the agencies obligation to provide all the info necessary in caring for that individual.
5. What are the most common symptoms from allergies you see?
It depends on the allergy anybody could answer that about any allergy they have every seen. Persistent rash is usually the easiest indicator of a allergy. Anything that’s physical that may appear like bumps, itchy skin, red eyes are all indicators of an irritation to something I knew a resident who was allergic to caffeine and would get red patches everywhere, he loved caffeine, so when he went anywhere that staff wasn’t and came back with a rash, we would eventually admit he had coffee or pop with caffeine in it but he wouldn’t have told us otherwise, if we didn’t physically see the rash.
6. How important do you think it is for us as students going into the CRW field, to educate ourselves on allergies ?
It is very important for anyone going into there new job with the best knowledge that they can no matter what the subject because you never know what your going to run into in this field medically. If you were a new worker, and came across something that wasn’t in there notes, and never happened before, what would you do? Allergies can just happen and if you were working alone and had no idea what it was, wouldn’t you want to be prepared? I know I would.