“You are their family,” Ann said. This is the life of a PCW. Taking care of elderly residents is the main job at an assisted living facility. Where the caretakers get to know the residents far better than the residents own families. A personal care worker gets to follow and care for elderly residents from the time that they get admitted to the time of death.

Ann is a personal care worker and works at Care Partners Assisted Living LLC. A PCWs’ job is to care for residents through the end of their life. The workers have to cook and clean for the residents as well as give them their medications on a daily basis. The care staff also get to have fun with the residents by organizing activities like bingo and crosswords, and in the summer residents can go outside in the garden. Even though a PCWs’ job is tough it’s still a job and an emotional one at that. There is a schedule to the job but it’s still littered with unexpected situations.

“You answer call lights, go through the mar, do laundry, give showers and pass meds. This is the routine I follow everyday,” Ann explained the daily routine of a PCW.

Ann’s day starts with going to the Medication Administration Record aka the “mar”. She has to make sure that everyone's medication has been accounted for and to see who will need medication in the coming hours. Once the medical book is counted the long day of answering calls from residents begins. Ann can be called into a room for any reason whether it is to help give a shower or to help a resident down to the dining room for a meal. Around 7 o'clock every night Ann has to begin making dinner for every resident. At Care Partners there are three, planned, meals per day. Then around 8pm all the residents begin flocking to the dining room for their evening meal. Once everyone is done eating, which is usually in an hour, the residents start by going back to their rooms to begin getting ready for bed or watching the Hallmark channel. At 9:30 pm Ann will start delivering medication to the residents and begin putting each one to bed before moving on to the next room. Even before bed the residents like to talk as they do all day long.

“The residents like to talk,” Ann tells me what residents do for their spare time.

As the day goes by Ann is continually learning more and more about her residents. Ann, along with her partner, are in charge of 16 residents. All of the residents are over the age of 70 and have plenty of stories to share. Even though Ann has work to do she is a personal care worker and her job is to give the people she cares for a good living environment, and sometimes this can be sitting down for a quick chat with a resident. Throughout the day Ann gets to hear stories of the residents’ children and even the residents’ life when they were children, and these stories can be emotional at times.

“This job covers all emotional feelings a person can have,” Ann stated.

Being a PCW is not only a tough job but it is an emotional job at the same time. Over the course of a day Ann can be laughing with a resident about a story and then the next minute helping comfort someone who is on their deathbed. A job like this is very random and a surprising event can turn up in an instant in one day.

“It’s to all degrees the people, and the jobs, that I have in my building that make my job fun,” Ann said.