ADLs

ADLs, or Activities of Daily Living are such things as bathing, eating, going to the little boy's (or girl's) room, dressing, etc. Some people require more care than others, and are summed up in the three following basic catagories.

1. Independent: Obviously requires no care. Will ring call light for medicine, and other sundry items.
2. Needs assistance:Usually this type of resident will just need help with a specific thing, such as transfering from place to place (such as from the bed to the chair), or getting stuff from high places to do their morning care (brush teeth, etc). They require very little usually. Sometimes, they get TOO needy though, and can fall into the catagory below.
3. Total Care: This is pretty self explanatory, the resident will need help with virtually all care. The resident will not be able to eat, toilet, dress, or anything without help.

Finger Painting

Think back to kindergarten. You would get the big jar of water color paint, jam your fingers down deep into the colored goop, then smear it all over the paper (or the wall if the teacher was not looking). Paint would be everywhere by the end of the day. It would be in your hair, face, cloths, walls around you, etc. NOW replace the paint with fecal matter, and you have finger painting. For whatever reason, if you do not catch some residents in time, they will smear fecal matter EVERYWHERE. This includes hair, face, etc. Not to mention the linen. Time to hopper!

Hoppering

The door leading to the hopper should read "Abandon all hope ye who enter here". A hopper looks kind of like a large toilet with no lid, and a pipe coming out near the back with a urinal style flush handle and a faucet looming over the bowl. Adjacent to the hopper is a (usually) high pressure hose. The idea is that when someone has a messy piece of linen or clothing, you can place the item in the bowl, and spray out the offensive matter. There is a science involved in not getting splash back from hoppering, and when it happens, it is disgusting beyond belief. I try to avoid hoppering whenever possible, striking whatever deal I need to avoid doing the deed!

Soaker Pads

Soaker Pads are a square piece of linen, usually about 3 feet by 3 feet. They are absorbent on the one side, and not on the other. The idea is that the resident will urinate on the pad, and keep the bed dry. This prevents time consuming bed changes, and are a God send. Of course, they make for unpleasant hoppering, when the water hits the unabsorbent side, and splashes everywhere!

Tuck and pee

The tuck and pee. This is my name for when a resident tucks EVERYTHING they have on the bed (Blanket, sheet,gown,afghans) and pees like a race horse, in effect soaking EVERYTHING on the entire bed. Of course, they seem to know when linen is short, and increase this activity accordingly. Most of the time, if they had not tucked, the only thing that would have needed to be changed would have been the soaker pad.

Bed Alarms

Bed alarms are devices that make a great amount of ruckus if a resident is getting out of bed (in theory, that is)There are two kinds.

1. The string pull kind (not it's official title, I am sure):This one has the alarm box secured to a fixed object such as a bedside table, or the bed itself, and the other end of the string attached to the resident's night gown. When the resident gets up, the string pulls out of the alarm, which prompts the noise to start. This works fine unless your resident is a naturalist, and strips in bed before getting up.
2. The second kind uses a pressure strip under the fitted sheet. While there is the right amount of pressure, the thing stays quiet. When that pressure is lost, the noise begins.This type of alarm seems to be the most problematic. It DOES work when the resident gets out of bed, but it also sounds when the resident moves in bed.