Each person who lives at York Manor has a whole life of experiences behind them.
St. Thomas University students Leigh Estey, Kate Bugden, Denise McClure and Kimberly Russell have learned about these experiences and are using “narrative care” to improve the lives of the nursing home residents.
“The quality of care increases when the staff is able to see the person’s life,” said Estey, who is part of this program for the first time. “Everybody has a story.”
These four students are in their final semester of social work at STU. For their second work placement, they chose to go to York Care Centre nursing home where they’re making a short film on one resident’s life story.
Two of the students, Russell and Bugden, are researching ways to further the credibility of the narrative program. Bugden said they are working towards making “the program more relevant and sustainable within [the nursing home community].”
One component of the social work placement project is called “outreach.” For this portion of the project, the four students will work with another organization implementing a the narrative care program, where students tell the life story of a resident they meet.
McClure said creating narratives is important to her because of “the relationship building that happens with [the resident] through getting to know [their] story.” She said the resident the four students are working with feels very connected to them and she “really enjoys their visits.”
Through the narrative program, the four students learned that their resident was, and still is, a hard worker.
They found out that throughout her life she worked on a farm and also took in about 30 foster children.
Bugden said it was striking to learn that the resident missed working.
“It was inspiring to know that someone could [work hard] and enjoy every moment of it.”
Narrative care gives the residents a sense of self achievement, the students said. Often, the residents learn things about their life they have forgotten or dismissed as an insignificant detail not worth holding onto. A bond is created between the resident and the people who produce their stories.
In December, there will be a ceremony at York Care Centre showcasing the video the students made. It will also be a time to celebrate their resident’s life story.
The four students say their resident doesn’t always believe her life is interesting and she feels she doesn’t have many details to share.
“She’ll be surprised when she sees all her stories together on the screen,” Estey said.
