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At Akooramak’s McCullough wing, having a supportive team is the key to a long and rewarding career in the demanding aged care sector, according to Warwick’s Sharon Hobbs, 62, recently nominated in the You are ACE! campaign.
The Direct Care Worker’s dedication has recently been acknowledged in the Aged and Community Care Providers Association’s ‘You are ACE!” campaign which recognises excellence across residential aged care, home and community care, retirement living and seniors housing.
Sharon has been making a difference at Akooramak Care of Older Persons, in the regional Queensland town of Warwick, a two hours’ drive southwest of Brisbane, for almost 35 years. She juggles a four on, four off permanent part-time rotating roster in Akooramak’s McCullough wing and regularly helps to fill gaps when staff numbers are stretched.
The key to being successful and lasting the distance, Sharon says, is that “you have to love working with elderly people and you have to have lots of patience. You treat them (older people) like you would your own parents or grandparents – with respect and kindness and also kindness towards their families,” she said.
Teamwork is crucial.
“If you work as a team things work better - from cleaners to care staff. And then you have one great big happy family. We all try to work together.”
After having worked for so long in the one aged care home in a close-knit regional town like Warwick, population 15,000, Sharon said she was now in the privileged position to be caring for the woman who employed her all those years ago.
Akooramak resident Mrs Maureen Gillespie (pictured with Sharon) was the Director of Care from 1978 to 2002 and employed Sharon in 1998. “We often talk about the good old days,” Sharon reminisced. “(We talk about) when she was in charge … how things were different back then and she always tells me what a good girl I was, and we have a good laugh.”
In addition to her current 25-years as a Direct Care Worker working with dementia and palliative care patients, Sharon also worked at Akooramak as a “domestic” in the kitchen and cleaning for nine years before taking time off paid employment to raise her children.
“I love the oldies. I love my job. They are just great to look after. There are challenges but you just deal with it and get on with it,” she said.
“Every shift is different. I enjoy the variety of the work and I’ve made a lot of nice friendships with the residents. I seem to be respected by them because they come to me when they have an issue and I try to fix that.
I work with a great team of RNs (registered nurses) who are very supportive. We’ve seen a lot of changes over the years. We’ve just got a good pay rise; the best one we have had for a long time. But I guess I’m not here for the money, I’m here for the oldies. Some of them have interesting stories to tell and it’s great to chat to them when you have the time … they are amazing.”
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