Michelle

Registered Practical Nurse Michelle Hohn has always taken care of people. “Maybe it’s my family upbringing. My parents both emigrated from Germany and with my two sisters, we were all we had. We’ve always relied on each other and we’re really close.”

Michelle began working with older adults as a kitchen aide when she was 16 years old. “I enjoyed working with the elderly, so they let me become a nurse’s aide. You didn’t have to have any training back then.”

During her 34-year (and counting) career in nursing, Michelle worked in long term care and is now an RPN for Sunnyside’s Community Alzheimer Program (CAP), a program that provides meaningful social and recreational opportunities for people living with dementia.

Michelle has many memories, but one that stands out involves caring for a woman who fell ill while she was in CAP. “I stayed with her until she got past it and I was really shocked the next day that she remembered, because she thanked me. So that made me feel good.”

Her role with CAP is clinical in nature, but it’s more than that too. “I do a lot of nursing aspects but we work as a team in doing activities and keeping residents happy, busy, and relaxed.”

For Michelle, it’s about creating moments that matter. “This is a place where they make friends, they may not remember everything… but at the moment they’re enjoying their time here.”

One of the challenges she faces is helping families and participants adjust to being there. “We’ve had some families who have said, “I don’t think it’s going to work here, they’re too anxious.”

But Michelle and her team work together to help them adapt. She explains how one woman who attends the program kept getting up to look out the window after her family member dropped her off. “At first we just allowed her to do that but we would say, “Oh come on over here, let’s have a cup of coffee and sit for a while.”

If she wanted to get up again and look out the window, Michelle would go with her and just reassure her. “I’d say, ‘I spoke to your family member and they’re coming back at this time,’ and she would say, ‘Oh really?’ ‘Yes, they’re coming back, why don’t you come join me here and do this.’”

After a few visits the woman began taking part in activities. “She still got up, but she became quite relaxed here. It makes us feel really good, that we’re making a difference, also with the families, so they can go home, feel that they’re safe and happy here, and they can have their alone time too.”