Truth is, it takes a very special kind of a person to be a caregiver. Caregivers do much more than just attend to the needs of their patients. They nurture, they listen, they affirm, they provide companionship, and much more. If your senior loved one or a sick family member needs home care in Winnipeg, you want to hire a caregiver who will treat them as their own. These are some of the top qualities a good caregiver needs to have:
Patience
Patience is the capacity to tolerate delay, endure difficult circumstances, problems, or suffering without responding in annoyance. After children, most care recipients are seniors. When dealing with the elderly especially, a caregiver requires a great deal of patience. Because of their physical and mental declines, elderly people may take longer to perform tasks or even decipher messages. Many who are frail may be physically challenged or have particular chronic illnesses. Most of these issues call for special care and caregivers are required to be patient.
Empathy
The ability to put oneself in someone else’s shoes is an act of empathy. A caregiver should be able to identify with the pain, the fears, and the discomfort of their care recipients. Only then can they be in a position to make them feel better. To show empathy, the caregiver must be compassionate and be able to think about how they’d want to be treated if roles were reversed.
Dependability
The importance of being dependable cannot be overstated. Regardless of how compassionate and patient a caregiver is, if they cannot be depended upon, everything else will falter. You see, if you’re considering hiring a caregiver for your loved one, it means a bit of their independence has been lost. To be of help, therefore, the caregiver must be present when need calls. If the caregiver keeps finding all sorts of excuses for not being able to perform certain tasks or if they can’t be there as scheduled, then they will not be of much help. At the end of the day, dependability is a function of honesty and preparedness – both are key in the helping process.
Passion
A passionate caregiver is one who genuinely loves helping people in need. The caregiving profession is not fit for one who goes into it for the sole reason of receiving monetary compensation. This is the kind of field that presents daily challenges – many that will require going the extra mile. If a caregiver is not passionate, it’ll be evident in how they deal with the patient. In fact, all the other qualities mentioned above depend on this one trait – passion. A caregiver who is passionate about their work will be unstoppable, always devising ways of improving their work.
Emotionally Stable
It’s natural that a caregiver will bond with their patient. In fact, for the relationship between the caregiver and the patient to thrive, bonding is a necessary element. However, the caregiver must maintain emotional strength so they are of help to their care recipient. Particularly when taking care of a patient who has a chronic illness and is in their last stages of life, the caregiver must be one who must maintain emotional stability.
At Partners for Home, we take all our caregivers through a thorough interview to ensure that we only hire the best who have the necessary skills and qualities. We also provide those we hire with constant training to continually hone their skills and capacities.
