This past Wednesday, we finally returned to the classroom for our usual meeting time. The past 3 weeks have been filled with engaging and fun site visits and tours around San Diego, while I really enjoyed these mini field trips, I enjoyed being back inside for the change of pace. Although overall, our class period felt like it was going a lot slower than usual compared to those site visits.
We started class with our first round of current event presentations. One of the groups’ brought up the topic of caretaker burnout which I thought was interesting because it’s an aspect of health care that isn’t acknowledged much if at all. It’s often overlooked because I think the role of caregiving for most people is associated with family duties within a household or family unit, so some may fail to see as a field that deserves credibility and recognition that other health care professions have. But many fail to see, and I’ve seen it first hand with my grandma, that caregiving for an older adult is a full time affair that requires intensive mental, emotional, and physical labor. The responsibilities involved can sometimes parallel that some nursing care facilities provide. More support is definitely needed for this unseen group, which is growing, and I think compensation or stipend programs for family caregivers should be a large part of that. These programs can be implemented through health insurance be or Medicare to alleviate some of the burden on these individuals.
Following the current event presentations, we had a jam packed agenda discussing the upcoming assignments and deadlines. To be honest, all of the looming deadlines have been in the back of my mind in the face of midterm season, and the scarce classroom time in the past month. I hadn’t realized that the next few weeks will be packed with presentations and events (oral history, book presentation, group HAPs, NAPs). It was like that splash-of-water-in-the-face reminder of the quarter system’s relentless pace. It was a little overwhelming at the beginning, but after talking to others during the short break, I wasn’t the only one. I’m relieved knowing that we’re all in this struggling college life together.
We started class with our first round of current event presentations. One of the groups’ brought up the topic of caretaker burnout which I thought was interesting because it’s an aspect of health care that isn’t acknowledged much if at all. It’s often overlooked because I think the role of caregiving for most people is associated with family duties within a household or family unit, so some may fail to see as a field that deserves credibility and recognition that other health care professions have. But many fail to see, and I’ve seen it first hand with my grandma, that caregiving for an older adult is a full time affair that requires intensive mental, emotional, and physical labor. The responsibilities involved can sometimes parallel that some nursing care facilities provide. More support is definitely needed for this unseen group, which is growing, and I think compensation or stipend programs for family caregivers should be a large part of that. These programs can be implemented through health insurance be or Medicare to alleviate some of the burden on these individuals.
Following the current event presentations, we had a jam packed agenda discussing the upcoming assignments and deadlines. To be honest, all of the looming deadlines have been in the back of my mind in the face of midterm season, and the scarce classroom time in the past month. I hadn’t realized that the next few weeks will be packed with presentations and events (oral history, book presentation, group HAPs, NAPs). It was like that splash-of-water-in-the-face reminder of the quarter system’s relentless pace. It was a little overwhelming at the beginning, but after talking to others during the short break, I wasn’t the only one. I’m relieved knowing that we’re all in this struggling college life together.