Differences in Geriatric Healthcare: North vs South

There are countless differences between the North and the South, and differences in geriatric healthcare are no exception-- not so much in regard to medical and nursing procedures themselves, but in terms of how caregivers relate to the elderly in providing services.

As a student at Northshore College in southern Louisiana, I was appalled at what that area considered acceptable ways of communicating with the elderly-- it is not at all appropriate to ask one's eighty-year-old patient if he "wants to go wee-wee in the bottle," or to tell one that if she does not "do as she's told" she will have to "sit and watch t.v. all day."

The elderly are not little children, nor do they lack intelligence or feelings. All people deserve dignity and to be treated with respect-- but elderly folks, solely based on the merit of their years, deserve even more. Each has lived a long life; each has a story; and each deserves the chance for their later and final years to be dignified, as comfortable and happy as possible.

To put it plainly, most have abilities-- if they are both allowed and encouraged to use them; and most have something very worthwhile to say-- all it requires is taking the time to listen.

As a native-born New Yorker temporarily transplanted in the Deep South, I learned that the other differences were more easily coped with-- not for anyone to change, but to get along. For example, it was not long before my Proper Southern Lady patient began to greet me upon my arrival each shift with a cheerful, Fonzie-like "Aaaay!"

The only difference which tried her patience much more than my own, though, was the fact that while I personally liked Southern food very much, having had no background in it I did not actually know what it was supposed to taste like, and cooked accordingly. Upon her first taste of my version of grits, she eyed me suspiciously as if thinking 'Yankee fool is trying to poison me!' And I'll go on to admit she had a similar reaction to what I'd spent years believing good cornbread was intended to be.

As geriatric healthcare had been a family business, I pursued it myself for a number of years, finding that there were few lines of employment as rewarding as being in the position of assisting in the everyday lives and being a part of the time in elderly folks' lives where their primary focus is that of dignity and peace of mind. And sharing such an all-important stage in their lives is the most important factor-- much more than the work of the job itself, and even the quickly-learned fact that true Southerners do not take well to their cornbread being spiked with brown sugar.