My first Magazine St Joseph's Home_40th Anniversary magazine.compres | Page 54

Changing
to Serve
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST
CHALLENGE YOU FACE
AT WORK? angry. Now, I think harder about
what I have to do so I won’t be so
angry anymore.
Lay Lay: Language. The residents
ask for simple things, but we do
not always understand. So we have
to read their body language to
guess what they want. If we don’t,
some of the residents may get
angry. We hug them and hold their
hands to show them that we love
them. Or we even kiss their cheeks. Joylyn: I came to work here when
I was still very young, only 25
years old. It was my first salaried
job. Previously, I was helping out
in my sister’s clinic as an assistant.
After experiencing the pain of
losing my father through cancer,
I was hoping really hard not to be
assigned to the hospice section.
After all, most hospice patients
suffer cancer and I did not want to
deal with those hurting memories
regarding the death of my father.
When I was transferred to
hospice care, I prayed very hard
to God that He would not take
any of these resident during
my shift. However, God took
one of them away while I was
HOW DOES YOUR
WORK IMPACT YOU?
Su Su: I was very timid and hot-
tempered when I first came here.
When I didn’t know how to do
something, I would find it difficult
to ask. Then, I would get very
ILOVEA M. CASTANEDA
JANIGI MOHAN
Senior Nurse Manager
Singapore
Been with St Joseph’s
Home for: 10 years
Staff Nurse
Ilocos Sur, Philippines
Been with St Joseph’s
Home for: 8 years
still holding the resident’s hand.
Slowly, I learnt to face the grief
of losing my father so that I can
become the person that the
others need.
Eliza: I was still young when
I came to work here. In the
Philippines, life was really
different. I think one of the
obstacles I faced was the fear of
patients dying during my duty.
The nuns were on call when
a patient was dying under my
watch for the first time. I was
really scared.
At the start, I would keep a
notebook to write down who had
died. After a while, the names
started adding up so I stopped
doing it. I was also no longer
scared. I slowly learnt to hold
hands with the dying residents too.
JOYLYN HORTILLOSA
Nursing aide
Iloilo, Philippines
Been with St Joseph’s
Home for: 7.5 years
JENEFFER PABILLAR
Nursing aide
Quezon, Philippines
Been with St Joseph’s
Home for: 5 years
52 | St Joseph’s Home