Amy Bilson first began working in long-term care at the age of eighteen. “I actually got into this job by accident,” she said. In a recent appearance on Experience Care’s web series, Stories From the Front Line of Long-Term Care, Amy described how helping an elderly couple with disabilities as a teenager greatly impacted her career path. “I loved it,” she said. “I absolutely love that feeling of making a difference and helping people.” 

 

Twenty years later, Amy continues to find ways to make an impact on the lives of older adults at Dove Estates. Hear about her experiences working as a CNA at Dove Estates in the video below: 

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An “Amazing” Place to Work

 

What Amy has found sets Dove Estates apart from other facilities is a comfortable workplace environment in which residents and staff all feel respected and connected. “The culture here is amazing, because it's not geared specifically towards looking at them as older people,” she said. “It's geared toward looking at them as people and people with needs, and people that are human.” 

 

Amy shared that she and her team have “amazing” chemistry. In her interview, she mentioned one particular co-worker with whom she has a powerful bond. “We’re drawn to each other,” Amy said. “It's amazing that I can go into her room and know that she's ended up having a bad day. And she knows if I'm having a bad day.” Amy and her teammates also enjoy a bit of levity on the job. “We goof off all shift, and we goof off with each other, goof off with the residents,” she said. “So it's always a lot of fun.”

 

More Than a Job

 

For Amy, providing care at Dove Estates is not just about the paycheck. Rather, she treasures the opportunity to get to know the people she cares for on a personal level. “To get to listen to their lives and their passions and the things that they care about, that is something I would just do everyday for free,” she said. 

 

It is that spirit that drives her to provide compassionate care and support for Dove Estates residents. “It's more than just passing medications and doing what you have to do,” she said. “It's going above and beyond and making sure that person feels good, making sure they're happy.”

 

Becoming a CNA

 

While there are many challenges involved in the work that Amy does, she lit up when asked by host Peter Murphy Lewis about what she would tell a young person interested in becoming a CNA. “It's so worth it,” she said. “If you can get into this profession, you're going to have so many great memories.You're going to make so many people feel better.” Amy measures her success at work by how she can positively impact residents’ moods. “I like to make my residents laugh and smile,” she said. “At the end of the day, if I can brighten their day and make them laugh or make them smile, I feel like I've done what I need to do.”

 

For Amy, success as a CNA largely stems from her ability to focus on lifting the spirits of her residents. It doesn't matter if you have a bad day,” she said. “You got to come in and make sure that they feel good, they feel special.”  During her work hours, she is able to forget her own troubles and center her attention on those in her care. “In those eight hours you’re here, you got to put aside whatever is going on and make sure that that person that you're talking to and taking care of feels good.”

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