Out of conviction in care

Created: 05/11/2022, 17:15

By: Victoria Strachwitz

"Enormous cohesion in our house": (from left) the head of the Evangelisches Pflegezentrum Planegg, Astrid Ühlein, Jelena Gnjidic and Mehmet Talay with resident Helmut Zendath in a wheelchair.

© Dagmar Rutt

Nurses Day is celebrated internationally today.

Nursing staff from the Würmtal tell how they came to this profession, what it means to them and why – despite two difficult years – they are not giving up.

Würmtal

– The nursing profession has a bad reputation: Anyone who takes it up has to work a lot for little money, has a lot of stress, is exposed to a high level of mental and physical stress and is not appreciated.

But if you listen to the nursing staff in old people's homes in the Würmtal on the occasion of today's international nursing staff day, they experience a lot of gratitude, warmth, fulfillment and versatility in everyday life.

Nursing staff from the Würmtal tell how they came to their profession - and why they stay

You see the satisfaction of the needy people and their smiles.

You experience collegial cooperation, seriousness and a willingness to make sacrifices.

For all these reasons, the nurses interviewed here would not trade their job for another.

But nobody in the Würmtal wants to whitewash the work in geriatric care.

Even the head of the Evangelical care center in Planegg, Astrid Ühlein (58), has not been averse to changing careers in the past two years.

“During the crisis of the pandemic, the burden was enormous.

The burden I had to put on our employees, the burden I had to put on the residents and their families in lockdown pushed me to my limits," she says.

Giving up was not an option for the trained nurse who studied home economics and nutrition.

"The enormous cohesion in our company and my sense of responsibility have kept me." But not only that: "I experience working with and for people as a kind of vocation, because it takes a lot of empathy, joy and inner satisfaction."

Out of conviction in nursing: Giving up was not an option

Jelena Gnjidic (40) didn't always think of changing jobs.

"My work is stressful for the psyche and the body," explains the deputy residential area manager of the Evangelical care center Planegg.

But she stayed too.

"I always wanted to do this job and be there for people when they need someone most."

But when she moved to Germany with her family in 2016, she decided it wasn't too late to pursue the career she always wanted to pursue.

"All my life I have seen myself as a person who helps other people." She has now been working in geriatric care for five years.

Career changers like Gnjidic are not uncommon in the old people's homes in the Würmtal.

After learning two manual trades, Kai Hasselmann realized at the age of 28 that what he had experienced as a 19-year-old doing community service at the German Red Cross would not let him go.

He opted for a social profession "where I can work intensively on and with people".

Today Hasselmann says: "I've been working in care for 21 years now, and this job fills me completely." The 49-year-old has been the deputy residential area manager at the Caritas nursing home Maria Eich in Krailling since September.

"In my 21 years in geriatric care, I have never considered changing jobs.

I see this as a calling for me.”

The nursing profession as a vocation

For Mehmet Talay (54), a specialist at the Planegg care center, it was never an option to change nursing jobs - if he had, he might have continued to work in a hospital.

But that was ultimately out of the question.

“It gives me great pleasure to help people in need of care;

when I see that I make our residents happy, that's a sign of recognition for me and I can go to sleep every night with a clear conscience." 22 years ago, a friend had told him about the training as a geriatric nurse and Talay met her right away right decision.

Angelika Friedrich (62), who works as a nursing assistant at the Caritas St. Gisela nursing home in Gräfelfing, is a trained dental assistant.

But she doesn't see herself as a career changer.

She was always there for sick people.

Friedrich has been working as a nursing assistant for 17 years.

She appreciates the "consistency, satisfaction and joy in work".

Nurses want more appreciation from society

Her colleague Jasmina Halilovic (26), deputy nursing manager in St. Gisela in Gräfelfing, hasn't been there that long, but is also filled with the daily gratitude of the residents she cares for.

Her grandfather's dementia sparked her interest in the profession.

She has been doing it for eight years, is happy to please the residents and teaches trainees.

As Ühlein says, the nursing profession is a kind of vocation that requires a lot of empathy, joy and inner satisfaction.

"Certainly there are other professions that fulfill this." But none of those questioned here would like to practice another profession.

They would still wish for significantly more appreciation by society.