CAREGIVER DOCUMENTARY SCREENING

Nursing & Healthcare students uncover the true story of patient caregivers.

Did you know that 1 in 5 Americans is an athome, unpaid caregiver?

Every day, Hospice organizations work with healthcare providers to offer patients highquality treatment. And every day, these professionals work with patient families and friends who, without warning or training, are thrown into the selfless role of home caregiver. What happens when families also find themselves in need of support? How can the medical community prevent these people from feeling overwhelmed, strained, and exhausted?

Catawba Valley Community College’s School of Health Education was eager to address these issues. In partnership with Lenoir-Rhyne

University (LRU), the Western Piedmont Council of Governments (WPCOG), and Hospice group Carolina Caring, CVCC invited their Health Education students and LRU’s Nursing students to the CVCC Tarlton Complex for a documentary screening and panel with speakers from various healthcare disciplines.

“The Caregiver Documentary screening is a wonderful opportunity for CVCC’s School of Health Education to collaborate with other agencies,” says Robin Cornett, Dean of Health Education at CVCC. “The documentary and panel discussion will provide participants with an inside view of the role of a caregiver.”

This year, the educational event focused on helping students recognize the signs of caregiver strain, or the levels of stress that put caregivers’ mental and physical health at risk. Students watched the medical documentary Caregiver: A Love Story produced by A New Day film. Originally focused on end-of-life care practices, the filmmaker changed her perspective after getting to know the family members and loved ones who took such good care of patients.

As the documentary shows the routine of a spouse taking care of a loved one with chronic illness, it emphasizes the importance of offering services to the spouses, family members, or friends who are tackling burnout. Helping students recognize the

“For us, it’s less about teaching students what they (students) may go through and more about appreciating and recognizing what a caregiver goes through,” says Dr. Michael McGee, Dean of the College of Health Sciences at Lenoir-Rhyne University. “After they have gone through this, they will have the opportunity to discuss what they learned with their faculty. We are really trying to get them to think about how their role is more than just one-on-one with the patient.” The Hospice movement intends to help all persons affected by the medical situation maintain healthy lives through a clinical and holistic approach, addressing the needs of body, mind, and spirit. Their hope is that students gain a greater understanding of what it means to work in respite care and how it benefits the community.

“Looking at patient and family as unit of care, we never just focus on patients, but all those Involved with person’s life,” says Julie Packer, Director of Professional Relations at Carolina Caring. “We offer support emotionally and

If there’s anything to convey across disciplines wihtin universities and colleges, it’s the importance of supporting the caregiver— this begins with the types of methods and techniques taught in their college courses. These skills should be a part of the college curriculum beforehand, so medical students are prepared to support the caregivers who are thrown into this role with no background of medical terminology or procedures. “The more we can make people aware of this (type of care), the better,” says Dr. Kerry Thompson, professor and Chair of the School of Nursing at Lenoir-Rhyne University. “We all know people this happens to.”

Carolina Caring and the WPCOG are hopeful that this event will lead to similar ones. A continued partnership between CVCC and LRU will help other events move forward down the road. Ultimately, the program emphasizes how healthcare professionals, community resources, and family caregivers can support one another during a patient’s course of treatment.