Philip Y. Kao PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

on other residents, but for some reason she did not feel the need to say anything
regarding Norman. One of the caregivers who worked fulltime in Lana’s section said to
me out in the hall as we were waiting for Lana to finish on the toilet that, “Norman is
overassertive. He is frustrated and doesn’t know what to do with his wife. He is still in
denial and because of that he takes it out on everyone around him.”
* * *
On the fourth floor, residents were aware that they had to share caregivers, and that no
one could monopolise any one caregiver. Within this context, some residents were in
competition with others for attention. Some were very vocal about this while others
were subtler in the ways they anticipated and expected caregivers to aid them, asserting
control over the things they could control. A struggle for attention and for asserting
personal domain in light of one’s social and physical condition in the face of the
caregivers occupied much of the residents’ energy. Care became a navigational set of
procedures for the residents. For the caregivers, care was about managing residents in
various situations and circumstances that arose against the backdrop of residentresident
relations and family histories that came to bear everyday in the daily life world
of Tacoma Pastures.
The residents at Tacoma Pastures looked to their caregivers for a variety of things. They
wanted someone to appear before them in a timely manner whenever and wherever
they pushed their call buttons. For some of the residents, caregivers were people they
could talk to, joke around with, appraise, and evaluate. Caregivers provided the residents
with attention and a set of ears. Some of the residents viewed the caregivers as
custodians of goodwill as well. When I asked some of the residents what they wanted
from their caregivers, they often told me that, “A good caregiver is someone who is good
at their job, but also friendly and nice.” Caregivers often relayed their residents’
concerns to the nurses, and in some exceptional cases, to the directors as well. There
was never the desire for the residents to dissolve the formalities involved in their
interactions with the caregivers. Perhaps it was a sign of their generation that they were
for the most part courteous and polite; they wanted communicative formality, as well as
something personal and friendly in their care. Whether or not they wanted to or not,
they were sharing their experiences of ageing with the caregivers, and part of the
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