Back to yesterday: the meeting with two nurse from neighbourhood care (buurtzorg, in Dutch). TR is so eager to know how they work she even forgets to give us a chance to introduce ourselves. I miss part of the beginning of their story because I go to the kitchen to make tea.
It turns out that the three nurse who have started buurtzorg in our neighbourhood all have been employed by Mea Vita and at one point were so annoyed that they decided to leave and start for themselves. They got in touch with the national office of buurtzorg, which is in Almelo, in the eastern part of the country and have started their own buurtzorg team. They are five at the moment and a sixth nurse has been found who will soon join them. They are quite particular about new members of their team. They must be qualified but even more important is that they have the right mentality. Buurtzorg works very much in the way the district nurse worked, more than 20 years ago. This is how TR used to work so she is very excited to hear this. It is one and the same nurse who takes care of a patient and provides all the care the patient has an assessment for. They only work in a relatively small geographical area, so they do not lose much time travelling from one address to another. They can be reached 24 hours a day, but so far do not take any patients who need care during the night. If, however, they have helped a patient for a while and this patient becomes terminal, then they will not leave him/her alone. Until now there has been a fair balance between the demands for help and the numbers they can serve. They are extremely positive about the Almelo office which gives them very good support in all possible ways, taking a lot of the administrative work out of their hands. They now feel they are the professionals they want to be. Nursing is the very best profession you can possibly imagine, they both agree, but you need to have the particular personality that a is natural for a good nurse.
I wonder if our group can do something for them so that more buurtzorg becomes available. This is not really the case. They want to extend their work only to the degree to which they will find people who want to work along the principles of buurtzorg and they do not want to let their own team grow too large. They want to be able to function as a real team of which the members support each other whenever necessary. The demands for buurtzorg have increased steadily and are likely to increase even faster, as the word spreads…yesterday they were on television. A research institute has evaluated their work and the outcomes are extremely positive!
We exchange addresses and LD promises to introduce them to a network of several social organisations active in the city district, that try to connect with each other. We expect we will see and hear more of each other, but right now there are no other concrete things we can do.Should we need home care we know where to go.
Thursday: it is Bossche bollen days! Great! Bossche bollen are a special kind of pastry consisting of a puff, filled with whipped cream and covered with dark chocolate. A confectioner, not too far from where I live, specialises in them. Every year, around the first weekend in February there is a special sale of Bossche bollen when they are sold at half price.This is by now a well known tradition. Two years ago they sold 45.000 of them in three days.Esther and I make a point of it to go and get our share and we invite each other for coffee and Bossche bollen. Tonight she will join me. Tomorrow I will go over to her.
It turns out that the three nurse who have started buurtzorg in our neighbourhood all have been employed by Mea Vita and at one point were so annoyed that they decided to leave and start for themselves. They got in touch with the national office of buurtzorg, which is in Almelo, in the eastern part of the country and have started their own buurtzorg team. They are five at the moment and a sixth nurse has been found who will soon join them. They are quite particular about new members of their team. They must be qualified but even more important is that they have the right mentality. Buurtzorg works very much in the way the district nurse worked, more than 20 years ago. This is how TR used to work so she is very excited to hear this. It is one and the same nurse who takes care of a patient and provides all the care the patient has an assessment for. They only work in a relatively small geographical area, so they do not lose much time travelling from one address to another. They can be reached 24 hours a day, but so far do not take any patients who need care during the night. If, however, they have helped a patient for a while and this patient becomes terminal, then they will not leave him/her alone. Until now there has been a fair balance between the demands for help and the numbers they can serve. They are extremely positive about the Almelo office which gives them very good support in all possible ways, taking a lot of the administrative work out of their hands. They now feel they are the professionals they want to be. Nursing is the very best profession you can possibly imagine, they both agree, but you need to have the particular personality that a is natural for a good nurse.
I wonder if our group can do something for them so that more buurtzorg becomes available. This is not really the case. They want to extend their work only to the degree to which they will find people who want to work along the principles of buurtzorg and they do not want to let their own team grow too large. They want to be able to function as a real team of which the members support each other whenever necessary. The demands for buurtzorg have increased steadily and are likely to increase even faster, as the word spreads…yesterday they were on television. A research institute has evaluated their work and the outcomes are extremely positive!
We exchange addresses and LD promises to introduce them to a network of several social organisations active in the city district, that try to connect with each other. We expect we will see and hear more of each other, but right now there are no other concrete things we can do.Should we need home care we know where to go.
Thursday: it is Bossche bollen days! Great! Bossche bollen are a special kind of pastry consisting of a puff, filled with whipped cream and covered with dark chocolate. A confectioner, not too far from where I live, specialises in them. Every year, around the first weekend in February there is a special sale of Bossche bollen when they are sold at half price.This is by now a well known tradition. Two years ago they sold 45.000 of them in three days.Esther and I make a point of it to go and get our share and we invite each other for coffee and Bossche bollen. Tonight she will join me. Tomorrow I will go over to her.
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