A few weeks ago a reader from a Maritime Province challenged me to be more explicit about careworkers not trying too hard to be consistent in their behavior.
Thanks for the challenge.
I wrote that careworkers need only to be consistent in their continuous interest and attention to the individuals in their care. The effort to be consistent in one’s daily practice is a futile attempt. Caregiving should not be akin to persistently scheduled performances. A rigid adherence to consistent behavior presents a problem because changing circumstances alter the meaning of expected behaviors. For instance, a consistent demand for the same bedtime or lights-out expectation might not make sense depending on whether the care receiver had a strenuous or an easy-going day or might have changing requirements for the getting-up time. On another occasion, consistently expecting absolute silence before starting a meal might be senseless, especially when the individuals are very hungry or excited.
Consistency is most useful when viewed from the care receiver’s frame of reference. For that individual it means that he or she can count on the caregiver’s fair judgment of what the demands are expected to be.
In summary, consistency is experienced, not through adherence to predetermined behavior performances, but rather through the workers being in tune to the demands of ongoing situations.
