Saluting Patricia Watson, Partners in Care’s Longest-Serving Home Health Aide
Every day, over 8,000 Partners in Care home health aides (HHAs) provide care to thousands of New Yorkers, many of whom are VNSNY Home Care patients and CHOICE MLTC members. Out of this large and dedicated group of aides, five have been with Partners in Care since the affiliate was acquired by VNSNY in 1983—including two HHAs who have been working with Partners in Care since the 1970s. Over the next several weeks, Frontline VNSNY will be posting profiles of each of these HHAs. Today, we begin this series by saluting the longest-serving of these home health aides: Patricia Watson, who joined Partners in Care in 1976, a year when Gerard Ford was president, inflation was high, and the country celebrated its bicentennial.
“I Love My Work So Much!”
With 41 years of experience as a Partners in Care home health aide, Patricia Watson holds the distinction of having served longer than any other HHA at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Not surprisingly, she has more than a few stories to tell. One of the patients who sticks in her mind most was a handsome young man named Brad*—a model-turned-actor who she began caring for several years after she joined Partners in Care in 1976. An HIV patient, he always welcomed Patricia with open arms and loved reliving his past with her. “It’s when I was with Brad,” says Patricia, “that I learned the most important thing is to talk with patients… and to listen.” Another patient she remembers fondly is a Southern woman named Edith*, who she cared for over a five-year period. Edith suffered from Alzheimer’s, but as they spent their days together, Patricia learned how to communicate with her client as she cooked, cleaned and, just as importantly, sat conversing with her. “I did everything I could to make her comfortable,” says Patricia, “but it was our talking together that made the difference in her quality of life.”
Patricia’s caregiving career began in the Caribbean. When she moved with her family from St. Lucia to Dominica as a teenager, an ailing aunt there was in need of care. Patricia helped by getting her into bed, changing her bedpans, and making sure she was eating properly. A short time later, Patricia’s family moved again to Brooklyn. At Clara Barton Vocational High School, where she attended, health courses were part of the curriculum. After high school, her road to VNSNY included stops at a health care-focused school run by Brooklyn nuns and hands-on training at Interfaith Medical Center in central Brooklyn, after which she took a home health position established through the federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. When a VNSNY social worker came to counsel one of Patricia’s patients, she liked what she saw in the young healthcare worker and recommended Patricia to Partners in Care.
Though Patricia has had occasional patients in Brooklyn and Queens, most of her clients have resided in Manhattan. One of the perks of her job, she says, has been getting to know the borough well, “from the top to the bottom and from the East Side to the West.” Most important, though, is the quality of care she continues to provide to this day. “You’ve got to listen to your patients and laugh with them, especially if they have no family,” explains Patricia. “The smile on a client’s face lets me know I’m giving them the kind of help and respect that I would want when I’m the one in need of care.”
After more than four decades in the field, Patricia recently lightened her workload—if an essentially full-time schedule can be called “light.” The key difference is that she now has only two patients, both in Brooklyn: a woman in Brownsville with diabetes, who she cares for in the mornings, and an East Flatbush gentleman with arthritis, who she attends to in the afternoons. “Age is creeping up on me,” Patricia says, “but I love my work so much! Who knows when I’ll be ready to hang up my uniform?”
* The patients’ names have been changed for privacy.
