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/ News / "40 years - it seems to have passed like water, in fact it is a lifetime" Interview with Marcela Nešverová, health and social worker at Hořovice Hospital

"40 years - it seems to have passed like water, in fact it is a lifetime" Interview with Marcela Nešverová, health and social worker at Hořovice Hospital

16. 9. 2015

Nurse Marcela Nešverová has been working at the hospital in Hořovice for forty years and, as she says herself, "it seems to have gone by like water, in fact it's been a lifetime". In recent years she has been working at the hospital as a social worker. After all, working with people is intertwined with her whole life. Whoever knows her, and hundreds of patients from the Hořovice and Berounsko area know her, knows that she is above all a very kind and empathetic woman who can talk to anyone about their troubles. The following interview is about her many years at the hospital and her position as a social worker there.

You've been working at the hospital in Hořovice for an incredible forty years...
I started in 1975, right after graduation, in the surgical department. I was very attracted to this department and I soon liked working here. I worked here with a three-year break for maternity leave - 35 years. I always enjoyed the three-shift operation of the department, the good working team and the high workload. I loved doing this job and although there were some offers of change over the years, I could never manage to go elsewhere, it just felt like I belonged here.

What are the most important changes the hospital has undergone during your tenure?
The overall transformation is obvious to everyone at first sight. It's beautiful and modern. All the wards of the hospital have undergone a complete renovation, during which the space of the wards has been expanded, all the rooms have their own bathroom, there is a television in every room, all the windows have blinds. The doctors' offices and rooms, examination rooms are also beautiful - I just miss the facilities for the nurses a little. The most amazing thing for me is the equipment of the whole hospital with mobile and reclining beds and modern bedside tables - which was once only a fairy-tale idea for us.
Time has brought great progress, especially in the instrumentation of the diagnostic and other departments of the hospital. I remember that we used to take patients to distant departments for the now quite common examinations. I also see great progress in the improvement of medical supplies to ensure that staff have the best working tools. I think that our hospital provides its patients with medical care of a high standard.

You have been working as a social worker at the hospital for the last few years. Could you tell your colleagues and readers about your work?
In 2011, the hospital management decided to create the position of health and social worker.
For me it was an attractive offer, at that time I was already managing 12-hour services in the surgery with all my strength. I got this job and I love doing this job.

What does social work in a hospital involve and who do you work with?
With the help of doctors and nurses, I contact our clients and their families with the offer of aftercare options - continuing treatment in RHB facilities, (most often RHB Beroun, Italská Praha, Praha-Prosek, Praha-ÚVN, RHB Na Pleši) stays in aftercare facilities, (ONP Beroun, Masarykovo sanatorium Dobříš, LDN Třebotov, LDN Motol, Vysočina aftercare hospital Ledeč-Háj) or respite stays provided by homes for the elderly. (Hořovice, Beroun, Zdice)

If the family or the client chooses family care, I offer the popular help of nursing services or the recently very frequently used services of Home Care Agencies - where field workers provide regular transfers, collections, education and assistance in nursing, blood pressure measurement and palliative care in the client's family. A great help for our clients is the rental of compensatory aids, which is run by STP in Hořovice. Palliative care for the seriously ill is provided according to the wishes of the patients - in hospices in Pilsen, Prague or Čerčany, or the newly opened Home Hospice in Hořovice, which provides care in families.

What problems do you face the most? Has the position of the patient changed nowadays and in what direction?
It often happens that our clients are homeless people living on the streets. Even for them, if they want, we can help. Almost always it is with the help of the staff of the Parish Charity Beroun. The Beroun Day Centre for the Homeless is a place where these clients can turn for help with confidence. I very much appreciate the work of the field workers and thank them for their wonderful cooperation.
The counselling service also works well, when our clients or family members contact me for advice on how to proceed in obtaining various social benefits and so on. I inform them about the correct procedures, give them contacts or forms to fill in. We cooperate closely with the social department of the Municipality of Hořovice and the Municipality of Beroun.
I always try to find the best solution for the client's life situation. I feel it is my mission to help patients and their loved ones to cope with the negative social consequences of their illness. I try to be guided by Albert Einstein's popular quote, "Only the life we live for others is worth living."