National Guard Empties Bedpans and Clips Toenails at Nursing Homes
The New York Times
In Minnesota, an ambitious initiative is training hundreds of Guard members to become certified nursing assistants and relieve burned out nursing home workers.
NEW HOPE, Minn. — Pfc. Shina Vang and his fellow soldiers in the Minnesota National Guard have had an exceptionally busy year. They helped process Afghan refugees fleeing Kabul for the United States, provided security at American military bases across the Horn of Africa and stood sentinel in Washington, D.C., following the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
Closer to home, they have been deployed across Minnesota during the civil unrest prompted by the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Daunte Wright in nearby Brooklyn Center.
But none of those experiences prepared Private Vang and his fellow Guard members for their latest deployment: collecting bedpans, clipping toenails and feeding residents at North Ridge Health and Rehab, a sprawling nursing home in suburban Minneapolis that is the largest in the state.
