Anastasija Puzankova, Fudan LLM 2014’ chose to stay in Shanghai after graduation to take care of the city’s seniors.
Anastasija Puzankova (left)
Aged 35, Anastasija is one of the youngest and the few Western faces working as nursing home directors in China.
Anastasija, a student from Latvia, spent nearly a decade studying at Fudan University. After learning Chinese at the School of International Cultural Exchange for two years, she went on to pursue a Bachelor of Laws degree and then a Master of Laws degree (with a focus on environmental and resources law) between 2006 and 2014.
“The longer I stay in China, the more curious I am and there are more things I feel like experiencing,” said Anastasija. She decided to seek her first job in China and worked in a couple of companies before joining Haiyang Group, a conglomerate with subsidiaries across security, property management, health care and elderly care sectors, at the end of 2018.
In April last year, she was promoted to be director of Jiufeng Nursing Home at a town called Liantang in west Shanghai.
What brought this Latvian girl to China?
Back in 2004 when Anastasija went to university at 19, she chose Chinese as her major without hesitation.
“China was such a mystery to me. In geography classes I learned about the geographical location and the types of terrains of China, but that was all about it then. I knew nothing about its culture, economy, etc. Since I really wanted to come here in person, I chose a related major,” said she.
Through a Chinese government scholarship program, Anastasija came to Fudan University and her transformation started from here. “I was so amazed by the city of Shanghai. I didn’t expect China to be so modern. It was totally different from what I had read from textbooks,” she said, adding Latvia’s textbooks tended to focus on the ancient culture and language of China and that she even learned ancient Chinese language before turning to modern Chinese language.
In her Fudan years, Anastasija was an active figure in promoting the welfare of Fudan students and the neighborhood community. She helped to found the Fudan European-American Student Union; submitted a proposal to improve the transportation around the campus. In 2006, she initiated with other international students a charity association called “Don’t Forget the Kids” and built partnership between the association and a number elementary schools. When she obtained her Bachelor’s in 2010, Anastasija was awarded the title of “Graduate Star”, the only winning international student for that year.
Anastasija holds a birthday party for the residents.
“Trying and knowing everything” to better run the nursing home
Jiufeng Nursing Home is located at the westernmost of Shanghai. Every morning, Anastasija spends nearly two hours on her commute, taking two metro lines before a bus ride to the nursing home at 7a.m., which means she has to leave home at about 5:00 a.m.
The nursing home is staffed with 60 people who take care of the daily needs of over 200 residents. 42 of the residents are aged above 90.
The first step and indeed a challenging one for the foreign director is to earn the trust of all her Chinese staff at the nursing home.
“You have to be an expert at everyone’s job when you run a nursing home,” said Anastasija. She wasn’t surprised when reading a story about a nursing home director also holding electrician and plumber certificates.
“I have to know what my staff need to do every day as well as when and where they do it.” For example, she said, if there’s a power failure but the electrician takes the day off, she needs to know whom to call or what should be done to fix it, rather than ask other people to get it done for her. “I am young and full of energy. I am eager to learn as much as possible from my staff. This is my way to run a nursing home,” said she.
Anastasija makes crafts with a resident.
Despite sitting as the top leader of the management team, Anastasija preferred to share the workload of the care workers to understand the difficulties and responsibilities the job involves. “Care workers hold the most important position at a nursing home. They will have more faith in me when I put myself in their shoes by volunteering to do their work,” said she.
Recently, Anastasija tried doing manicuring for the residents. It was not as easy as many would imagine. “You need professional tools and to properly disinfect them afterwards. You need to kind of coax the elderly into cooperation, making sure that while manicuring they don't move suddenly lest they get hurt,” said she.
Anastasija manicures for a resident.
At first, Anastasija had difficulties communicating with the elderly. “I speak mandarin, while they speak Liantang dialect that I couldn’t understand. But I didn't give up. I kept talking with them, asking about their needs and their families. Gradually we’ve learned to understand each other.”
Helping new residents adapt to the elderly house
In China, seniors are also called “old children” as they demand the same amount and quality of care as very dependent little children do. The elderly at Anastasija’s nursing home too had some unexpected and even eccentric needs. But nothing was unsolvable by her extraordinary patience and “Chinese wisdom”.
Last summer, an old woman with severe Alzheimer disease moved in. She did not talk much, and refused to participate in group activities. To make her feel at home, Anastasija reached out to her daughter, asking about her favorite things to do at home. The daughter told her that Liantang was known for wild rice stem, a vegetable with a texture similar to that of asparagus, and her mother used to feed it to chickens at home. Anastasija thus prepared a lot of wild rice stem and a pair of safety scissors for the woman, letting her sit quietly and cut the wild rice into small pieces. In the process of doing that daily, the elderly woman gradually calmed down, with a relaxed expression emerging on her face. She murmured, “I can now feed chickens with these wild rice stem pieces...” Since then, she had become more cooperative with the care workers and accepted the new environment.
Anastasija helps seniors stick wishing notes to a cardboard tree at an activity.
At the nursing home, Anastasija was never once called “Laowai”, a generic name many Chinese would use to refer to foreigners, as she was never treated as a foreigner by her colleagues. This year, Anastasija organized a New Year’s Eve dinner party for the residents at the nursing home. Those who could not return home were able to enjoy a jolly Spring Festival. Anastasija also awarded certificates of honor to those residents who actively participated in activities and volunteered to help the staff.
All these deeds have won deep trust from the residents. “They really care about me. When my boyfriend came to visit me, the residents acted like my parents and fired questions at me such as when we were going to get married,” said Anastasija.
Growing vegetables to entertain the elderly
The sudden COVID-19 pandemic posed a great challenge to the management capability of Anastasija. For two months after January 25, Jiufeng Nursing Home practiced strict isolation: nobody in, nobody out. All staff stayed inside the nursing home to provide around-the-clock care for the elderly.
Recently, as the situation in Shanghai improved, the lockdown was lifted, but anyone traveling in or out of the nursing home must take their temperature, register and present their health code. Anastasija said, “We are responsible for the safety of the residents. We can never be too careful. I asked the staff to stay in as much as possible.”
Amid the peak of the outbreak, it was inevitable that the residents felt bored with the cancellation of events and the no-visit policy. Anastasija thought about having them watch the favorite activity of many elderly — growing vegetables.
Anastasija poses in a vegetable field.
There was an empty patch of soil right next to the residential building in the nursing home. On March 12, China’s Arbor Day, Anastasija bought seeds of a variety of vegetables and started growing them in the field. “We were trying to entertain the residents who could watch us farming down here through the window. If these vegetables grow well, we will harvest and send them to the kitchen. Some of the residents are quite the masters of growing vegetables and they offered us a lot of technical suggestions. I’m also thinking of taking the residents for a stroll in the field later some time,” she said.
To improve the residents’ quality of life, Anastasija saved every penny she could. That’s why instead of purchasing young plants, she used seeds which are cheaper but more difficult to grow for a green hand. “I asked around which vegetables needed to be covered by thin films or constantly fertilized and watered.” Anastasija came from Riga, the capital city of Latvia and the nation’s economic and cultural center. With no farming experience before, she said she had great fun growing vegetables at the nursing home in Shanghai.
Anastasija checks on plants.
Shanghai and Riga are entirely different, said Anastasija. In Riga, people prefer a laid-back lifestyle and love going sunbathing on the beach. She believed Shanghai was more energetic and suitable for young people. “The two cities are amazing in their own ways and I love them both. I’m glad the residents like me and I will continue to try my best to serve their needs,” said she.
Source: Shanghai Observer
Editor: Deng Jianguo, Li Yijie
