Nursing Assistant Stories

Dorothy Donnelly

Central Supplies Coordinator/CNA
Golden LivingCenter – Cohasset

Dorothy Donnelly has been employed with Golden Living and its predecessors since 1984. For the entirety of that time, she has been a CNA. In 2003, she also became her LivingCenter’s Central Supplies Coordinator.

In this role, she orders and distributes supplies for the facility’s staff, but at heart she remains a CNA. Day-in, day-out, she goes to great lengths to meet the needs of her residents, co-workers and physicians, and her co-workers often come to her for help or guidance.

“Whatever needs to be done, I help do,” says Dorothy. “If I can’t do it, I find someone who can.”

Dorothy takes much pride in getting to know her residents well, particularly their individual likes and dislikes. Some of her residents are so grateful for her special attention that they consider her family, not just a part of the LivingCenter staff.

Thanks to her personable approach, she is often tasked with helping some of her facility’s more stubborn residents come out of their shell. It’s a challenge Dorothy enjoys participating in.

“The more difficult the patient, the more I get a long with them,” she says. “Perhaps it’s because I take a little more time with them and let them get their frustrations out.”

She remembers one resident whom was so stubborn that no one else on staff could work with her. “She was very particular in how she wanted things done,” says Dorothy. “I didn’t have a problem with that. The LivingCenter was her home, after all, so I felt honored to do things her way. We got along great.”