Inside Athena: Tatiana Booker, Newtown Rehab’s Calm and Comforting C.N.A.
NEWTOWN, C.T. — Tatiana Booker, a Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) at Newtown Rehabilitation & Health Care Center, brings a sense of calmness and comfort to those she cares for at the center. Booker, who has been at the Fairfield County, Connecticut center for the past nine years, said, “I feel like I make a difference in the residents’ mood. I make a difference every day I am here for them. They are happy when they see me, and I bring a calmness to them.”
Booker works primarily in the memory care unit at Newtown Rehab.
Tatiana Booker
“I enjoy helping people, especially our residents with dementia. I feel like they don’t have a voice and I am their voice,” she said.
Before joining the team at Newtown Rehab, Booker worked at another nursing home where she worked alongside a tough nurse who instilled in her a proper work ethic of what are the right and wrong things to do. Booker laughed and said, “I still hear her voice in my head today.”
But thinking back on those early days in her career and her successes at Newtown Rehab, it has helped shape and mold her to be the strong C.N.A. she is today.
“I always say, ‘I want someone like me to take care of me when I get older,’” Booker said, and offers this as advice to those thinking about becoming a C.N.A. and going into healthcare as your whole heart goes into this career and the desire to help others.
“I’ve done a lot of different jobs in this building,” Booker said. “I will always help out any department if they need help… I’m here to help. If one C.N.A. is running late, I will start the assignment because I like to help. We’re all in this together.”
Booker likes to bring in nice colognes and perfumes for her residents on the memory care unit to share with them.
“I love my residents and it makes them feel good. I ask God every day to bless my hands to do this work,” she said.