I’ve always been an overachiever,” says Rhayne White, a Home Care Aide in Spokane.

So when the opportunity to get more training through the SEIU 775 Benefits Group’s Advanced Home Care Aide Apprenticeship came up, she went for it—and more. The training includes up to 12 hours of continuing education—White did 70 hours.

That’s not unusual for White, whose primary client is her husband’s grandmother. She doesn’t do many things halfway. She has had multiple careers, including as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), working with Alzheimer’s patients, and as a massage therapist. She owned a day spa (with ambitions to lead her own massage school) and created her own line of body mud.

She gave up massage when she married her husband, who has two children with ADHD who needed full-time attention. Soon after, her client was diagnosed with    Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and White began to take care of her, which she has been doing for the last two and a half years.

White couldn’t have taken the Apprenticeship program during a worse time, however. Her classes took place last November, when Spokane and surrounding areas were hit by one of the worst storms in history, bringing high winds, flooding and landslides. (According to the governor’s office, the storm caused more than $21 million in damages statewide.)

The resulting mass power outages lasted for more than 10 days in some parts of the city, including White’s own home and that of her client, who is on oxygen.

White’s client became hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) and hypoxic (a condition where there is not enough oxygen in the body) during that time and had to be taken to the hospital. White was also sick herself during the six weeks of classes.

Because White has had a lot of experience caring for others—and has received a lot of training—she has no problem with the rigors of continuing education. Apprenticeship classes included a lot of hands-on work—White’s favorite was making vertebrae out of clay to show what a deformed spine looked like as part of a lesson on spinal cord injuries.

I’m one of those people, I see it, I do it, I remember it a lot better. I just like that hands-on kind of stuff,” White says. “I like classes that allow me to get in there, get dirty, and figure it out.”

White has taken care of people in some fashion for what seems like her entire adult life. “I always was raised being responsible for someone, some way, somewhere, somehow. I lived alone since I was a teen,” she says. “But I’ve always been into helping other people.”

Massage therapy was one of her favorite careers—it combined her love of helping people with her love of hands-on work. In true overachiever fashion, White gathered quite a few specializations along the way, such as manual lymphatic drainage and lomi lomi (hot and cold stone therapy).

White uses some massage therapy with her diabetic client, but her caregiving training has helped her understand more fully how illness can affect her client emotionally and physically—and how to help when her client is having trouble with depression.

White’s biggest tip for getting the most out of training classes of any kind? “Listen. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t act like you know everything, there’s always someone who will know more.”

The apprenticeship program also helps Home Care Aides connect as a support network, in which members can offer ideas as well as opportunities to swap shifts when respite is needed.

“The class was a great way to network, to meet people you could talk to who maybe are going through or have gone through what you might be, who may have ideas you haven’t thought of to make your job easier,” says White, who says she would eventually like to become a caregiving instructor.

“Working for family sometimes is hard; their expectations are far greater [than non-relatives] and it’s easy to let them take advantage because you don’t want to hurt or anger anyone. You need to be able to set boundaries, and, especially for our younger people, that doesn’t always come easy.”

She tries to make room in her schedule for crucial downtime. That can include losing herself in a video game (Call of Duty is a favorite) or activities with her family. She credits her husband, who is 20 years younger than she, with keeping her moving: They bike and play tennis, and he’s recently persuaded her to try yoga.

“My husband and my kids keep me young, they help keep me motivated. Family’s important. You really have to have a good support system for yourself.”

While White acknowledges there’s a natural challenge for her and many HCAs like her that comes with caregiving for family members, she’s also gratified to be doing it and says that her client is glad they are in each other’s lives.

“She swears if it wasn’t for me she would be dead,” says White. “She tells everyone that God put me in the way for her.”