Can I get in trouble because one of my residents fell?

Nursing Students CNA/MA

Published

I've been an STNA in the State of Ohio for almost 5 years. I like to think I'm a good aide, but my coworkers (and residents) sometimes don't make me feel this way. I work 3rd shift. I worked Sunday night, nothing unusual happened that I was aware of, I gave report, clocked out, and went home. I came into work last night, and was told that first shift had found one of my residents on the floor yesterday morning right after shift change. This resident claimed that she had been on the floor for over an hour. I KNOW I checked on her no more than a half hour before my shift was over, and she was in bed sleeping. I expressed to the 3rd shift nurse that was working with me last night that I felt bad because that had happened, presumably on my watch. I have never, ever in the six years I've been in this field, left work with a resident in less than optimal conditions. The third shift nurse calmed me down a bit, but then first shift showed up. I went to every residents room with them. Verified that everybody was in bed, asleep, and dry. Apparently they don't want to take my word for it anymore. The nurse made me feel like I was about 3 inches tall. I seriously cried on the way home from work. I feel horrible to think that a resident may have fallen on my shift Monday morning and I didn't know about it.This resident was not a known fall risk. I'm just so beside myself. I don't work again until Thursday night. (If they don't fire me, that is). I'm the type of person that hates the waiting game when it comes to this. Do you think I am going to be written up/ fired/ executed by firing squad for this?I've never been disciplined by this company in the past 18 months that I've worked there.

Most accidents happen during shift change. It is very likely that the fall happened then. For a someone who has fallen or is waiting for a call light to be answered, minutes feel like hours! Don't blame yourself. All falls cannot be prevented. Just think of how many falls CNAs prevent! Although you feel horrible when a fall happens and know just how serious a fall can be, you can't blame yourself because it doesn't get you anywhere. All that can be done that would be useful is to find out what caused the fall and look for solutions that would prevent occurrences like this from happening in the future. We do walking rounds at the facility where I work and I think it's a great thing to do. Feeling bad and pointing fingers won't help matters, but being proactive will. As workers in the health care field, we all have very demanding jobs so it's easier to lash out against one another, but there is no room for that in our field! We have to work together to do what is in the best interests of our clients.

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