Before I begin.........I want to say this....I am NOT saying that all SNFs are like this....
I cared for a pt this weekend. 97 yr old black female. Admission dx: sepsis, UTI, fever. s/p right AKA. My blood boils every time I think about her!!!
She hails from a certain chain of nursing homes. Her skin condition is horrendous!!!! And that is saying it mildly!!!! Her skin is sloughing off in sheets (10 cm x 10 cm)!!! It is almost like she is a burn pt. The sore on her coccyx is just as bad! If I could stage it beyond a Stage 4, I would! Down to the bone! The smell is horrific! Tunneling beyond belief! Most importantly, this poor woman is in terrible pain because of her skin! You go in and assess her, she is unresponsive (other than eyes opening). However, when we provide incontinence care and turn/position her, she becomes combative - an instinctual thing I think. And this is even after giving her 2 mg of morphine! It breaks my heart. This pt also had been oozing stool w/ every turn as reported to me by the admitting shift. A rectal check revealed an impaction. I must have digitally removed 3-4 pounds of stool from this poor woman. I also changed her foley. The crap that came out of this foley, not only from the inner lumen, but also around the outside.........made me gag. I think that I actually saw a couple of maggots! This foley was in way in the hell too long!!! Now, let's talk about her PEG tube and that nasty-a**ed purulent material coming from the stoma!! OMG! This pt has outlived most of her relatives - no children, no siblings. The closest she had to family was a couple of great great nieces who live several hours away. They made the drive and were absolutely horrified of the condition of her!! There is talk of them suing the SNF. This pt has been referred to hospice. She is receiving palliative care only.
WHAT IS IT WITH SOME OF THESE NURSING HOMES THAT THEY COULD LET A HUMAN BEING GET LIKE THIS???? It burns my butt every time. I see pts coming from this particular chain in horrific shape! It makes me want to report this chain of SNFs for elderly abuse!! (I am going to call the ombudsman first thing in the morning - woke up too late to really do anything today - work nite shift). I am soooooooo damm angry!!
It scares me that I will/might be in this same sitation some day. It horrifies me although I will make sure my kids know that I will come back to haunt them if they allow a nursing home to do this to me!! I have had a headache ever since I first came into contact w/ this particular pt on saturday. I remember other pts. One came from the same chain but totally different city. She was in almost the same shape! Huge decub. Actually took 4 boxes of 4x4's to pack it. And that was just the sacral decub. We won't go into the 5 other stage IV decubs that she had. Then there was this other man. Total of 16 stage 4 decubs!!!!! And yet another woman.......22 stage 4's!!!! Interesting note here...all of these pts were black. How in the hell can they get away w/ this???????? I understand that staffing is always an issue but............there is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for this! When I have other pts whose families are making plans to transfer them to this particular place, I want to scream and tell them not to. Run far far away. Am afraid to do this for fear of retribution. After all, the pts from these so-called "skilled nursing" facilities do bring big dollars to our hospitals. I can't, in good conscience, continue to stand by and do nothing. These places need to be stopped from disrespecting these people! From what I understand, these particular institutions are for those who can't afford better. Kind of the equivalent to being buried in a "potter's field". I think that all nurses, aides, and especially administrators at these places should be legally charged w/ elder abuse!
Thanks for letting me vent and sorry this was so long. If anyone has ever run into this same type of situation and was able to make positive change, I'd be very interested in knowing how you did it.
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