Help me please

[GAstudent]

The LTC place I work at was having me follow another PCT/CNA for a few days to see if I like that hall, because they are often short so that I can go and work on it some. Well I don't know the PCT's on that hall since I never work with them. Well on Monday we was passing out pt trays to eat and I saw one of the PCT's in a room and she was suppose to be feeding the pt and she took a bite of the food and she was watching his television and sitting in his chair. I could not beleave it. I would never eat off of a pt plate...they do offer..but that is nasty. Well then I went back in to ask her a question and her mouth was full. I was thinking what the crap is she doing. I said nothing, since I don't know the people on that hall. Well we do a thing called round robyn where when you finish feeding on your hall or if your hall does not have their cart yet then you go and feed on another hall. well I took this one little lady her tray (she could feed herself)and the lady that shares the room with her had a PTC in there to feed her and she also had her mouth full..I looked around to see if the PCT had maybe brought some food in with her and she had not..that I saw..Well, another PCT that works on that hall has a father that is in the nursing home and her dad shares a room with the man that I saw the first PCT eatting off the plate and I told her (i trusted her..she is a sweet lady) and she said that her mom had once told her that she had saw the PCT eat off of his plate. She said that we would watch it. Well then later on that day ...it was shower day..and the woman I told, a man PCT, and the one eatting off the plate was getting the man out of bed to go to the shower and the PCT that i saw eat off the plate said that he was losing a lot of weight. RED FLAG went off. Well when the PCT that i saw eat left , I went in the room with the other two and said did you hear what she just said.and the nurse said yeah tell Peter (the man PCT..that's not his name) Well I did and he said well now is she charting it and saying that he is eatting it? And I said I'm not sure, but I meant to look. He said well lets see what it says first. When I was leaving today I told the lady to make sure that she looks when she is charting..I'm not sure what it said yet, but wanted to know what you all thought would be the next step in getting this taken care of? Thanks

[webbiedebbie]

I would have written down what I saw, date and time, and reported it to your supervisor.

Good for you for taking a stance with the residents!

I agree. Eating off a resident's tray is nasty.

It should be brought to your supervisor's attention.

[Anaclaire]

I'm so proud of you for reporting this! It takes courage sometimes to do that, especially if we feel our co-workers will give us a hard time for it later on.

Like webbiedebbie said, when reporting things to the next higher up person (like your supervisor) always report it in a "facts only" style. Date, time, what you observed, and who was involved. It's a good idea to keep a copy of this information in a file at home in case your supervisor or some other person investigating the situation wants to talk with you some more about it. In your personal file at home, you can add other memory joggers to help you remember the incident well in case they call you to give more information days, weeks or even months later.

You have honorably placed the problem in the lap of your supervisor so it's their responsibility to take whatever action is required to correct the problem. Good luck, and I again want to say how proud I am of you for standing up for the residents!!!!

[Gator,SN]

OH! That is the nastiest thing that I have ever heard!

What kind of person would steal food from an old mans plate when he can't feed himself!

REPORT HER! She is the lowest form of human being and she should be fired!

Gator

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Ditto the above - take it to tthe supervisor and let tehm deal with it. Eating from a patient's plate is WRONG WRONG WRONG! Different if you take a bit of food off of a tray that is suplus to ward requirements but to actively steal food from a patient -NO!

[sjoe]

You've notified your supervisor and that was a reasonable move. Now the challenge is to avoid feeling superior or self-righteous regarding what some of your co-workers are doing. If you stay in LTC, you'll see much more harmful behavior than that, sooner or later.

[CraftyLPN]

I know your feelings... had a CNA do the same thing when I worked in LTC... I told her if I ever saw it again I was reporting her...I gave her 1 warning... well guess what... she did it again... our DON found out (actually catching her in the act) and terminated her....