Home like environment? Zoo like atmosphere

Specialties Geriatric

Published

:idea: lets put up menus, activity schedules, and photos over the beds of residents who cannot see, and stuffed animals fit for a childs nursery. turn on 2 or 3 tv sets (tuned into a language they cannot understand) and have a radio on with rap. then to really make them feel right at home put up a thin curtain around their roomates bed and expose them to the smells of an incontinent person who has had a large fresh bm, and to bed 3's crying, screaming grandchildren. we'll just pass it off as a "home like environment". dont forget the loud knocks on the door , the sounds of the staff introducing themselves and explaining all procedures.then there's the noise from vents, humidifyers bubling, & iv machines beeping. so, we just give them hypnotics, & psychotorphic meds for their nosocomial induced insomnia and psychosis. and wonder why they are so confused. do you think the zoo like atmosphere has anything to do with it????????????????

if the federal government (obra) was soooo interested in providing diginity and privacy for the residents then why dont they mandate nursing homes to provide residents with private rooms???????????

Specializes in Critical Care / Psychiatry.

Money. That's why.

Shel

To be honest...If I was in that position, I would want the psychotropics! Oh and atleast the curtain was pulled and someone knocked before entering...some of my staff just can't figure out how to pull that curtain before pulling up a gown to to pericare :angryfire

Specializes in Registered Nurse.

Sad state of affairs. Not usually a place any of us want to picture ourselves. :o Private rooms would be nice...but that is just a fraction of a start of making LTC desirable. There are so many losses and so many turn offs when people are going from home or hospital to LTC.

I agree! Not just nursing homes, how about private rooms in hospitals? Lord knows, I don't want to share a toilet with anyone, and I have seen them share toilets with people getting colon preps. How about being NPO, and your neighbor getting food? How about being nauseated and your roomate getting food? How about your neighbor with Alzheimers who scream all night with sundown syndrome? OR the person with COPD who needs the room 50 below? I could go on forever.. The biggest problem.................. The docs and nurses who come into the patient's room to talk, and the patient is denied privacy, as the neighbor can hear everything. Isn't there a law governing body now called HIPPA?????????????????????? It drives me nuts.:uhoh3:

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