Social Service Director and Housekeeping Supervisor's Ideas About Resident Rights...

We had our annual resident rights inservice last Friday. The comment was made that making the resident's wait for something that they want or need is a violation of those rights. I always understood that making them wait an unreasonable amount of time for no reason could be a violation, but they example that they presented is just off the wall! In their scenario...one resident wants their toenails to be trimmed because they hurt when she puts on her new shoes (she is diabetic, so only a nurse can do it and there is only one nurse in the building)...another resident is in respiratory distress and needs suctioning (again only one nurse in the building). So...is it a violation of the resident's rights to have to wait to have her toenails trimmed? Her foot pain is just as distressing to her as the other resident's inability to breathe.

I argued that life threats come before anything else...while someone else may be in extreme pain and they may feel like they are going to die, obvious life threats should always prevail. They argued that even though life threats are more important, the other resident's rights are still being violated and there could be grounds for legal or disciplinary action. I think the Social Service Director needs to repeat his training and the Housekeeping Supervisor needs to review the policy manual or something.

The day that my judgement is questioned for correcting a life threat rather than providing a simple comfort measure and the day that a Housekeeping Supervisor questions my nursing judgement is the day I will resign and go to work at Piggly Wiggly.