Congress is finally give nursing homes the attention

I hope this new found interest in nursing homes will result in more federal funding funding for nursing education! While penalties for under performing and abusive institutions are important, you can't punish the nursing home system into excellence. We need to train up better leaders than the MBA's who are in charge now
People are terrified of getting bad medical care, so we spend billions to train MD's. It looks like people are finally learning how frightened they should be about bad or not enough skilled nursing care, so maybe they'll start thinking about that when the write the next medicare education budget.

Whoa I just skimmed past that part. That is repulsive.

"the Bush administration wanted to deregulate nursing homes"

Did the bush administration ever do one uncorrupted thing? Every time his name comes up, it seems to be linked to evil. How long will that criminal walk free?

Another nursing just went all LPN staff. WOOOOOOO!!!!! wait a minute, now what is going on here.

Why no more RN's? does anybody know??


I am going to ask the ANA about this?

As an RN, there is no way I would work in a nursing home. I worked in several as an LPN and the things I saw other things LPN's doing was wild (IV push Lasix, phlebotomy on feet, the list goes on and on). When you work in a nursing home as an RN, you are usually the ONLY RN in the building, therefore are responsible for the actions of the LPN's and CNA's working at that time. How are you, as the only RN in the building, supposed to "supervise" the other staff in a 100+ bed facility when you have your own assignment of 25-30 residents? I WILL NOT put my license on the line like that. Acuity of the residents is so different (much higher) than when the "regulations" were put in place. Add that to that the fact that the management does not want to staff even minimally, it's a wonder that ANY RN will work LTC. The whole system needs to be re-evaluated for what's needed today, not 50 years ago.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that "new rules of the game" are necessary to restore confidence in the financial system after credit markets seized up and stocks fell the most since the Great Depression. He proposed requiring private-equity firms to register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and to disclose information about their holdings.

After opposing increased federal oversight for years, David Rubenstein, co-founder of private-equity firm Carlyle Group, admitted that they are not going to be able to stand in the way of including them in an overhaul of U.S. financial regulation.

The government would have the power to peer into the inner workings of companies like the Carlyle Group that currently escape most federal supervision. Private-equity funds operate almost entirely outside the regulation of either the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Federal Reserve.

Regulation of Carlyle's Manor Care nursing homes is good and necessary, particularly since the company accepts taxpayer funds for the majority of the residents of their facilities. The private-equity for-profit operators of these nursing homes need to hire the best caregivers available and pay them a living wage. They need to provide clean, well-kept facilities that meet all state and federal standards, with good food and good access to healthcare services.

More and more, nursing homes are letting LPNs in charge of floors. The state nursing practice act dictates what a RN and LPN can do. Now I'm not saying that I have anything against LPNs - actually some of them are better nurses than some RNs, it's just that they are not formally trained to do the job of a RN yet they are placed in that role in nursing homes because they are much cheaper to hire.

As far as I remember, LPNs do not receive training in nursing school on how to be a charge nurse. A RN has about 3 months of training in leadership on a floor (some as many as 60 patients). Therefore, in my opinion, the nursing homes are being run by untrained staff, if you will. The RNs hired in the nursing home my mother lived in made sure the "paperwork" was perfect. I truly believe care in nursing homes would improve greatly if all charge nurses were RNs, or LPNs had the formal training in school for that position.

It depends on how many residents the facility holds--- ya know????? Me and a finance specialist were talking yesterday, and we discussing layoffs in nursing, it is inevitable, like any other business, like police departments. Here it is inevitable that 100, yes, there will be a layoff of 100 police officers and firefighters July 2009. I just read the minutes of our cities town meeting. And why would that be? To put more money in the city's big wig's pockets.


Hey congress do not care about nursing more than anything else. They care right now about the banking business, where the REAL money situaition is. Don't look for anything special for nursing, and this goes for other busineses too, becuase this mess about the banking and CEO incentives has to be straightened out, and that is going to take another year for all these hearings. So, while these hearings are going on businesses like hospitals, retailers, school nurses, and big resturant chains are going to go bust! There will even be some of the most bigges retail businesses CLOSE. Right now one of the most biggest retailers is not a 24 hours business, some stores close early. People just simply do not have the money to but stuff. Personally, I think that Wal Mart is one of the most expensive places to shop. I have seen Wal Mart's prices go up, and up, and up. The other day, I thought that their produce, KIWI was too expensive, and it was all mushy. No, my post is not about Wal Mart. but......my point is, people cannot afford to go to the hospital either, and so there will be no patients to take care of. There has to be patients (the business part of a hospital) for nurses to have a job.

Get a VISA and travel to another country, like Scotland, Israel, CANADA (pay nurses good money) Alaska, to make good money as a nurse. Here in the US, we are seeing RN wages fall , 18.00 dollars an hour. That is sad sad sad!!! My little neice works in a nursing home, when she works extra hours a week-night shift with diferential pay, she makes more than the RN's. SAD SAD SAD


Do not believe congress at this time about anything. That is politics!!!!!!!