My title kind of says it all. I'm an old LPN almost 26 years and pretty well rounded.
After a 2.5 year break after leaving a case management position at a cancer center I
recently accepted a position at a very upscale new AL facility.
My position is to assist the CENA's/PCT's (they use both) as needed, do the scheduling and be on call 24/7. They (management/marketing) working hard at filling these beds and the pressure is on the marketer to do this and get the facility in the black.
My concerns; the woman that was doing my job before me was canned the day after I arrived (not a good sign). She is not a nurse but despite being overwhelmed was attempting to do for this owner/company.
I feel there are some very inappropriate residents which leads to what I am asking. We have a resident couple, seperate rooms-they are both HUGE fall risks and do so ever day almost. One the woman has severe dementia and wanders/trips/falls/becomes combative at times.
The other, completely non compliant, will not ask for assist with transfer is a two person assist/total care for adl's, etc..Family has a nanny cam in the room. This man has a tool box in his room as he used to be a tradesman-I get that but the CENA alerted me to the fact that he had a large new claw hammer on the table in his room. Fearing for her, the residents wife, or another residents safety..Do I even have to say how uncomfortable this makes me?
I phoned the daughter, told her I found it and put it locked in my desk drawer until she could retrieve it and take it home. She was VERY angry and said he had every right to keep this in his HOME and I was to return it. I pointed out all the safety risks to her-"What if he fell on it?, or hit someone with it when upset, etc?" She was not having it.
I returned it to his room, notified the CENAS and left a letter for the owner of this AL I about what happened and I wanted to speak with her today. My birthday -Happy Birthday to me!! LOL..
What I am asking is, is my spidey sense right? This seems absolutely ridiculous, dangerous and a huge catastrophe waiting to happen and impact my license. BTW, it is a private pay non-licensed AL, with a separate NON licensed care company (that I am supposed to supervising/running) doing the care giving. These are total care patients-not what I would consider AL, but skilled.
There are a few more inappropriate ones but this is the biggy that may have me turning in my resignation today. Thoughts? Input?
I feel like there is no protection for me here and when things go down it will get bad. The Cena's are fantastic but they are overworked, underpaid, no benefits and will move along if this will be their typical resident. Also the owner has declined to pay my malpractice because she says it's a non risk for me because everything is unlicensed.
I apologize for the length of this post. This is my first and perhaps my last AL position. It is entirely different than what it was/is portrayed to be.
