Leave and say nothing,or leave and report?

U.S.A. Alaska

Published

I just recently worked for an assisted living home health care situation. The owners are not liscensed nurses, CNA's or LPN's. They are not recording medications given to residence and there are 5 residence there. They have no health histories and nothing ot offer for information on the residence. I was left ALONE for my training period. I was told by one owner that the ohter one does not like ot be called. They have such a high turn over rate that they are tired of repeating themselves and employees must find things on their own! There were 2 Altziemers residence. 1 was restrianed all day long and left to sit at t tabel crying. The other had weak knees and smelled very very bad . I found horrible red sores ready to open under her belly. She is over weight and has a huge crease under her belly where it is not exposed to any air. They were not doing anyting to treat this and it smelled awful. I found some protective lubricant for her and powder the owner was upset I was taking so long caring for her.I was not given breaks , no official schedual for the day. But responsible for showers, preparing and feeding 3 meals , doing dishes by hand, laundry, cleaning and disinfecting the house and equiptment ofcourse. and meanwhile, this other resident had fallen 2 times in the past and she was up and about who knows where at what time. Another resident fell when I was there alone. I was left alone for 3 days. 12 hour shifts. The firs day they were with mne 2 hours. The second day the other did her own thing for 2 hours and leftand forgot to give blood pressure before the meal and meds.? Another resident wanted psuedafed all day long and I found out she has congestive heart failure. She got short of breath and labored breathing and very fatigued one day, moody from dealing with this all, and at her wits end in discomfort. She was pale and the owner told me to just ignore her , she is ok, She is overly needy she said. She told me this over and over and over and over. No record of how many Psuedafeds she had been taking. When I mentioned this , the owner said , we know? I todl her again if somebody new walks in , they do not know and you can not rely on what the resident says . Another resident FELL , I was alone and could not get her up by myself and needed help by the owner? She ran off after helping and not even tyring ot find out why she fell? Later I discoverd there was NO BRAKE on one wheel of her walker. The resident told me that somebody had been there to check her walker weeks before , but did not have the part and would have to be ordered to fix this break and they still left her wiht this walker. This resident was here at assisted living DUE TO A FALL and breaking her left hip?

Is this all Alarming or what? Their is more , but this was the most shocking. I am not from here, I am from Washington State. Is this NORMAL for Alaska and should I just stay out of thier business and not report? Also the owner told me not to tell the family members of anyting wrong. such as the rashes. Also this owner was telling me to NOt CHECK the temperature of the water while bathing? She said there is NO TIME??!!! (???) ( how long does it take to dip your hand in water to check temperature? ) My resident said her shower water was a little cool , I merely dipped my hand to check and the owner kept repeating to me to NOT listen to teh resident?

Also the lady wiht Congestive Heart Failure had a cat in her room and her room smelled of cat feces and urine. It was my responsibility to clean the cat box. This job was demanding that I focus on the house, 6 loads of laundry per day and cooking more than catering to the residence?

AGAIN, am I not suppose to be shocked at this or what? I am no longer working there. But if something serious would have happened would I have been blamed and my CNA liscense at risk? I am a CNA studying for LPN and I know better? Where can I find rules and regulations for home health care.? I would rather get a copy of these rules and bring them to this woman and point some things out to her rather than report? Is one person enough for residence with Altizemer's and Heart failiure ? 5 residence? My grandmother had Altziemer's and she could walk out the door and get lost at any time? Isn't there more supervision required with Altziemer's?

I was lead to believe that I was going to be following and observing and assisting the first 3 hours of the first day, instead I did this 2 hours and then left alone . My 3 hours of training turned into 8 hours of work. I was also asked to stay an extra hour suddenly at 7:00pm when my shift ends at 8pm my first official day of work. I had a babysitter and could not do this? I did not want to take advantage of my babysitter? aNd my daughter had been babysat for 12 hours that day? Just ridiculous?

It is very mismanaged and the owner is inconsiderate , should I just leave and say nothing ? Or leave and report? Or send her a copy of Home health care rules. Either way, I want to see these rules and regulations for myself. Are these rules strictly enforced in Alaska?

Specializes in LTC Pharmacy.

Hell no, it's not normal in Alaska--it's not normal ANYWHERE!

Abuse is abuse, plain and simple. Is this place a licensed facility? As a health care provider, CNA, LPN or whatever, your obligation to the people you care for is to do no harm, and what these people are doing is harm. Report them ASAP, and know you did the right thing in doing so.

Specializes in LTC Pharmacy.
Let's hope it was reported, cuz this thread is >1yr old.

Duh, I didn't realize until I read your post. I'm with you, though--I hope it was reported.

Specializes in Wound Care.

whatever became of this? Was anything done?

Im glad to see how many people said to report! gives me back a little confidence lost in my fellow nurses. :icon_roll

Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

I hope you decided to get out of there as quickly as possible and I hope they were reported to the state, APS and the police. They need to close that place down.

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