I work in a LTC facilty, at our last staff meeting our administrator and DON announced that they would be reporting people for neglect & abuse, would call the police and have them arrested. Here is the part that caught me off gaurd.... The Examples they gave are as follows... (1) If one CNA reports that a fellow CNA failed to change their patient(s) that is considered neglect (2) Nurses and/or Med Tech's.. You have a resident that falls and they wear a body alarm, it is found that the body alarm wasn't on them or working properly that is considered neglect/abuse (3) You fail to follow-up on PRN meds, or a patient reports that they are still having pain and you do nothing to try to manage it, ie., you have given all scheduled pain meds and prn meds and pt is still reporting 2/10 on the pain scale and you don't follow-up with Dr., etc it is neglect/ abuse.. They then proceeded to tell staff that if anything like this came up they would be calling the police, would have them arrested, the employee would be suspended and a investigation would follow, and they would report you to the state and the prosecuting attorney..
Since this meeting ( which has only been a few days ) Our staff is not showing up for work, quitting,etc..
This, of course, leaves us short staffed and creates many problems. Over the weekend we also found out that our facility had the long-distance suspended on the phone lines, staff was not informed of this by the admin., It was discovered when trying to place a call to hospice. We have also had numerous theft's in the bld., including a office door trying to be kicked-in, the facility threatned a "sting-operation" but failed to make a police report on the incident.
We were also given documents from corporate that state the procedure for reporting neglect abuse is as follows
(1) notify the victims family or Rep.
(2) Call the police
(3) Call the Admin., DON
The Administrator proceeds to inform us that SHE IS TO BE CALLED FIRST..
I am thinking this situation is very strange but since I haven't worked at very many places, I am in need of your Advice, comments, and suggestions.
I am sure that we are all competent nurses and confident in our abilities to care for our patients properly. The bottom line is that incidents happen regardless if you are able to help/prevent them. The situations that they describe for calling the police is really crazy and I am sure many here regardless of the excellent care they give would feel comfortable. I would leave ASAP!!!! I would have walked out during that meeting!!
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Not only do they not respect their employees they don't respect the community if they would call the police to arrest a nurse because a resident says their pain is 2/10 and they've taken all their prn meds. What a ridiculous waste of resources. If it wouldn't hurt the employee I almost wish they'd do it a few times and start getting slapped with some hefty fines for malicious use of the 911 system and using a public resource as a tool of retribution against their own employees.
So, if I understand you correctly, they are going to call the police if a brief is not changed on time, but are not calling the police when an office door is kicked it?
If you work for a big corp I would use the reporting hotline and report this. They might not know the admin is off her rocker. But in the mean time I would get the heck out of dodge!
Specializes in LTC, Disease Management, smoking Cessati.
Definitely get away from this toxic place. It could just be a threat in hopes of getting people to be more careful, but then again why take a chance. Whatever their agenda you most likely do not want to be a part of it.
Somethings up..and they are looking for a scape goat (s). I doubt I'd even give them the courtesy of a 2 week notice of resignation. In two weeks, something can come up and now you may be one of those people charged with "neglect".
Lord!! I think you must work for the lunatic DON that took over the H*** hole of a LTC facility that I used to work for. Myguess is giveit a few months and they will be closed. Its good to have a no tolerance type of policy for abuse and neglect and all and to be serious about the residents getting safe and quality care but bullying the staff doesn't work. I know this. I quit the day that lunatic DON started.
A good friend of mine is DON in LTC and he said that the administrator tells new hires in orientation that if they get fired from there they will be blacklisted and never work in health care again. He quit that the very day he heard that and dared her to report him to the BON. He's got enough dirt on her that she'd probably be dragged off the premises in handcuffs! I've never worked in LTC thank God and I'll give up nursing altogether before I do. As the other folks have said, RUN!!
A good friend of mine is DON in LTC and he said that the administrator tells new hires in orientation that if they get fired from there they will be blacklisted and never work in health care again. He quit that the very day he heard that and dared her to report him to the BON. He's got enough dirt on her that she'd probably be dragged off the premises in handcuffs! I've never worked in LTC thank God and I'll give up nursing altogether before I do. As the other folks have said, RUN!!
Hey! Not all LTC is bad!!
I've been told those all constitute neglect but I've never been threatened like that. Run away!!!!
kool-aide, RN
594 Posts
very bad. get out while you still can.