CNA Accusations and Recommendations

[oldsockventriloquist]

So, for male CNAs, I was always wondering how you avoid situations where a patient could falsely accuse of abuse (physical, emotional, financial...). I have often heard that employers will often side with the patient and suspend and/or fire the CNA. Often times, those CNA will be by themselves in a room with the patient. The only strategy I have heard is to document what you do after you finished with the patient. But, I wanted to 1) hear the specifics on what I could write down and 2) understand colleagues and employers should do if someone is going through that situation (meaning how would you recommend everyone handle the situation).

[heron, ASN, RN]

These sound like questions for a lawyer or a risk manager. (We aren't allowed to give legal advice, btw.)

[oldsockventriloquist]

These sound like questions for a lawyer or a risk manager. (We aren't allowed to give legal advice, btw.)

This is about prevention for an event that could occur. This is not about legal advice, but more about what has worked for others. I think this is very important discussion for those in the field and those becoming a CNA, to learn more about professionalism in the field (I'm assuming quite a bit of CNAs read this nursing forum).

[Missingyou, CNA]

Documenting what you do when you provide care (in order to avoid being accused of abuse) won't work. We had this discussion at a staff meeting not long ago. It's still your word against theirs. Samething with initialing briefs, you can write down any time, so it makes it useless.

The best thing we were told, was for resident's/patients who have accused before or are hostile, to have another CNA/nurse in the room with you when you provide care.

I've had resident's hand me money to put in their dresser for them & I make sure they see the money AT ALL TIMES as I put it away...and then I tell my nurse "she/he had me put $2. in the top draw of the dresser...".

I know of others on my unit who have been accused of neglect or verbal abuse by a resident and often if that resident is known to have dementia there is still an investigation, but that CNA will no longer be allowed to care for that resident. If there are additional accusations of other resident's against the same CNA then it is likely the CNA will be put on suspension during an investigation where co-workers are questioned about the CNA and what we may have observed.

When in doubt, bring another CNA in with you.

[oldsockventriloquist]

Thank you Missingyou for your response. So you would suggest getting to know the patients during orientation and figuring out when one of them has been known to accuse others. It would be incredibly helpful if CNAs could work in pairs, so that you have a witness for any incident. However, I'm assuming for the majority of cases, they want you to be independent.

[BBboy]

When i worked LTC Memory Care this one resident always accused me of having intercourse with his "girlfriend". This literally happened 5 nights a week every single week for 6 months when it came time to put his "girlfriend" to bed. Being that he was heavily memory impaired and that our support staff trusted me as not only a person but a CNA (have various witnesses in the room to prove i'd never done anything of such) they never bothered to investigate further. I have heard of stories of friends of a coworker getting absolutely screwed by similar accusations and i will never know if they were true. Really just watch your back, learn about resident tendencies and what not, definitely befriend coworkers as all are necesary in case state gets called in

[oldsockventriloquist]

When i worked LTC Memory Care this one resident always accused me of having intercourse with his "girlfriend". This literally happened 5 nights a week every single week for 6 months when it came time to put his "girlfriend" to bed. Being that he was heavily memory impaired and that our support staff trusted me as not only a person but a CNA (have various witnesses in the room to prove i'd never done anything of such) they never bothered to investigate further. I have heard of stories of friends of a coworker getting absolutely screwed by similar accusations and i will never know if they were true. Really just watch your back, learn about resident tendencies and what not, definitely befriend coworkers as all are necesary in case state gets called in

Thank you. Are you still working as a CNA?

[Missingyou, CNA]

...ya know, most LTC facilities will know the cna's and the resident's they care for. Management knows who has dementia and mental illness ect and may falsely accuse caregivers. It has been my experience that facilities, while they are required to do an investigation, stand by their caregivers and will most often (depending on the severity of the report) restrict that CNA from entering or caring for that individual or require 2 caregivers in the room when providing care....mainly to protect the CNA and not JUST the resident. I have even seen it care planned to have 2 CNA's present at all times while in their room.

In LTC it happens often. It's difficult to say who will do what because something like a UTI can make a normally very reasonable person become unpredictable.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

I can't speak for all facilities but this situation seems to be surprisingly common is settings with confused patients. Where I work unless something untoward is witnessed the CNA gets the benefit of the doubt during the required investigation. The immediate and easiest solution is to ensure the CNA doesn't work with the accusing resident again. Residents that show a pattern of false allegations are required to have two staff present . We have many residents that either for reasons of personal preference or for a repeated history of false allegations toward male staff are assigned female only caregivers. If this ever becomes the case for you please don't take that personally. Some females simply prefer another female to provide intimate cares. In the cases of residents falsely accusing male staff of sexual misconduct removing the male caregivers from the equation is protecting the caregiver and the facility from repeated time consuming, costly and possibly career ending investigations.

A good facility will back you up and give you the benefit of the doubt during any investigative process. A not so good facility may decide the CNA is expendable and decide that the easiest course of action is firing the CNA.