Hello, I am a Licensed Nurses Assistant (LNA). I work at a nursing home in NH. There's a huge problem there and I need advice.
We have a resident who's "care plan" allows for him to roll off his bed and onto the floor without having it deemed a "fall". Okay, so that's fine but what isn't fine in my eyes is this: He has a bowel movement and is rolling around in it. This seems inhumane to me. It's like he's a pig rolling in the mud. It's just wrong!!! But, this is his "care plan"? Wow! I am disgusted. What if his family shows up and he's naked (which he usually is) and he's in this condition? I would just cry if that were my family member. Plain common sense has me up at 3:30am, losing sleep over this situation and asking for some advice. I just can't get over it! Is this really okay? A woman stopped me in the hall and started telling me how she saw the resident in those conditions. She wasn't impressed to say the least. This is so bad. Isn't it abnormal to have a resident that uncontrollable in a nursing home anyway? The poor guy is around 60 years old. We have to run to him all the time...not complaining, just concerned that he isn't even in the right place for his condition. I feel he is being abused by the facility first off and secondly, we LNA's can't even get to him quick enough to be cleaning the messes. I had to feed this man while breathing in the smell of excrement. It was on the walls by his bed, on the bed rails, and on the mats to a smaller degree. I felt I couldn't even move in there. I wanted to throw up. Please tell me you all agree this is ridiculous and wrong. Should I call the board of nursing or something? Can I refuse to go in his room under those conditions?
Thanks for reading my rather long post. I will sleep better I hope since I am posting this.
