Cursing in LTC

[wecan11]

Have a question. Have a friend that's just been suspended pending investigation because she responded to a residents cursing and repeated the curse back once. Other residents heard it and she has been suspended for next several days. My question is what will happen to her? Will she lose her license over this? Is it likely she'll lose her job. She is really distraught over this. She has been on the receiving end of many, many curse words and she repeats one and she is history..?

[morte, LPN, LVN]

Since she was threatened, she should be writing up an incident report.

[CloudySue]

I have to smile at the memory of a foul-mouthed old lady who used the F-bomb all the time. I loved this lady. I never cursed around any other resident, but it was part of our rapport for me to greet her with, "Good morning, Harriet, how the F are you?" To which she'd respond, "Lousy. I want to get the F out of here!" and we'd both laugh. This word was part of her vocabulary, an old friend, and it made her feel a bit more normal to bounce that word around and not to be reprimanded for her language, as other staffers would. Of course I was VERY careful not to speak this way around anyone else! The rapport between two people needs to always be taken into account in any situation. I always knew that if I was overheard, I'd likely be in trouble. When she died, I whispered up to her, "Mazel tov, Harriet, you finally got the F out of there."