Dirty hospitals and inconsiderate nurses during clinical

[ham5090]

hi all.:jester:i'm new to this forum and just want to share something that bothered me from day 1 of my clinical experience. i'm from central pa and started an lpn program in jan 2010. we go to a small scale hospital with an extended care facility attached to it. i started clinical in the extended care last week and noticed some disturbing things, and am wondering if this is the "norm".

first of all, the nurses we shadowed were not concerned about the patients. they walked around right outside of the patients rooms saying things such as "she's always complaining she's sick" or even "yeah she's a pain in the a** all she does is moan all day" i personally found this appalling. when doing bed baths, their complete bed bath only includes 1 swipe through the peri area, and a couple swipes across the chest and back. it's disgusting that these patients don't get proper care. they have an issue with bed sores, and i'm starting to see why. they don't respond to call bells on time, or even check to see if someone was incontinent every once in a while. they are constantly on their phones, texting and even calling their friends in patient's rooms. i've spoken to my instructors, however they say "we don't want to burn bridges, we have a contract." what do you guys think would be the best thing to do?

thanks in advance!!!

[ambirrgrrl]

i think you made a terrific start by speaking with your instructor about it. are you there for clinical the entire time you are in school? if not, i say tough it out and learn all you can and give your patients the best care you can while you are there. trust me, they will appreciate it. i encountered something similar last semester and told my instructor about a patient that i felt wasn't being cared for properly in a nursing home. i was basically told to do the best i could do. i am lucky since i am in a program that we get to move around to different areas and have already realized that if i don't particularly like something, i will get to do something different in 8 weeks. in nursing school you just have to play the game, get through it, and move on. hope this makes you feel better.

[ham5090]

That definitely made me feel a little better..But sadly we are there the entire schooling time. I think I will just use it as a motivator to take care of the patients the best way I know how.

[Hygiene Queen]

That's right. YOU give them good and proper care. This experience will sear itself into your brain and you will never forget it. This is good. You will then never allow yourself to be such a poor nurse.

My very first job in healthcare was the filthiest nursing home in three states and I never forgot what I saw. It taught me, first hand, what poor care is and it's effects on the unfortunate patients who receive it.

It's also good the school continues to contract with this facility. It is probably the students that give the patients the quality care they deserve. In other words, what a blessing for those patients!

Good luck and keep trudging on with your good care and clear conscience!

[CrazierThanYou]

I agree with the above posters. Just do the best you can while you're there because, honestly, there isn't much else you can do. You asked if that was the norm. I can't speak for everywhere but its the norm in a lot of LTC facilities. When doing our CNA clinicals, we only went to nursing homes. In the first one we went to (which was hospital based), I have to say care was pretty good there and most of the residents seemed happy. In the second one, care was just "okay" and the residents didn't seem happy or unhappy, just there. The third one was a different story altogether. I used to work there but that was some years ago and it was owned by a different company back then. Now, the place is absolutely filthy and smelled to high heaven. The CNA's couldn't care less about giving good care. One day, three women were sitting in wheelchairs lined up in the hall. Those women never moved from those spots all day long. And all three of them had been incontinent and it was glaringly obvious. None of the CNAs cared or were interested in doing anything about it. There were no washcloths to be found in the entire facility. One hall smelled so bad that I had to hold my breath and nearly fainted by the time I got to the other end. It really broke my heart to see how unhappy all the residents there were. There is no sense in that. I couldn't tell that there were any activities scheduled for them or anything at all. The facility itself is really dirty and run down. Nothing like it used to be.

[tfleuter, BSN, RN]

Even though your schools don't want to burn bridges, some of these circumstances seem disturbing (like the incontinent residents sitting in wheelchairs all day). These sound like neglect/abuse situations and really should be reported, which can be done anonymously.

At the very least, you can get the word around to family and friends to avoid these places at all costs. Maybe if word gets around in the community, investigations will be done and changes made.

It's wonderful that the students are there to (hopefully) provide quality care, but that care only comes in so many hours of the week. The rest of the time, these patients/residents are suffering from the lack of care and the hands of their incompitent staff

[CrazierThanYou]

I actually did mention the conditions of nursing home #3 to my instructor afterward (she wasn't there with us but has been there both before and after we were there). I mentioned the filthiness and lack of care and she just sat there with a strange smile on her face then said "You think so." It was actually very strange. I kind of felt like her message was "Drop it". I then mentioned how unhappy all the residents seemed and she just held on to her odd smile and said nothing.

[tfleuter, BSN, RN]

That is really strange. Bet she wouldn't have had a smile on her face if it was her loved one being placed in those kind of conditions. I'm pretty sure all nursing homes must have a "bill of rights" listed in visible sight for all residents and a number to contact their obudsmen (?) rep should they feel their rights are being denied. Of course, not saying all nursing homes do, just they should. I'm also not sure if Adult Protective Services would be the ones to contact or the Obudsmen rep, but either way a student could make the complaint and it shouldn't make it back to the facility, thereby risking the school's agreement.