Employee abuse?

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The same resident in my nursing home has injured three workers(that I am aware of), myself being the third. The first one was a CNA who was punched so hard that she was knocked unconscious and was out for a while, the second had a bad back injury, and myself a hard shove that hurt my knee severely . She punched me the previous week in the arm luckily with no injury.I can't even tell you how many behavior notes have written on this person. She is extremely combative no matter how nicely or calmly you approach her and is apparently very strong. Every time the psychiatrist sees her, he says that there is no more he can do. Redirection, distraction, food, drink, toileting, even walking with her back in forth to get energy out has had no effect. Am I missing something here? How many people is this woman going to injure before some type of intervention has been done? I am out of work because of this injury and have been looking feverishly for a different LPN job elsewhere. No more LTC for me anymore. Especially if I return to this job, I could get badly injured and never be able to work again. So I am looking for md office jobs. Had a promising interview and am waiting to hear back next week. The reason that I wrote this post is because I wanted to see if this is common in LTC's and what has anyone done about it? I have heard of elder abuse, but what happens when it is employee abuse?

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Specializes in hospice.

Seems to me a locked geri-psych unit is where she should be until they can get her behaviors under better control. Your management is awful. I'm sorry they don't seem to care. Are you able to collect disability while you recover?

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Workers comp. Job very reluctant to file or assist me with any questions. I really fear for my co-workers after I am gone. The majority of the workers there are excellent and are afraid to say anything to management, I have tried to advocate for them but have been brushed off and gotten shrugged at.

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Well when we take our CNA classes we are warned about these type of things that happen in LTC and it is no fun. Something should be done though before anyone else gets hurt. Does she have family tha can be contacted. These incidents should be on file and be brought up to family to decide what the best course of action should be. If your LTC has done everything they know to do and things are not getting better then maybe she does need to find a different place that can handle her better.

I don't blame you for trying to find a new job. However managment handles this gives the employees an insight as to how much they truely care for not just the residents but how much they care for their emplyees as well.

It would be interesting to know if the place can be held responsible for workers getting hurt when it can be proven that they have not tried to help the situation. They might be seen as putting their employees at risk and get into trouble for it

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Specializes in hospice.

Yes, of course we are warned that patients might do unexpected things. But this patient has now injured THREE employees, at least one to the point of being unable to work, with violent attacks and management has not responded.

Cnappy, I don't really know the best way to proceed, but maybe placing a call to your state labor board would be a good place to start. They should be able to give you some guidance. I think a workplace that just keeps allowing a known hazard to continue with no attempt to solve the problem should be held accountable. As I said in my first post, there are facilities more appropriate to dealing with her challenges and she should be transferred to one, for your benefit AND hers. I suspect your management is mostly interested in keeping her reimbursements coming in above all else.

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You are both very right in saying that this resident does need to go elsewhere. And duskyjewel you are right on target for saying that they are keeping her around for reimbursement reasons. We have another violent resident in the facility that I have been told no one else will take because of his behavior but because of his money situation, my job is willing to go above and beyond by sacrificing a CNA from each floor for 1/2 hour(an around the clock rotation) to provide him one to one which robs each floor of the help they so desperately need. When there are call-outs, we are pretty much sunk.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

Long term geri-psych specialty facilities are few and far between We are 90 mins away from an Alzheimer's specific LTC and have referred three residents there. Once their loved ones accepted it they were so pleased with the care. It was hard on everyone-you form an attachment to the family and you hate like heck to make some 70 year old man drive 90 mins to see his wife but we all had to be protected. Usually where I work nothing is done until other residents become victims.

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The funny thing is the family is well aware of her behavior and would probably have no problem with a transfer to a Geri-psych facility. We are literally 15 minutes from one. In fact they said the reason they could not keep her home and take care of her was because of her " violent tendencies." I think duskyjewel was completely correct about the issue being $$$$$ related. If you think about it, not only is it endangering other residents and employees but I can only imagine how the resident feels. We are not providing her with what she needs and there is a true psychosis going on here. I can only believe that she is completely frightened and scared in order to lash out that way. How long can someone's mind go on like that and feel comfortable day to day. She definitely isn't recieving the psychiatric treatment she needs or deserves. I really can't blame her or her family at all, but I can completely blame my facilities greed. Thank you all so much for listening and commenting. I haven't really been able to talk to anyone about it who doesn't just shrug me off or doesnt really understand cause they haven't worked in these types of facilities. I am so sad when I hear coworkers and managers tell me that "it is what it is"and "just redirect her."

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911. Workplace violence charges. End of story.

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Specializes in LTC.

We had a violent resident and we charted and charted and our DON was aware and even the administrator. It wasn't until he beat the administrator with a broom that anything was done. By the end of my shift that resident found himself at an inpatient psyche unit. Sad how administration turns their eye at their employees getting hurt! Hope you recover and find other employment soon.

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Sad indeed! Thanks motherof3sons. I guess it matters much more if administration is hurt and cannot work.......

We had a violent resident and we charted and charted and our DON was aware and even the administrator. It wasn't until he beat the administrator with a broom that anything was done. By the end of my shift that resident found himself at an inpatient psyche unit. Sad how administration turns their eye at their employees getting hurt! Hope you recover and find other employment soon.
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Specializes in hospice.
We had a violent resident and we charted and charted and our DON was aware and even the administrator. It wasn't until he beat the administrator with a broom that anything was done. By the end of my shift that resident found himself at an inpatient psyche unit. Sad how administration turns their eye at their employees getting hurt! Hope you recover and find other employment soon.

That is just SO crappy! I don't get how people like that sleep. "When it's you getting beat up, screw you. But when it's ME getting beat up, it's a problem!" Blech.

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