Employee abuse?

Specialties Geriatric

Published

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?

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

I do think that in some cases it is not just all about the money. We are 100% medicare certified, we are the only resource for most of our residents. The admin has struggled with a number of these cases before admitting defeat-it was not easy.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Wow....that resident would have been sectioned in a minute. We really try to figure out the whys of behaviors, but if someone is violent, they buy themselves a trip to the local geripsych.

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I have found myself in that same situation more than once sadly..

We had one resident that was extremely combative and every time we reported the behaviors to the social worker she's laugh it off! This resident went after staff with her walker, she'd hit, she'd punch, ect and she was strong! The final wake up call for the social worker came when the resident walked into another resident's room and hit her in the head with a plastic container! She was "chaptered" out of the facility and admitted to an in patient psych unit! Took care of another resident who was so violent she had to be "chaptered" out on numerous occasions, even slapped a police officer on one of those occasions! We finally got her a bed in an appropriate facility and when it came to discharge time she refused to leave! She swore we had stolen half her clothes and wasn't going to leave until she got them back! She never did leave! We ended getting a court order to administer her psych meds without her consent. After the started working she was a whole different person! The night she passed away all of us that were working broke down and cried. She ended up becoming a favorite among the staff!

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Usually where I work nothing is done until other residents become victims.

Bingo.

"Be glad you have a job."

"Customer service is our priority."

"Her daughter doesn't want her medicated."

"What did you do to set her off?"

"Maybe you could finish passing meds and take her for a walk."

"His son is calling his lawyer if we transfer him to geripsych."

"She doesn't know any better. Where is your compassion?"

"He can be difficult. He likes cookies. Did you try parking him at your desk and giving him cookies?"

#whynursesleave

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I am so sorry you were hurt.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

1. My job does not entail getting the crap being beaten out of me.

2. I am a customer. What do I tell another customer if this person beats THEIR family member?

3. If her daughter doesn't want us to medicate her, call the Ombudsman, tell her what's going on, and issue a 30 day notice of discharge.

4. Apparently the very fact that I am breathing 'her' air was enough to set her off.

5. Maybe if she would stop punching me I could take her for a walk.

6. Tell her son I'm calling MY lawyer if I get hit again.

7. I have plenty of compassion....this resident is tormented. I'm trying to send her to an appropriate venue where they can try to fix her.

8. I've tried cookies, candy, water, ice cream, tuna fish, milk, ativan, trazadone.....the person is out of control and needs to go out.

6

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Specializes in MDS/ UR.

I can't speak for all states obviously, but in my state behaviors on a resident who is physically able to do their own ADLS is low.

No one is likely making big bucks off of a BA1.

Here, it is hard to 'transfer' out a resident because most of the hospitals and psychiatric centers will only take them with the caveat that the original facility will accept them back. Or else the hospital will transfer back them back (stable or not) before bed hold expires.

There can be state laws in place that hinder the process.

I am not saying it is right, I agree that these sort of patients should be dealt with swiftly, but it isn't always as easy as it seems.

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