Running a dementia unit

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Why would management ever think running a successful dementia unit is easy or no big deal?

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

I'll bite. Why?

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

They must have never done it. Otherwise they'd know why it's so hard to manage a dementia unit (and I've done it, so I have a pretty good idea).

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Did you have support from other managers? Over the past 5 years it just seems ultimately the management doesn't understand that to run a successful unit it takes a lot of work.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Not really. The locked unit was sort of a dirty secret at that assisted living facility---everybody knew it was there, but they ignored it as much as possible. I didn't last long there, only a couple of years. I had to hire and train every single caregiver and med aide, and it was SO hard to attract good workers because the wages sucked and so did the working conditions. We were chronically understaffed and TPTB didn't care.

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