understaffing, double shifts, poor training, lack of licensed staff=dead resident

oramar · Dec 4, 2001

You can never tell whether a person is actually an aide, licensed nurse or attendant by reading post-gazette articles. The average reporter just does not know the difference and will call them all nurses. Also, there is a big difference in Pa on what kind of staffing is required in a nursing home vs a personal care home. Most personal care (or residental homes as they are sometimes called) do not even have licensed staff on duty and are not required to do so. Some of the bigger ones have licensed nurses for DONs or licensed nurses on daylight only. Nursing homes are much more regulated and are required to have licensed staff on duty 24 hours a day. Don't expect to get that info from any article of this type because the average reporter does not have a clue about that stuff either.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Dec 5, 2001

I worked night shift in a 100 bed SNF facility in late 1970's. We had 1 RN and 5 aides on duty. Night time escapes of Alzheimers patients happened periodically; no alarms in those days. We finally got the ground floor back door painted as a bookshelf to fool our male escapee.

We were the only place in town open 24hrs...kept a fresh pot of coffee made at 2 AM so when the police checked our back alley, they got their thermos refilled, LOL. We had hourly checks of this guys room just to protect US.

I can easily see how this can happen...coverup is ALWAYS

worse than being upfront re this tragic incidence.

aimeee, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2001

The facility I used to work in had the ankle bracelets, but they only made the alarms go off if the residents went out the MAIN door. If they went out the door on the unit a bell would sound, but only for the time that the door was actually open. Well, if everyone is busy doing patient care then whose job is it to drop what they are doing when the bell rings? Yeah, its everybody's responsibility, but everybody tends to figure somebody else will do it. Which means that as the only RN on the floor you had better go make sure nobody escaped every time the darn thing goes off because it will be YOUR head on the chopping block if somebody gets out.

Had one particular patient who was very restless. She would go out the door 50 times a night sometimes. One door led to the courtyard, and she would go out that, through the courtyard, and then back in the other door. That led to complacency among the staff because they would figure she was just doing the courtyard thing when they heard the bell. But usually we were able to call her back before she actually got all the way out the door. One time she somehow actually made it. I got a call from the business down the street where she came to the door. Thank God nothing bad happened to her.

thisnurse · Dec 5, 2001

how horribly sad