Is LTC really this bad?

Jedi_Iatros · Jan 4, 2007

I quit recently. I miss the residents, but not the bs and hospital politics of LTC.

Jo Dirt · Jan 6, 2007

Nursing homes are wastelands for old unwanted people. But you will have some families who feel guilty about dumping their "loved" ones in a nursing home so they will seek to find fault with everything the staff does because they have trouble dealing with their guilty conscience.

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Jan 6, 2007

Nursing homes are wastelands for old unwanted people. But you will have some families who feel guilty about dumping their "loved" ones in a nursing home so they will seek to find fault with everything the staff does because they have trouble dealing with their guilty conscience.

My experience doesn't bear this out. Most people who had loved ones in our facility had gone to incredible lengths to care for them at home.

SitcomNurse, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN · Jan 6, 2007

Nursing homes are wastelands for old unwanted people. But you will have some families who feel guilty about dumping their "loved" ones in a nursing home so they will seek to find fault with everything the staff does because they have trouble dealing with their guilty conscience.

OUCH!! and that comes from 14 years in LTC. We have our dumpers, but if some of these were my parents, they would find themselves put in far worse senarios(homes). In the majority of families I have encountered in my experience, they love their loved one but have lives too. Trying to raise their own kids who are trying to face the challenges of today, and meet their mortgage payments!! I have rehabbed so many people and sent them home, as well as sat bedside with the greiving family while they chatted for hours, talking about thir fathers/mothers life and acomplishments.

Yes, some are crotchety. Of course. Right now I take care of a woman who repeatedly says... Im 100 years old, you think people would learn respect!! I think, youre 100 years old, I'd think you'd have learned tolerance. Nasty, even at 100.

And if I was worried about paymnet and reimbursement, Id be in management. As it is, I know that medicare charting that exemplifies the 5 skills of ADL's will get ya paid, and therapy is the biggest reimbursement of all. PT OT Whirlpool for wounds... $$$$$.

But if you have too many wounds develop in house--as opposed to sent in from the hospials-- you have problems. Big problems.

I wouldnt trade what I do for the world. Im closer to all the ghosts and angels than so many people....I can spook myself out.

Jo Dirt · Jan 6, 2007

I absolutely don't belittle people who put their old relatives in nursing homes, but I also take great exception to their bullying and treating nursing home staff like crap. I just find this inexcusable. When my father-in-law was in assisted living we were grateful for the staff.

If they have such a problem with the care their loved ones are receiving they need to take them home and do it themselves.

Blackcat99 · Jan 7, 2007

I absolutely don't belittle people who put their old relatives in nursing homes, but I also take great exception to their bullying and treating nursing home staff like crap. I just find this inexcusable. When my father-in-law was in assisted living we were grateful for the staff.
If they have such a problem with the care their loved ones are receiving they need to take them home and do it themselves.

When I worked at a nursing home this woman's husband would scream and yell at everyone about the horrible care his wife was receiving. Finally, I said to him "If your wife is receiving such horrible care here perhaps you should bring her home and you take care of her yourself." He was shocked and speechless when I said that to him. He never ever yelled at me again.

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Jan 9, 2007

Unfortunately, the way competition is around here, we have been told that the nursing home business is supposed to be customer service based. Our ED lets family members treat the staff like servants instead of the professionals we are and then wonders why we are burnt out. My staff and I work extraordinarily hard to take care of our residents. No one would yell at, or expect the same kind of service mentality from a nurse at the hospital. We are nurses...not waitresses...not servants...not someone you think you can intimidate by threatening to call the state because YOU, not your family member who is the patient, didn't get a guest tray before everyone else.

Until we demand respect for ourselves and our residents, nothing will change.

banditrn · Jan 9, 2007

Unfortunately, the way competition is around here, we have been told that the nursing home business is supposed to be customer service based. Our ED lets family members treat the staff like servants instead of the professionals we are and then wonders why we are burnt out. My staff and I work extraordinarily hard to take care of our residents. No one would yell at, or expect the same kind of service mentality from a nurse at the hospital. We are nurses...not waitresses...not servants...not someone you think you can intimidate by threatening to call the state because YOU, not your family member who is the patient, didn't get a guest tray before everyone else.
Until we demand respect for ourselves and our residents, nothing will change.

Capecod - unfortunately, our hospital broadcast and allowed that kind of BS, all under the guise of 'customer service'. In all the years I worked there, I never had a complaint from a patient, but I also never let them treat me like a dog, either.

I haven't had a problem at this LTCF, but at the last one, I had to talk to a couple of the residents a couple of times about their treatment of the aides. Not in a nasty or unkind way, but they had to know that it was NOT OK to treat the staff poorly.

Jedi_Iatros · Jan 11, 2007

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/10/BAG7SNGCS811.DTL&hw=nursing&sn=005&sc=368

PralineLPN · Jan 14, 2007

Nursing homes are wastelands for old unwanted people. But you will have some families who feel guilty about dumping their "loved" ones in a nursing home so they will seek to find fault with everything the staff does because they have trouble dealing with their guilty conscience.

I don't believe this, either. We have several families that come in every weekend, and make the nursing home their second home for a few hours. The problem families have much greater issues than a "guilty conscience" Let's stop with the first year psychology.

adrienurse, LPN · Jan 14, 2007

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Jo Dirt · Jan 14, 2007

I don't believe this, either. We have several families that come in every weekend, and make the nursing home their second home for a few hours. The problem families have much greater issues than a "guilty conscience" Let's stop with the first year psychology.

Let's stop looking through the rose-colored glasses.

There are a few people who are dedicated to visiting their family members consistently and trying to see they have what they need. The vast majority of them (nursing home pt's) are there because they can no longer make it alone and no one wants the burden of having to look after them.

And you know what? No one should have to bear the burden of caring for them, either. But don't come in getting in my face because your mother happens to have a wet diaper when you happen to make in in to see her.

Get real.