horror scene

[NursePeace]

First off Ive been a nurse for about a year and half now. Im a float at a nursing home where I just started. It was my first day on this particular hall. I had a resident who is noncompliant with her alarms and very unsteady on her feet. I noticed her ambulating in the hallway and directed her back to her bed, showed her the call light, toileted her,increased supervision, blah blah you know the routine. Well they moved her room closer to the nurses station and didnt tell me, I knew she was being moved I just didnt know when. So I went out on a break and all of a sudden I heard the fire truck. Uh oh. I went inside to find the DON, ADON, supervisor and the other nurse standing in my hall with the resident laying face down in her room on the floor with a puddle of blood surrounding her head. My heart dropped. Needless to say shes probably not gonna make it, she was in bad shape before the fall occured as it was. Come to find out shes had a good 7 falls in the past month. Naturally the family is very upset and is doing a "investigation" of the incident. I feel horrible. I love my residents like there my family and I would never want anything to ever happen to any of them. I feel like the family is blaming me. I can not stop thinking about that poor lady laying there with blood everywhere, it looked like a massacre. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[softstorms]

Dear nursepeace, you say that with heavy heart I see. That you have accepted the fact they will fall. This is something we have all struggled with for a time. When we had to give up restraints because they were dangerous in the hands of people who did not care, that left many of the things we used to use to safe guard our pts. unusable. I am not talking about wrist or pelvic restraints. I am talking about a table in front of a person to allow them some type of hand activity. Because we are a nursing/rehab facility, we can not even have half-side rails. That means that our alert younger (45-57) pts. that are post surgery, have no hand holds for self turning!!! It takes more than an act of a Dr. just to get a quarter rail. So, we are left to protect our pts. the best we can. Watch over them and chart.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I'm sure moving the resident to another room didn't help any---she was almost certainly confused about where she belonged. You are not to blame for her fall. No matter what nurses do, some LTC residents are going to fall and hurt themselves badly. In fact, if life were a horizontal game, some of my own folks would win it singlehandedly. We do what we can within the limitations of staffing, human decency, and the law, but they still wind up on the floor, sometimes several times a day. Like the above poster said, document, document, document!

[lookingbeyond, BSN, RN]

I am a new LPN at a nursing home. This story...I am sure...will happen to me sometime. I hope I remember all of the encouragement and direction here on these posts. Thank you!

[lookingbeyond, BSN, RN]

Nursepeace, I so feel for you. Through your writing, I can feel your empathy and compassion and hurt. Hang in there... I am new to this profession, and I hope to learn from your experiences.

[MzMouse]

In this day and age of no restraints whatsoever and minimal staff to care for and watch over these residents; falls are going to happen. Should we go back to posy restraints in bed and tying everyone to their chairs? I suppose not. But no restraints combined with confused, weak and confused residents means falls.

When I worked LTC years ago I was very angered by management who second-guessed us after falls. We worked very hard to keep these residents safe, but there are only so many staff and we can't watch every one every minute.

[softstorms]

If I had one thing to ask, it would be for all the family members to take their complants to the voting box. Does anyone realize that the rate of nurses and aides to patients is set by the state? None of the places we work for are going to provide more than the state asks for. So, as much as we want help and as much as the patients need it, only the people who use this sevice can change it!