I am a CNA student and today at clinicals I witnessed a situation that I feel was not right. The CNA I was assigned to and I were changing a resident's diaper. The BM was everywhere and very unpleasant. After the CNA had removed the old diaper, the resident started having a BM again, to which the CNA responded "Why do you do this to me?" (Note- all quotes are approximations. I don't remember the exact words.) As the CNA was wiping, the resident commented that the CNA was being too rough. In response to that, the CNA said "Why are you always so negative? I am trying to help you and you never have anything nice to say. etc, etc" After that, any time the CNA needed the resident turned on her side, she would pull the resident's arm with no warning and it was visibly uncomfortable for the resident. The resident was able to turn on her side using the bed rail but I guess it was not fast enough for the CNA. At the end of the changing, the CNA held the bag with the dirty diaper near the resident's face and said "Look at what you did." Furthermore, the CNA wiped back to front on the female resident. (The BM was in the front already however.)
Is this abuse and should I report it? Besides being uncomfortable during the turns, the resident didn't really seem bothered and was even smiling at one point. Previous interactions between the CNA and resident didn't seem strained either. I couldn't tell if this was just the humor of the CNA or not. I think I should have been more confrontational during the changing, but unfortunately I freeze up in situations like that (something I need to work on). Also, I will be working with her for two more days and didn't want to strain our relationship (although if this is worth reporting I know a resident's comfort is worth some discomfort for me).
If I do report this, what would happen? Could the CNA possibly take it out on the resident?
There was another situation with this CNA and a different resident earlier in the day. The resident has dementia and as far as I could tell is pretty out of it. While we were getting her up for the day, the CNA was pretty rough with her, nearly causing the resident to fall at one point. The resident was screaming and saying things like "You're going to hurt me" which I think is normal for a resident with dementia. Whenever the CNA would turn her back, the resident would reach out a hand to me to get my attention and then mouth/whisper unintelligible words to me, in what seemed like an attempt for help. She seemed very relieved to get away from the CNA when I walked her to the dining room. The CNA had warned me that this resident could be cranky if she woke up too early. In this case, it seemed like the resident was trying to get help from me, but I wonder if she is just confused because of the dementia? Also, in the dining room, the resident would point to random people and say "Oh look, watch this" as if she was showing me something bad was happening when in fact nothing was happening. So maybe she is just paranoid.
Any advice is most welcome. Also, please let me know if anything in this post is a HIPAA violation.
