Legal help

[Linnylulu]

Hi I am on here asking you a question to see what is my legal rights as a CNA I work for a rehab facility and there is a who does not speak English except for maybe a few words to understand whether or not she wants to go to the bathroom or be changed that's it she is heavyset it takes two sometimes three CNAs to transfer her the only thing is there was one time she was accusing me of hurting her and was put under investigation and suspended for 2 days when they let me come back I was to be wrote up and the write-up was just indicating that I should start listening to her even though she does not speak English but at first I was not allowed in her room at all or to help her at all but things got too crazy where she started throwing things at other CNAs pushing them hurting the other CNAs she cannot use the left side of her body no left arm or left leg so she does not help on transferring or anything like that she cannot take herself to the bathroom but she is very nice she will yell at you throw things at you she will shake her finger at you saying bad bad bad and then you are not allowed to go into the room for at least a few days when it got worse and worse my boss talked to the family members and they said it was fine with me to come back into the room and start helping again so I did only now she is accusing me of hurting her again only thing is they have a rule where we are to go into her room with two CNAs or two people at all times and so with her complaining about me this time I had a second person with me every time I went in her room but with the second accusation they did not want me to go back into her room again for the time while there was another investigation only a few days have passed and they say that everything is okay that I can go back into her room what I want to know is can I refuse to go back into that room myself I do not want to go back in there and have her accuse me again I have never hit her or anyone I love being a CNA I love doing what I do but can I legally refuse to go into her room or help her to save myself and can I do this without being fired???

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Holy run in sentence.

i don't think you can refuse to take of a pt. Just make sure there are always two of you when providing care.n

and try to learn a few words of her language if possible.m

[hookyarnandblanket]

We can't dispense legal advisement here. However, I have been told that refusing to care for a specific patient could be construed as abandonment of assignment. Perhaps contacting your state board of nursing would yield better results.

[AshBuggin]

If I were you I would invest in Liability Insurance to protect yourself from being sued civilly. It's like 35-50 bucks per year. Refusing to care for a patient without replacing yourself with another staff member - in some states could bring on an abandonment charge, I believe. This is speculation, of course. Research your rights in your state.

[sevensonnets]

Good grief! That's the longest sentence in the history of the written language and all of mankind! The only punctuation I see is 3 question marks at the end! We can't dispense legal advice here. The answer lies with the BON. In the meantime, always have another staff member in the room with you as Pepper said.

[Paws2people]

There is a language barrier here and it's affecting the patient's care. You either need to get another staff member to translate her needs to you, or you should be provided with a translation tool. At my hospital we have several devices to use. One is a translator phone. A very basic means is a piece of paper with Spanish and English with pictures, and the patient points to what they need. For example, there is a picture of a person walking to the bathroom with the sentence written in Spanish as the caption.

Do not go in her room alone. You are setting yourself up for trouble. I would tell your manager, ADN, and nurses you are not comfortable providing care alone.

Also, always document everything! Every time you go in her room, leave a written trail to back you up. Best of luck.

[future_RN, CNA]

My best advice is to ask someone to switch and take that patient and you take on of theirs. For your protection, and theirs (though you probably don't mean any harm). If that isn't possible, have someone go in the room with you for patient care, or at the very least stand by the door to listen to the interactions. We had a patient that was kicked out of multiple nursing homes, and refused admission into 11 nursing homes. Once admitted to the facility I was at, he was constantly cussing at employees, throwing his trays and anything possible at them, spitting on them, slapping them, making sexually inappropriate jokes towards female employees etc. So we all decided we were to only go in his room with atleast one other employee, sometimes three. Not because we were scared of him, but for our protection. A simple accusation from a patient usually does not end up well for the employee. Always cover yourself, and any incident should be documented. A resident claimed another CNA used racial profanity towards him. Knowing her from working with her, did I believe it? No. But at the end of the day, I was not in the room or even working that day, nobody was there to witness. Despite that patient causing problems with almost any employee who works with him, the CNA was written up and suspended for 5 days. I will never go by myself to do patient care if there is a risk of anything of the sort. You may gain a friend there, and me and my friend used to do both of our assignments together for rounds. Much faster, safer and more comfortable for patients, and we were eachothers witnesses.