Nursing Home Abuse

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Recently at the LTC facility that I work at, there have been several instances of reported abuse by nursing asstants. These employees were swiftly fired and an audit plan has been put into place where a licensed staff walks through the facility and listens and watches for any type of abuse/neglect going on. It is a great plan and several items have been found that really could be classified as neglect but no other types of "abuse" type situations. I have worked in LTC my whole working life of 15 years and have had instances where I have had to write nursing assistants up and suspend them but never have I worked in a place where there was such disregard for the resident by the nursing assistant. As these Audits have been occuring for 2 weeks now, I have been the auditor 9 out of my 10 days working. I see several nurses who never check up on their assistants, forget bowel protocol for 10 days or better, undermedicate patients, leave patient information out for all to see, do little to no charting and consistently do basic nursing care when on the clock. When I say basic nursing care I mean they strictly come in, pass their meds and leave. How can we expect our assistants to be good care providers when we ourselves are not? To many times I see nurses complaining about the workload on the floor, in front of the assistants and residents, complaining about the pay in the same manner, complaining about the resident and in general not being very good leaders. It really tugs at the heart strings. I truly love LTC and taking care of the elderly. I know I could make way more money at the hospital down the street but this is where my heart is. Just wondering if there are any other LTC nurses out there that were dissappointed in the behavior of their fellow nurses, too? :crying2:

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Specializes in ER, PACU, Med-Surg, Hospice, LTC.

I too felt very frustrated at times in LTC, but I think that things are finally changing!

"Yesterday, the federal government rolled out a revamped and simplified approach to its evaluations of nursing homes, in order to make the onerous task of choosing the right one easier for families. Like the system the government uses for rating Medicare health and drug plans, the Nursing Home Compare site now gives nursing homes from 1 to 5 stars, overall and in each of three areas--performance in the latest three quarterly reports in 10 key quality measures, such as the percentage of residents with urinary tract infections; performance in the latest three annual health inspections; and adequacy of both overall and nurse staffing."

http://tinyurl.com/53nwjd

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

I asked the nurses to make sure they checked the CNA documentation for completeness and they called the union saying I was changing their job descriptions. I can't tell you how much I am disappointed over the way nursing has changed....mostly the attitudes.

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Specializes in School Nursing, Pedi., Critical Care.

I am a new member here and I have to say I am so saddened by what I read in regards to care in the long term care facilities. Please know that the ones of you that write in love your jobs, I can tell. I am so thankful that you exist to take care care of our elders and fight to protect them. It is just unfortunate there are people that feel is is OK to abuse or neglect them. I hope some legal changes come to help make this better. :redpinkhe To those that work with and take care of our older patients... Thank you!:redbeathe

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Are you the DON or in a position to speak with these nurses? In not, in your report off to them about your audit, you should include these instances as neglect is a form of abuse. What your DON or supervisor does from there is something different.

I too see these type of behaviors....thankfully, those nurses don't last long at my facility.

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Specializes in acute care and geriatric.
I asked the nurses to make sure they checked the CNA documentation for completeness and they called the union saying I was changing their job descriptions. I can't tell you how much I am disappointed over the way nursing has changed....mostly the attitudes.

WHAT????? They called the Union on that- but its their jobs to monitor the CNA's work- such as documentation etc. I don't think that behavior is typical. There must be more to the story.

OTOH I too am disappointed in the changes I see from new young nurses. Lack of respect, poor skills and lack of incentive to improve them, etc:banghead:

I was taught theory (iin classroom) and practice (on the unit) at the same time so I developed skills along withthe theory. The new nurses I'm getting can barely give an injection let alone BP, insert a foley cath,. and forget about careplans, documentation, writing incident reports ( "At 6am when I was at the nursing desk writing, and the CNA was changing diapers in room 206 we heard a bang from room 230): this from a nurse with her masters degree!!- no mention of what happened to the poor patient... the nurse ran out of room on the form to go on and explain that the pt climbed over his side rails and fell on the floor, broke his nose and was sent to the hospital!!)

Yes nurses have changed. It is so much harder (here where I live) to find an RN for LTC !!!:scrying:

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Unfortunately, it is the truth. The building has a union mentality and they think they are only going to pass meds and do treatments. The building was really mismanaged before and they were spending money on all sorts of staff who did next to nothing.

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Specializes in acute care and geriatric.

I understand , But I can only encourage you to keep plugging. When I started as ADON of my current facility (almost 4 yrs) I saw staff smoking all over the place in clear defiance of the law. I was gentle and politically correct in my objections. I was finally called by my DON that I have to understand, people are going to hate me if I police them and stop smoking in the facility. Of course I told her she was wrong, I don;t need to be loved, I need to protect the clients and the law, if people want to smoke, there are large patios on every floor. We should set up smoking areas, make them pleasant and leave the air clean within the facility. It took time but today NOBODY smokes :D. Just yesterday, a smoker said " I never smoke at home" I asked why " Because I wouldn't bring that stuff into my home" .....So why would they do it at the nursing home??!!

Changing peoples attitudes takes time and consistency. Make sure you praise the converted. Start with the heads of departments and they will set the tone for the rest of the place.

Good Luck

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