Nursing Homes. The bodies are just pilling up.

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I just read an article about a New Jersey nursing home that was storing a body in the shed, and when police arrived they discovered 17 bodies in a small morgue meant for 4 bodies. All around my state I keep hearing all residents and staff positive along with several deaths at each facility already. Mind you this isn't in the news! LTC/CCRC are a small community and word gets out. When did the generation that helped build this country become to expendable? Yes, us LTC nurse might not be on the front line, but we are fighting a silent battle, and no one can hear us. The amazing nurses who are on the front line can barely get proper PPE . So how can we? Imagine the virus coming into your home. Thats what it is like for these residents. We are their salvation, but might also be their end....Stay strong everyone!!

23 minutes ago, CrunchRN said:

My MIL and dad are both in ALF's. Luckily they are doing well and have great care provided.

Nursing homes though.............I think we all know even the best are lacking in resources for this kind of battle and they have the most fragile residents due to age, illness, etc. Unfortunately, there are many reasons that this will affect them disproportionately.

Not everyone can bring their loved ones home. I can't pay my mortgage unless I can work and there is no way they could be in my home on their own. They wouldn't survive. That is just reality. No matter how loved they are it is just not as easy as it sounds to care for ailing elders at home.

They are not being "stored".

On the other hand there are many in nursing homes who do not have a loving family for reasons that may or may not be deserved. They are being "stored" by society.

In a perfect world this would not be how it is, but this will never be a perfect world. It wasn't before and it won't be after. At least most in the nursing homes have lived a good long life before they ended up in the NH.

Either they are ALL senior citizens at a different point in the natural life cycle , as we're taught in nursing curriculum or they are not. That is independent of whether or not they have family.

My take is they are NOT stored. They are NOT furniture and they are NOT expendable because Jimmie Jack wants to go get his hair cut.

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On 4/20/2020 at 10:11 AM, juniper222 said:

"Store" is a harsh word but it is what some people are doing. I think he was referring to the mindset of what the families of these people is ,sad but true. Now some of you get offended by the wording but at the same time claim that nursing is just a job and nothing else.

“Storing” may not be the initial intent, but it often turns out to be the reality. Bet many who read of this felt uncomfortable when they considered how long it has been since they spent time with a quality visit to their family member residing in a LTC facility.

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On 4/16/2020 at 8:27 AM, A Hit With The Ladies said:

I hate to say this, but isn't the point of a nursing home to store very old people until they die anyway? ?

To try to address your point without attacking you for your poor word choice:

1) Many LTC facilities also have rehab wings -- including the very good one my grandmother was at (a decade ago) that also was one of the first three LTC facilities affected by COVID-19 in my state. So not all pts getting exposed in the facilities with outbreaks are there for the long haul -- some just need care while recovering from fractures and would have many quality-filled and independent years left.

2) One reason we would see higher death rates, aside from the fact that even rehab-wing LTC pts often have multiple comorbidities and are usually older, is that upon admission to LTC many pts fill out a Living Will. They've already decided that when it's their time it's their time, and don't want extreme measures. So many aren't going on vents and potentially aren't even getting more than oxygen, depending on their health directives.

I actually hope, for the treating docs and nurses in those cases, that pts do have their wishes stated about life-sustaining treatment -- if they already know the pt wouldn't want a vent, it might be easier psychologically when they have to say how slim their chances would be even with one. (And if they do want it -- well, if a person has the right to refuse treatment they should also have the right to that slim chance if they really want to take it, as long as we have available vents.)

LTC is not always the same as hospice, where patients know they are dying and the virus might be more likely an end to unbearable pain. Many in LTC still have a good enough quality of life to want to keep living it, just don't want to be put on machines if their heart gives out.

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Specializes in ER.

I think this coronavirus virus is bringing to light the fragility and weaknesses in a healthcare system that profits by artificially extending the lives of very unhealthy people.

Let's speak bluntly here; most nursing homes are profiteering corporations. They exist to make money. They try to provide compassionate care, but money is really the bottom line.

Most people dying of the Covid19 have had their lives propped up for years by a very expensive, for profit medical system that has been already on the brink of collapse. They are also dying of all their underlying chronic illness and old age. We, as a nation, need to take an honest look at this.

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Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.

Did no one notice the misspelling in the headline of this posting? Human pile up; they don't pill. Sweaters pill while humans pile:)

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Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.
2 hours ago, Emergent said:

I think this coronavirus virus is bringing to light the fragility and weaknesses in a healthcare system that profits by artificially extending the lives of very unhealthy people.

Let's speak bluntly here; most nursing homes are profiteering corporations. They exist to make money. They try to provide compassionate care, but money is really the bottom line.

Most people dying of the Covid19 have had their lives propped up for years by a very expensive, for profit medical system that has been already on the brink of collapse. They are also dying of all their underlying chronic illness and old age. We, as a nation, need to take an honest look at this.

I agree we do need to take a good hard look at the current healthcare system and IMO in particular end of life care. Having worked in different areas I saw many pts/families want absolutely everything done to extend life even at the detriment of the pt (causing physical pain with no good outcome bc they were actively dying etc). There was supposed to be mandated end of life care education in the ACA (Obamacare) but not sure how that played out in the hospital etc. In regard to LTC, the ones I have seen I wouldnt even want to board my dog there much less let a loved one live there. Too much gov and facility regulation means too few nurses to actually care for these pts and too much lining of pockets by corporations (although I have seen some that are just barely scraping by bc there are too many medicaid pts at once). The whole thing is just a hot mess.

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9 minutes ago, subee said:

Did no one notice the misspelling in the headline of this posting? Human pile up; they don't pill. Sweaters pill while humans pile:)

Thanks Karen, really not the point, but I hope it makes you feel better that you noticed that.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

https://www.CDC.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm

I don't agree that government regulations and standards are the cause of poor care and few nurses in those profit centers. I can think of other reasons that pennies are pinched in staffing and supplies.

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8 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

https://www.CDC.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm

I don't agree that government regulations and standards are the cause of poor care and few nurses in those profit centers. I can think of other reasons that pennies are pinched in staffing and supplies.

Agreed fully. Add to that that nursing homes are regulated predominantly by the States not the federal government and are notoriously more loosely regulated than hospitals which are regulated federally by HHS/CMS, the Joint Commission, etc..

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On 4/16/2020 at 9:27 AM, A Hit With The Ladies said:

I hate to say this, but isn't the point of a nursing home to store very old people until they die anyway? ?

WOW!! As much as I cant stand working in LTC or the LTC sector of healthcare...this was sad to read.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
44 minutes ago, 819Nurse said:

WOW! As much as I cant stand working in LTC or the LTC sector of healthcare...this was sad to read.

It's a pattern of thinking that's pretty well documented...

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You nurses who say that these seniors have lived too long, because they've been propped up by modern medicine. How about those vaccines and pediatrician visits you got as a child. A hundred years ago, you may have died in childhood, did medicine prop YOU up? How about the chances you're getting because of school. You can put all those initials after your name. That's because of all the people who came before you and helped pave the way. Those are the same ones who you say have outlived their usefulness and deserve to die. Adolf would be proud of you. Wait until you get a few years past your prime. Things will look different.

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