TabithaRae

Thats the thing, this agency is claiming it is the law in our state. The mother of the family has asked me to help find the information to prove the agency wrong, or else she will be bullied into either going with the agency (and all 9 of us lose our jobs) or else applying for a license with the state to become her own agency, and she doesn't want the state overseeing her daughters care. She wants to maintain total control of that situation. The Agency is saying that the RN's are required to supervise nurses but can't in an unlicensed facility. Claiming we are in violation of license regulations when we supervise CNA's and not only supervise, but even working with them in an unlicensed facility. Their reasoning is that supervisory responsibilities comes with being an RN whether we want to supervise or not. They are even claiming the CNA's are in violation of their state certification because they aren't allowed to work for non licensed agencies either. I have no clue where to look to prove them wrong. We aren't considered private contractors because we were hired under the Trust of the patient. They created their own business in order to hire CNA's. In the past they had gone through an agency and only had nurses but because of the nursing shortage they needed more caregivers, therefore, they hired CNA's and left their previous agency. The remaining two RN's came from an agency (which they are no longer with), I was hired independently as were the CNA's.

The problem started because a C.N.A didn't like one of the RN's. There was some conflict about what was best for the patient (C.N.A. was challenging another RN's care decisions). The family decided to ask for outside help (that is where this agency comes in). But the mother of the patient just wanted some care advice and now it has turned into this huge issue. Apparently the agency wanted to turn in our supervising RN for overseeing the rest of us (including the C.N.A's) claiming that RN's are suppose to "know" that we can't oversee C.N.A's in an unlicensed facility. The family asked us to oversee the C.N.A.s and asked the senior RN to be a "supervisor" and now they are upset because they don't want to lose any of us but the agency says they aren't allowed to have RN's overseeing CNA's without applying for a state license to be their own home health agency. My head is spinning. I can't get my brain around it. I've never heard of such a thing.

Yes, the family pays us. The patient has a trust fund that her expenses are paid from. When I searched online I did find several laws restricting RN's from certain duties if DHS is involved in funding but the family pays out of pocket and receives no state funding.

I have a question and I'm hoping someone can help. I am an RN, I work for a private employer in their home taking care of a disabled woman. I was a new hire about a year ago but we have two other RN's that have worked with this family for 15 years. Besides the 3 of us there are also 6 CNA's. Recently the family hired another nurse from an agency to do some care management, this is the only person involved in the care of the patient that is through a state agency. Here is the issue: The state agency claims that the family is in violation of state law. They claim that RN's are not allowed to work with CNA's in unlicensed private home care. They also say that the CNA's are in violation as well because, as they are saying, CNA's cannot work in private households either. Although they claim it is a state law, I cannot find this information anywhere, not even with the board of nursing. This agency has told the family they have 2 options, either to hire the agency to oversee all cares and provide caregivers (which means we will all be fired) or to apply for a state license to become their own home health agency. Does anyone know how I can find out what exactly the law states or if this information is accurate?