Resident abuse on cna on the uprise?

ktwlpn, LPN · Feb 19, 2014

Sorry you had to go through this. It's the culture in many facilities. In my experience this is especially true in the for-profits. They don't seem to care if the resident is tearing up the floor and using the staff as bowling balls and the other residents as human pins as long as they can pay the room and board.

I have seen your situation happen to other staff. Working in dementia care for years we learn there are certain residents who just don't mix well with certain staff members. The facility where I work now (not for profit) takes the safety of staff and all of the residents very seriously. We do incident reports every time anyone gets hit- staff, other residents, whatever. When we see this type of incident we do have to look at the approach, the number of staff on the unit,time of day, the staff involved and their history among other factors. It's part of the incident investigation. BUT if we have a resident who is frequently combative with most staff we document it to the moon and back and then we get psych involved and get meds on board. Or make them "assist of two at all times" for everyone's safety.There are better places to work where you will be valued for the hard work you do.Good luck to you.

Janis Joplin · Feb 20, 2014

Sorry you had to go through this. It's the culture in many facilities. In my experience this is especially true in the for-profits. They don't seem to care if the resident is tearing up the floor and using the staff as bowling balls and the other residents as human pins as long as they can pay the room and board.
I have seen your situation happen to other staff. Working in dementia care for years we learn there are certain residents who just don't mix well with certain staff members. The facility where I work now (not for profit) takes the safety of staff and all of the residents very seriously. We do incident reports every time anyone gets hit- staff, other residents, whatever. When we see this type of incident we do have to look at the approach, the number of staff on the unit,time of day, the staff involved and their history among other factors. It's part of the incident investigation. BUT if we have a resident who is frequently combative with most staff we document it to the moon and back and then we get psych involved and get meds on board. Or make them "assist of two at all times" for everyone's safety.There are better places to work where you will be valued for the hard work you do.Good luck to you.

Thank you, ktwlpn, for your support and kind response.

I did work for a ''for profit'' nursing home. The first year that I worked there, I loved it. If we girls got attacked in any way, and if the attacks happened more and more frequently,by the same resident, that resident was sent to a psych hospital, and they never came back. ''WE WILL NOT ALLOW YOU GIRLS TO GET HURT"..

But since most of these hospitals have since closed, these people have no where to go, but, into ltc. I am not a psychiatric nurse ...I actually feel that I may be suffering from ptsd from all that I have been witnessed to and experienced,seriously

I was/am equally appalled about the resident on resident abuse and the lamest ways in which management corrected, or tried to correct the situation. Simply move the resident to another floor..and their problem was solved..for awhile, anyways.

Where you now work, non profit..that is the way to go, for me..I will never work ''for profit" again. I have done my homework

As you described about your work experiences with abuse and incident reports, that is how they should all be handled everywhere ''for profit' or ''not for profit', should not matter..but there is the greed factor, which is a whole other topic.

I am glad that you work where you have rights, as it should be .

You are right..there are better places out there for me, to work, and to shine, at what I do.

God bless

Hoosier_RN, MSN · Feb 20, 2014

Good luck JJ. Most facilities will hopefully turn around from this mentality soon. You can only have so many staff injured and/or quit before you get as bad name as a facility

Janis Joplin · Feb 21, 2014

The ltc where I was at, already has a bad name to it, perhaps it will get worse as more family is witness to these atacks on fellow residents and staff

mdsrnac · Feb 22, 2014

If the facility does not have a plan in place to prevent harm to their other residents, they could face immediate jeopardy. They should also have compassion for staff - if you're injured, you would need to go through the proper investigation procedures for OSHA logs and work comp.

Janis Joplin · Feb 23, 2014

mdsrnac

Thank you for your response.

Last time that I was there, their solution to resident on resident abuse was to move the ''scared'' resident to the first floor, where it is ''quieter''.

That was/is there plan. This is the same resident that injured me, but it was ''my fault'' and because I had had enough,decided to resign..there isnt enough money in the world to keep me in such an intolerable/violent work place .

None of the incident reports that I ever filled out, were investigated...it was a matter of me not knowing how to do my job...over and over and over again

See why I left?

It may be of interest to know that it is a ''for profit'' nursing home