State Investigation on me please help!

Cheyenne RN,BSHS · Oct 23, 2006

i been working as a new cna on weekend duty for 3 months. well, recently my job stated that a neglect claim was made against me. i am a nursing student and i was very torn apart. basically in brief- one of my patients was not hoyered out of bed. older aides of the facility told me that the hoyer was not working and not charged on several occassions during my shift. the nurse heard us talking about it, she passed meds to the patient in bed all during our shift. the patient is oriented. i went to lunch and came back and the patient told me she was ringing and the nurse and several aides came and no one helped her. by the time i got to her she was tired of the run around. we had a conversation about what aides came into the room and the confusion. basically she complained to her family that she was not taken out of bed. the dns called me in and told me the state was called and that i was terminated. i wasn't happy so i told her waht happened the whole day, she said she would do her own investigation. the nurse, and the aides denied ever knowing what was going. even though the patient can tell you that more than one person told her the hoyer was broken. the dns tells me that she can't tell me anything about the state investigation. my concern is my name having an incident under it. my issue is that i honestly did not know what to do in this situation, especially since the nurse knew, the dns told me that i should have journeyed to another floor for their hoyer. i just want to know how do i find out about the state investigation. and what should i be doing now?

a neglect claim may have been made, but the complaint and the state's investigation of a patient's complaint, are not necessarily the same thing.

it is the responsibility of the facilty to provide you with the equipment that you need to perform safe patient care, in this case it was a hoyer lift. the hoyer is for your own physical safety as well as that of the patients.

next, you state that you are a "new cna" so you may not have known who you can and cannot report to when equipment is not working properly. you should have talked with the nurse in charge of your assigned patient.

you also may not have known that there was more than one hoyer lift in the place available to you, or where to obtain another lift in order to get the person out of bed.

next time be sure to report the entire incident to your nurse over that patient and ask her/him what they want done about getting the person up.

a patient can complain and they also can call the state and make a more formal complaint, but more often it is a complaint against the facility and the care they are receiving than against a specific person.

once the state walks in administrators and directors always tend to freak out and often look for a scapegoat, and it sounds like you may have been the victim this time. if you did report the entire thing to the nurse, write what you remember about the incident down in your own cover-your-butt file at home and keep it.

next time you are unable to carry out an assigned task, for whatever reason, go to the one in charge of your patient and tell them what is wrong so they can tell you what direction to take. even when you become a nurse, knowing the chain of command is important.

i am sorry that you were terminated so abruptly. i can understand their need for the incident being writen up, but it would have been an opportunity for the facilty to teach you and look at ways they could improve things. sounds to me they not only lost a new cna, but a future nurse.

real1143 · Oct 23, 2006

a neglect claim may have been made, but the complaint and the state's investigation of a patient's complaint, are not necessarily the same thing.

it is the responsibility of the facilty to provide you with the equipment that you need to perform safe patient care, in this case it was a hoyer lift. the hoyer is for your own physical safety as well as that of the patients.

next, you state that you are a "new cna" so you may not have known who you can and cannot report to when equipment is not working properly. you should have talked with the nurse in charge of your assigned patient.

you also may not have known that there was more than one hoyer lift in the place available to you, or where to obtain another lift in order to get the person out of bed.

next time be sure to report the entire incident to your nurse over that patient and ask her/him what they want done about getting the person up.

a patient can complain and they also can call the state and make a more formal complaint, but more often it is a complaint against the facility and the care they are receiving than against a specific person.

once the state walks in administrators and directors always tend to freak out and often look for a scapegoat, and it sounds like you may have been the victim this time. if you did report the entire thing to the nurse, write what you remember about the incident down in your own cover-your-butt file at home and keep it.

next time you are unable to carry out an assigned task, for whatever reason, go to the one in charge of your patient and tell them what is wrong so they can tell you what direction to take. even when you become a nurse, knowing the chain of command is important.

i am sorry that you were terminated so abruptly. i can understand their need for the incident being writen up, but it would have been an opportunity for the facilty to teach you and look at ways they could improve things. sounds to me they not only lost a new cna, but a future nurse.

thank you. i was just so horrified by the whole situation. that i just buried myself in my books. i am just hoping things will be better when i become a nurse. thank you for the enlightment.

RXCT · Oct 26, 2006

I been working as a new CNA on weekend duty for 3 months. Well, recently my job stated that a neglect claim was made against me. I am a Nursing student and i was very torn apart. Basically in brief- one of my patients was not hoyered out of bed. Older aides of the facility told me that the hoyer was not working and not charged on several occassions during my shift. The nurse heard us talking about it, she passed meds to the patient in bed all during our shift. The patient is oriented. I went to lunch and came back and the patient told me she was ringing and the nurse and several aides came and no one helped her. By the time I got to her she was tired of the run around. We had a conversation about what aides came into the room and the confusion. Basically she complained to her family that she was not taken out of bed. The DNS called me in and told me the state was called and that I was terminated. I wasn't happy so I told her waht happened the whole day, she said she would do her own investigation. The nurse, and the aides denied ever knowing what was going. Even though the patient can tell you that more than one person told her the hoyer was broken. The DNS tells me that she can't tell me anything about the state investigation. MY CONCERN is my name having an incident under it. My issue is that I honestly did not know what to do in this situation, especially since the nurse knew, the DNS told me that I should have journeyed to another floor for their hoyer. I just want to know how do I find out about the state investigation. And what should I be doing now?

The bottom line is that the nurse on staff is held responsible no matter who did the wrong. I wouldn't woory about getting a "bad" mark against you, your not a nurse and your nursing license is what gets the "strike".

nursehellokitty04 · Nov 18, 2006

honey its a dog eat dog world in nursing i hate to tell you that dont want to discurage a future nurse just watch yourself and CYA

DarciaMoonz, LPN · Dec 13, 2006

Wow! I was in a somewhat similar situation at the job I left. I was accused of abuse by a disgruntled employee (who by the way was reported for slapping an A+O patient in the face). I had no idea I was being investigated. they allowed me to work for about a week before suspending me. I was shocked because I have been a CNA for 11 years now and have NEVER harmed the people that I have taken care of. They allowed me and the other persons who were accused to come back, but it just didn't feel right. BTW the patient that we were accused of biting on the hands (which are usually disgusting and covered with feces), punching in the stomach 25 times, sprayed in the eyes, excuse me, spraying in the right eye 2x and in the left 3x, and punching in the head 5x, held in a choke hold until he turned "fire engine red", is very combative (the patient). The CNAs have been complaining about trying to do care on him for the longest, and personally I don't feel that the facility can provide the level of care he needs. The nurse is usually down the hall doing other things, like talking to visitors, when she should be giving him his meds. before we provide care for him as ordered. I ended up having no charges placed on my record because there were no signs of physical abuse present. The person who said we did all of those things to the patient didn't report the "incident" until 3 days after it supposedly occurred. I was placed back on the unit where this patient is currently residing, and during the time I was there, I refused to care for him unless the dns, supervisor, or charge nurse and another cna was present. I think they also dropped the charges because, when they went in there to provide care for him, the dns and supervisors got ruffed up pretty bad from him. Needless to say, I am no longer there because of the numerous deficits at the facility, and the risk to my future license as a nurse. didn't mean to take over your post, sowwy:imbar