Transferring resident out of car

[gambino_girl]

I work at an assisted living facility and have been employed for a over a year. Just recently a new couple moved in. The wife is self sufficient while the husband has late stages of dementia. Due to his dementia and his tall statute, many of the caregivers have gotten hurt/had close calls due to his aggressiveness and gets combative when we try to give him care. He is also a two person assist. Yesterday, the couple left the facility with their personal aide and returned a few minutes after my shift started. In my facility, all residents have pendants similar to the life alert pendants that they push when they need assistance. So the wife pushed her pendant and after about 15 minutes looking all throughout the building I find her and her husband outside the building still in the car. She asks me if I can get her husband out of the car. I asked her where her aide was and she told me she was inside putting stuff away in their room. I told her that I was not trained to do transfers of residents in and out of cars and that I'd feel more comfortable waiting for her aide to come back. It was then she continued to push the matter saying that I HAVE to get him out of the car. I again told her I'm not comfortable moving him because if he were to get hurt I would be liable for it. Eventually the aide came back and assisted him out of the car into his wheelchair. I documented the whole situation but my question is can I be reprimanded for not helping him out of the car? And what should I do if the situation were to happen again? Obviously if they did not have the personal aide me and another caregiver would have had to get him out but at the risk of us getting hurt or if he were to fall and hit his head on the pavement.

[mvm2]

well I don't think you would get in trouble for two reasons. One it seemed that it was their personal care takers responsibility to get him back in the building, and two if you have it written down that he was a two person assist then you are safe there as well because you would have been going against his care plan if you tried to transfer by yourself. Just make sure you are reassuring the wife that you care for him and her but that you must follow the rules of having two people their when he is transfered.