What some Home health aides do while on the job

[catlynLPN]

Have any of you ever heard of this???

I was shocked that aides would actually admit to doing this.

The CNA's at my job, told me last night, as some of them also do some work in home health, that when they go into a person's home that the resident will encourage the aide to "sit down, put your feet up, take a nap, honey!"

And they say they do it!! They say that they do whatever the resident wants them to do and if the resident wants them to sit down and take a nap, then they're doing what the resident wants.

I told them I didn't think that was what the Home Health agency is expecting.

I said I think you're supposed to be helping that resident with some of those household chores or hygiene needs, not sitting down and taking a nap while you're getting paid.

They said, "Well you can get their sweeping, mopping, making a bed done in 30 minutes and then sit down and take a nap for the rest of the 4 hours you are there. If that's what they want you to do, is sit down and take a nap then you're doing what they told you to do."

I was just floored. I couldn't believe that they would actually go into a person's home, someone they don't know, and sit down and take a nap on the job.

[Logos]

Yes- some of them do exactly that.

[RNMom2010]

I never napped, but when everything was done I would sit down with them and watch TV and talk to them. However that does satisfy the need of socialization. I had one lady I cared for who we would sit and watch soaps together!

[Katie82, RN]

This has always been a thorn in my side. I work for the State case managing Medicaid patients, and many have home health assistants. I cover 3 counties, so we have three different agencies doing oversight on the program that provides these aides. These programs have tight budgets and would love to be able to disallow some of this nonsense, but have to give patients the benefit of the doubt. I am at the point now where I tattle whenever I can. Many of my patients do not need home aides, they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. In those cases, I speak with the PCP or specialist who is signing off on this abuse and convince them the patient would be better off taking care of themselves. Abuse like this is what drives up the costs, and I'm sorry to say that state and federal programs are the biggest wasters of all.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

That is light stuff compared to other stories. There was one situation where a bedridden patient who lived alone had a home health aide come in; I believe it was a sleep in case. Anyway, the client depended on this woman to do her banking, pay her bills, do shopping, etc. (I assume that there were no caring family members or neighbors around). Anyway, eventually, the aide started renting out the rooms in this poor woman's home and was keeping the money. Started using her credit cards, had complete access to her private banking information; the works.

This story was in one of the newspapers. I think that a neighbor called when they continued to see unusual people entering and leaving the home with keys. There was another one where the HHA sent in timesheets like she was working at the home, but was discovered actually in another state trying out for American Idol (true story, folks). Our governor is really coming down hard on stories like this, because from what I understand, many of the HHAs are not certified and traceable as the CNAs are, and some of the agencies are not really doing the right thing in terms of checking their histories and certification status.

[fgoff]

This has always been a thorn in my side. I work for the State case managing Medicaid patients, and many have home health assistants. I cover 3 counties, so we have three different agencies doing oversight on the program that provides these aides. These programs have tight budgets and would love to be able to disallow some of this nonsense, but have to give patients the benefit of the doubt. I am at the point now where I tattle whenever I can. Many of my patients do not need home aides, they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. In those cases, I speak with the PCP or specialist who is signing off on this abuse and convince them the patient would be better off taking care of themselves. Abuse like this is what drives up the costs, and I'm sorry to say that state and federal programs are the biggest wasters of all.

I too worked with NC Medicaid in the CAP/C & CA/DA & PCS side of it all The abuse is outrageous! Some of it amounts to medical baby sitting!:uhoh21: But what do you do??? If the plan says they meet critria you can't deny the service. The appeals process is just to much!:madface: I had to get out of there!

Then again there are the cases that couldn't be helped "because didn't met critria" but should have! IMHO!

[chadash]

Had a long term patient who, if she saw me bend my knees to sit, would immediately request something...it became a joke... :)

I even tended her garden.

I did have a family member in hospice who would make me a cup of coffee and bisquit when I had completed the patients bath. That was sweet.

But never, never sit around or sleep. That seems dishonest.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

I had a home health patient that I would sit and watch TV with. That was my job. She was a developmentally delayed lady that needed assistance showering and getting ready for bed, which I did, but the rest of the time we did jigsaw puzzles and watched TV. I never slept, though.

[Christie RN2006]

When I was a student, I would care for a lady that was in her 90s. I would go and do some housework (sweep, wash clothes, dust, etc), prepare her dinner and go get her sister and they would eat. I would then clean up, get the lady ready for bed, help her get into bed and then leave. The ladies didn't like me interrupting them when they were eating, so I would sit in the kitchen and do homework, etc. I never slept or anything crazy like that for fear of something happening and I wouldn't hear it.

[Dunno?]

I am a home health nurse..I work 6 hours a day with one patient and 4 hours a day with another patient..There is a lot of charting so I am quite busy at times..But sometimes, the patient wants me to watch movies with him on TV..I guess he likes the company since he does not see that many people because he is paralized..At times, there is down time, and a nurse can just sit down and do nothing..Sometimes that is the nature of the job..I guess, I am not there to do household chores...

[caliotter3]

I've worked on home health cases where workers got paid and were not even in the house as well as on cases where workers slept or did other unauthorized things. And we're talking about licensed nurses, RNs and LVNs, who are supposed to hold themselves to a high level of behavior. No, I'm not surprised that a HHA would nap on the job, particularly if given the green light by the client. Whenever I've been told this type of behavior is allowed by a new client, I reply that I get paid to do something, even if all I do is stay awake and watch them sleep or I can find something to clean or I can read about their condition in a textbook. Only when I am confident that I can't find something useful to do, do I do something else to keep busy while keeping an eye on the client.

[catlynLPN]

Sitting and watching TV with a patient to give them some company is one thing, if they need that and request it, but to actually sleep on the job, IMHO, is stealing and fraud.

Some of the CNAs in my LTC job like to sleep there, too.

And some of them are good at hiding out.

I found one aide once, in a patient's room, with the door shut, light out, behind the curtain, in a chair asleep.

I found another one in bed, twice. This one was actually going to RN school, finiished her schooling, but didn't pass the RN boards and had to become an LPN. They finally fired her for incompetence.

I report it if I find them sleeping but management doesn't really do anything. They just give them a slap on the wrist and ignore it, it doesn't really do any good to say anything. They say it's immediate grounds for termination but they don't do anything.

They need warm bodies too bad.