Why Don't Companies Care About Their Patients/Residents??

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Dialysis, Hospice.

I have just about had it. I work for a large retirement community that has a couple of subacute rehab units and a LTC unit, which is where I work. More and more lately, they have been sending subacute patients to our unit. Last night I had a patient who was a fresh post-op total left knee who went from the hospital directly to our. LTC. UNIT. I had over twenty patients with two huge evening med passes, dinner, bedtime, etc. and almost half of them were subacute rehab patients with subacute rehab demands. Today, my feet and legs hurt so badly I can barely walk, because I didn't sit down for my entire shift, but it's not me I'm concerned about. What about my patients? I don't have time to know anything about any of them, I just push pills for 8 hours. If I didn't have good aides, I would never get through a shift. There have been numerous falls on our unit lately (none of them my patients...yet!) and too many things "falling through the cracks". If anyone dares to complain to management, we are treated like we are incompetent and whiney, instead of being treated with respect for our concerns. I am sooooo sick of this. Oh, and when the PR people give tours of the facility to potential patients and their families, they are told that the nurses have approximately six patients apiece. Isn't this illegal, to represent the place as something much, much better than what it actually is?

Okay, sorry, just needed to vent. I have worked at this place for just over four months and I am already actively looking for another job before something really bad happens due to understaffing. Why don't these companies see that if they treated their employees right they would come out ahead and not have to hire and train replacements constantly? Why don't they give a rat's you-know-what about the quality of care that their patients are getting? Why do they compromise their patients' safety everyday and then advertise that they are a "caring" facility?

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

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Oh...the nurses do have 6 pts a piece...they count the CNAs in that !!!!!!

I've seen that done before....unbelievable, huh?

We've been getting the knees and hips at pod 2.5 or 3. I might have about 5 or 6 of them with the 15 -18 other short term rehab patients and some long term rehab. A good bit of them have pain or psych issues too. Yeah, fun times.

I think it really is about the $$$$. These type of pts that are short term and rehab must make us a good bit of money.

Is your DON in on this? What do the families think when they hear the staffing isn't all that great? Seems like everyone is so concerned about the satifastion surveys now days..a few bad ones from the families....

Not much that you can do. Are they willing to staff differently? Maybe add a part time or extra nurse for part of the shift?

Thank heave for wonderful CNAs. That is the only thing that gets me thru my shifts!

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money

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Specializes in LTC, Med-Surge, Ortho.

The biggest shame is that LTC facilities recieve large sums of money for the residents but they remain understaff to save money at the expense of the residents and staff. Residents who are sent to LTC are in more serious conditions with infections and post op surgeries and if a nurse has twenty or more residents to medicate and treat along with other tasks, sad to say, these residents will not recieve the best of care and a nurse should always hope and pray that she/he will have great nurse assistants, because a great nurse and great nurse assistants make a great team and the residents will recieve the benefits.

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The biggest shame is that LTC facilities recieve large sums of money for the residents but they remain understaff to save money at the expense of the residents and staff. Residents who are sent to LTC are in more serious conditions with infections and post op surgeries and if a nurse has twenty or more residents to medicate and treat along with other tasks, sad to say, these residents will not recieve the best of care and a nurse should always hope and pray that she/he will have great nurse assistants, because a great nurse and great nurse assistants make a great team and the residents will recieve the benefits.

Most LTCs are not making as much money as what they have in the past due to the fact that reimbursments are down. I realize this, but to staff the way they do and to accept the type of pts they do is in my mind at times criminal. We all know that short staffing can lead to more accidents and injuries to the patients, increases the risk of pressure ulcers and it just trickles down...I still can't see how paying a bit more for a few more nurses won't save money in the long run. If medicare is refusing to pay for hospital aquired infections and other nosocomial illnesses...wouldn't it make sense to prevent it by providing better nursing care?

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i thought they have do have beds certified as sub acute? If so it may be that there are LTC patients in some of those beds that won't move to the LTC unit, liking the extra staff on the subacute unit.

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Because it's all about making money, not about providing for individuals' needs.

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Specializes in Assisted Living nursing, LTC/SNF nursing.

But if a resident or family member complains (outlandish complaints, can be a total lies), we sure hear about it and get written up before getting to explain what really happened, all in showing whomever that they handled the 'problem'. During that once a month nurses meeting, we all get the "we have a wonderful nursing staff" but you'd never know it as much chastising and write ups we get (you clocked out late; you need to get your work done; leave early b/c of that meeting we HAD to go to and won't be paid overtime for and you'd better get your work done also; :banghead:). Sorry, a bit of burnout is showing. Love to take a vacation but no-one to work for me :confused:

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Specializes in LTC, Med-Surge, Ortho.

You know whats really funny and ironic, how is it that I get terminated for having weak management skills over the nurse assistants, yet I worked under a unit manager who never had one meeting with her staff in the eight months I worked on the unit as a staff, RN. Also, she would ask me about other staff and complain about what she has heard; she never gave me an evaluation, but was quick to give ridiculous write ups, she keeps her job and gets promoted. So far as caring about patients, how are they going to receive great care when staff are not supporting and communicating with each other to improve conditions.:cool:

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

westieluv- What you are going through is an "ethical dilemma". I know this because I was in a similar situation, pushing pills for twelve hours, on my feet for the whole shift and wondering how on God's green earth did the other nurses manage to get through THEIR med pushes and all related documentation, phone interruptions, new doc orders, etc. and yet still they manage to find time to sit at the nurses station and socialize????? Like, WHAT is going on here? I was told, " You're doing ok" and You'll get used to it" and "it takes time to pick up on everything, don't worry".......So, thinking it was ME, I just kept trying harder, not realizing that none of those responses were even CLOSE to being helpful! So, six months in, with many, many evenings spent after my shift was over, finishing up documentations and charting and routing paperwork and forms to their correct locations.....and after being told that my "hard work had not gone un-noticed"......I made an error during a very commotion-filled 30 minutes where no one but I was present with 6 residents.....it was assumed I had done this thing with intent.....and whaddya know, I was turned into the Board Of Nursing! I was absolutely flabberghasted and thoroughly humiliated. I was given three choices: turn in my license, go into a drug program (!), or request an investigation. I requested the investigation. I ended up at least having my say, telling of the events, etc. I had to take a three-month class on "Ethical and Legal Decision Making" ( to the tune of $500!!!) So, that's how I found out my ethical dilemma: Stay in an impossible and unsafe situation, or leave with no certainty of having another job. Well, I say, get out while you can! I am still working as a CNA, because although I was released from my license being suspended ( it is on probation) I can't find anyplace that will hire someone UNLESS THEIR LICENSE IS "UNENCUMBERED". I'm earning only one third of my wage on that job, and really sweat it every single week trying to get mt bills paid. And, insult to injury, I was told one of my PROBLEMS was that I spent too much time talking with the patients!!!!! ...Who, by the way, had thanked me MANY times saying that other nurses didn't have time to talk with them! And their concerns were absolutely legitimate....like, about their meds, about death/dying....Well, that's my soapbox; but really, if I were you, if Iknew then what I've learned through painful experience, I'd have quit trying so darn hard and found employment elsewhere. God Bless You and Best Of Luck to you!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Dialysis, Hospice.

Thanks for all of your responses. I do have an opportunity to go back to the inpatient hospice that I used to work at, and the staffing there is six patients to a nurse...on midnights!!!! The only reason I quit that job was because I was only contingent and I needed more hours, but this position that they want me for is 32 hrs/week and I am going to go for it.

Like I said, it really isn't about me, as in: the aching feet and legs, total fatigue by the end of the shift, not having time for a break, etc. It's ultimately about safe nursing. It bothers me that I can't give quality care, in the sense that I don't have time to talk to my patients, calm their fears, get to know them so that I can personalize their care a little bit, or just give them the feeling like I actually have time for them. It's gone way beyond that and now it's just, plain and simple, about SAFE care. There have been way too many falls on our unit lately, and not knowing your patients well is also an invitation to making errors of other kinds, such as med errors, etc. I can't take this anymore, and I'm not about to lose my license because some nursing supervisor who never does patient care or passes meds has decided that our staffing is "adequate". :mad:

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