I am a nursing assistant in a nursing home.
I recently manually transferred a patient from bed to wheelchair by hand (which I know is unsafe and illegal but that’s how we do it here) and I almost dropped her. The brakes on the wheelchair were broken. So when I attempted to place her in the chair, the chair kept moving.
If I would have been a little weaker or the patient a little heavier I might have dropped her, her hip might have broken etc.
I spoke to another woman about this. One brake on her husband’s wheelchair is broken. She said she made several complaints to the staff with no results.
I contacted the department of health and I asked that I remain anonymous.
My manager spoke to me today and said that he knows that I made this complaint. He explained to me that I must be loyal to the nursing home and never make a complaint to the health department but rather come to him and he will be happy to take care of it. He added that he had not heard any complaints from the woman I mentioned.
Does anyone have any opinion about this?
Does your employer have an employee manual in which it explains any sort of protocol for reporting broken equipment? If not, then I would request a protocol in writing from your manager that is distributed to all the staff. Any communications you have with with manager or admin should be through email so that you have a record of what was said and when. Then, after a "reasonable" period of time, i would send a follow-up email stating that the equipment has not been fixed and a dangerous and illegal situation is being created. Don't be accusatory or emotional or threatening, just informative. But you should also state that you will need to seek further action outside of the facility if the the unsafe situation for both the staff and residents is not cleared up asap. There may also be some sort of ombudsman organization that this can be reported to but I'm not familiar with it, This will protect the residents and your job. Good luck and God bless for having a moral compass.
Who owns the wheelchair? If it belongs to the family then it is their responsibility to keep it in good repair, if it belongs to the facility then there should be a process in place to report maintenance needs. You should have refused the unsafe transfer due to equipment failure. After speaking to his wife you should have assisted the family with how to properly report a problem - talking to you and other aides isn't it.
I'm coming back to add - My answer is based on the assumption that you are a new employee and have no reason to assume that your concerns would go unaddressed. I did a lot of stupid things when I was a young worker that I never should have attempted, it is a sign of maturity that you can admit you can't do something and you ask for help.
According to the manager of the nursing nursing home the appropriate thing to do is to report problems to him and if after six months I see no action is taken, then resign.
What made me go straight to the department of health is that I was told by another patient’s wife that her complaints went unanswered and I know the staff is much more afraid of relatives than they are of me.
Additionally I felt that this was a life threatening issue which had to dealt with immediately. These are PEOPLE not bottles of soda in which case if a few get broken, who cares.
The chairs belong to the nursing home.
One of the responsibilities of one of the staff members is repairing equipment. These brakes have been this way for months if not years. Where is he? Someone has to be hospitalized until he does something? How about looking around and seeing what’s broken?
Will it be more helpful for admin if you keep a diary of incidents and try to fix the equipment yourself too, before your resignation?
If this job pays FABULOUS wages, has OUTSTANDING benefits, offers
merit pay for exceptional loyalty, and you LOVE your work environment, by
all means soldier on.
IF NOT, take a course or two to freshen up your resume and recharge your references, and start doing a job search.
Edited to add, I’m SUPER BIG for “chain of command”, but in this case it seems there are breaks in the chain
If I was a surgical nurse and noticed a certain surgeon arrived to surgery somewhat intoxicated and complaints by relatives had gone nowhere should I go to management and hope no one gets killed?
"I understand I am new here, and am sorry others didn't bring this to your attention, but we have a dangerous problem with our wheelchairs. Some of them are broken and we have had a few mishaps. I am hearing from families they have experienced problems with W/Cs. I would be more than happy to check all our chairs if you give me the day for it, or if I can do that overtime; I would put a small sticker on those I found to be functioning well. I know you may have your own remedy, could you just give me a heads up when this is addressed, because I am afraid for our staff and patients."
He can fire you after that if he wants, but he could also be happy to remedy something he may never have been told about.
After THAT (and of course you keep a work diary, right? Anyone working in such a job should) you will be free and clear to report this. Licensing is big, and you can lose one quite easily. You need your boss to see you as HELP and as PREVENTATIVE to problems. Not as a threat. Right now you are new on the job. You cannot know if you are working for a jerk who doesn't care, or for someone great. Keep gossip out of it. If you discuss with other workers all these things it is problematic.
Were I your boss I would expect you to come to me. The ASL place my brother is all the folks have moved up from within, and because of their SKILL. If I were your boss and you came to me with that idea you would have my heart and my eye and you would be on the fast track up. Just sayin..............
How long would you wait?
I would have done it that way, however I had heard that complaints by relatives didn’t produce results.
And just by the way I AM a very serious threat to anyone who I see is putting innocent lives needlessly in danger.
The nursing home is understaffed. However I realize so is almost everywhere else. More staffing may be financially impossible.
But what’s the excuse for letting equipment dangerously go to pieces? This isn’t something which is difficult to notice and it’s been like this for months presumably.
I think someone here needs to get on the ball or get a new job.
I worked as a nurse. It was my observation over a 40 year career that people tended to complain over lunch without taking the complaints to where they could be addressed. Or people took the complaints over the heads of people who could have and would have addressed them. In all truth, there should be some sort of equipment check being done now, and you could suggest it. I am saying you, as someone who actually DOES care, could be invaluable, and were I an administrator, seeing someone who cares I would promote you and use your expertise.
As we all know you either have a GOOD one or a BAD one here. If you are seeing a whole lot of problems and complaints you may already know which you have. Wishing you the best. Hope you will update us on what is done.
You are so utterly correct about the staffing. California, under Schwartzenegger as Gov. set staffing number limits. It was one of the best and finest things I EVER saw done in hospitals. It limited the number of patients we could be assigned in hospitals. Sadly, not in extended care facilities. Good luck. And yes, ALWAYS keep a work diary. I would recommend that for any job. They are used in court. They are considered excellent testimony in court. Having been in court more than a few times to testify I can vouch for that--at least in my state.
Do know, too, you cannot protect these folks in your quite obviously caring care, if he fires you. And they can do that on a whim if their are not decent. Hope you update us on any outcome.
If moving a resident is dangerous, both to you and the resident, you are entitled to have the correct number of staff to assist in moving the resident safely. Your manager should have that policy in action. Which should include enough staff on hand to cater for care needs.
Broken chairs, whether brake, footrest .. if unsuitable for use- should have a designated place they are taken to for repairs and should not be used. Your manager should have that policy in action. There should be a report log which details what the problem is when it occurred/ was noticed and whether fixed or replaced. There should be adequate wheel chairs available to cater for one or two with defects- though as you’ve found- this rarely happens.
I got a Red Cross wheelchair and walker due to the poor standards of the ones at the home, they were more interested in celebrating an occasion than dealing with the fact dad’s walker was damaged so he couldn’t mobilise.
i have met a number of nursing home workers who left due to standards they disagreed with. It includes one who contacted me in tears after walking out because, according to her manager, the paperwork was more important than a resident who had fallen.
I’ve witnessed many shocking things in my role as a carer over the years including refusal to elevate a fractured ankle as “their doctor” had not seen and recommended it. Resulting in a pulmonary embolism where clot travelled from leg to lung and it was only the dedication by A&E doctors who resuscitated him twice before stabilising him.
Taking medication from those capable of managing - and by the time due to release they had become institutionalised and reliant on others to do things for them making it more dangerous for their safe return back home.
Whlst most nursing homes expect the bulk the bulk of their residents to be permanent here are occasions they are not and the above should be catered for.
You might make life life hard for yourself by ensuring your manager is kept duly informed even if others aren’t doing their job correctly and doing the same, but at least you have a strong morale and are fighting for what’s right
The coroner had to rebuke the nursing home re falls and inaction over a broken hip despite my repeated demands for medical aid.
My best in your efforts
AMEN to that.
Even after being raided by the health department at 8:00 am last Wednesday, the specific wheelchairs which I included in my complaint are still in use as before, unrepaired.
Do I need to take hostages or something to get through to these people?
If I was complaining about understaffing, I get it, there’s no money. But a wheelchair? If they cannot afford to provide each patient with a safe properly functioning chair then shut the place down.
They will likely let you go, because you have had them visited by the authorities; they are not the "good guys in the white hats", for certain.
Most states are "at will" employers. And they are free to fire anyone any time for any reason, or for no reason whatsoever. They often will give no reason so that they don't run up against those few anti-discrimination laws in existance. So there is no protection for you, and no protection for your patients. You "might" want to visit a lawyer just to have this on record as unfair dismissal when it happens (and unless you quite first). Because you are at present likely under the title of "whistleblower" on wrong doing and on unsafe conditions under OSHA (who you might want to contact) for danger to employees, and under state regulatory for extended care.
I think if nothing else, and there may BE, very sadly, nothing else to be done for you, for patients and for families, this DOES tell people what to watch for when loved ones enter care. IE ask questions, including how often is your equipment inspected; what is your procedure when equipment is faulty, and etc.
You clearly CARE about safety issues. Hope you will move on up to a place where you can help folks through your care.
Having said that, I’ll work as a janitor before I stand by and watch innocent helpless people be endangered. I would not have said anything unless I was angry enough to quit.
It is easy to get into a he said she said if everything is verbal.
Where I live you provide your own durable medical equipment for mobility, so not sure if your patients can provide their own so they're not in such danger.
The alternative is to go to him each and every time you see an unsafe condition or illegal practice, and it seems as if they don’t want to spend the money required to operate a safe, clean facility. Honestly, I would look for another job on the QT. Eventually that facility is going to get some bad publicity and when it does, you don’t want to be associated with it.
I know some jurisdictions have laws that protect whistleblowers, but I don’t know if that applies to your situation.
Mister, get outta there!
(Full disclosure: my 59th birthday is this month so I’m a little bit personally biased on this subject. I’ve recently seen advertised youth hostels in Tel Aviv which will not accommodate guests over age 40. Doesn’t anyone realize that the rate of violent crime of every type is so much lower after age 50? If they are worried about rape or something, then lock out the really risky 20 year olds.)
And if I could show you the pictures, you would cry too....She had huge bumps on her head, face, arms, and bruised from head to toe...
You always hope they will die in peace... She is an angel. she did not deserve to die like that.
Young people, even chronically ill, aren’t treated like this. I’ve worked in a facility for very severely brain damaged children and young adults and they were well funded and everything was done the right way.
The elderly, in modern Western society, simply have little value.
The usage of VSED “voluntary stop eating and drinking” or even lethal injection is becoming gradually more common.
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/09/euthanasia-for-alzheimers-patients
It may not be long before nursing homes are replaced by pet food factories.
Maybe we should count our blessings :(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion_T4
All the same you are an employee of an organisation, and it would be reasonable of that organisation to expect you first of all to follow the procedure it lays down for reporting concerns and complaints. Did you?
Talking to co-workers and service users isn't it. You should first of all have taken this to your line manager. If nothing happened, then you go either further up the reporting chain, or to external regulators.
But to say you must "never" make a complaint to the health department is disingenuous and nonsensical. There are all kinds of situations that might arise when you would be morally, and arguably professionally, obliged to.
Asking your manager on what basis he claims to know that you made a formal complaint to the department of health is a fair question, certainly one I'd want answered if I were you. Did the person you spoke to agree that your report would be treated in confidence?
Anyway - so what's the outcome of this conversation with your line manager so far? Will the wheelchair(s) be repaired? What will be done to address the various manual handling problems?
And it almost happened to me when a broken wheelchair flew out from under a very elderly woman during a transfer. I was furious. I don’t know if I can print here my exact reaction.
countrymouse, I don’t think there’s any kind of rules in place. Frankly I don’t think it’s ever entered a worker’s mind to complain about something relevant to the patients’ treatment.
That be as it may, shouldn’t a legitimate nursing home be happy if the health department visits? Wouldn’t they be proud of their top notch facility? What would they be worried about?
Bottom line, the health department showed up last Wednesday at 8:00 am. Now it’s Monday night. Nothing has been repaired. Nothing.
It’s a small place. Maybe no one in house can really handle this. So how about this: Google “wheelchair fixing guy”. Pick up the phone. He comes. He fixes it. You pay him.
Am I going to have to call the health department AGAIN? I don’t understand this.
You say this is a small home - how many beds? Who owns it?
I'm in the UK and our regulations are different in detail (the apathy when it comes to dealing with problems isn't, though) but by and large the role of regulators and inspectors is more or less the same. All residential care facilities, large or small, must display information about how to make a complaint and ensure that residents and/or their representatives have this explained to them. I would be surprised if there isn't the equivalent in your workplace. What did the DoH advise you when you spoke to them?
If you are a licensed or registered professional, your regulating body would surely discipline you if they knew of the unsafe and illegal practices you engaged in. They can assist you in dealing with situation-they will have good advice and recommendations. They have likely dealt with it before.
The facility itself or your boss part of some professional associations that would be a great resource.
For all you know, your boss’s procedures and policy may not accurately reflect those of the facilities’ owners. Had you dropped the patient and the patient died in hospital from complications, the nursing home would likely face a law suit. That’s not in their best interests.
Your state or province will likely also have workplace safety regulations that you can look up, or a department you can call.
If you are part of a union, your union representatives are a good resource too.
I am worried about your job, and I’m worried about patient safety. Your situation is serious. I would consider documenting the unsafe practices and the dates of any preventable accidents, in case you need to take them to court.
You might also see if there is an employment lawyer you could consult (some lawyer will meet with you for a free initial consultation).
To me, this is just as bad as if a hospital administrator tried to save money by having doctors reuse their gloves. The doctors would never go along with that. Neither should you.
You are likely not the only worker to be concerned with the safety issues where you work. There is strength in numbers. If you all work together on this issue, you will get the situation resolved, one way or another.
Be brave, protect yourself, and good luck.
Then, if the problem isn't resolved, you have all the need paperwork to address with the health department.
Actually my nursing home compares quite favorably to most. It’s a small private nursing home (36 beds) and possibly fairly pricey. It may be almost a model facility.
Which is nice on the one hand, I’m not collaborating in a slaughterhouse.
But then on the other hand, what are the bad places like???
I will say that it’s neat, clean and smells good (thank you cleaning staff Shireen and Monera!)
However the brakes are defective on 25% of the wheelchairs which is really being ridiculously cheap and stupid. And in the few weeks I’ve been there one demented man wandered out the door and fell. Thankfully he spent a day in hospital and seems OK. But that’s neglect. The staff is responsible to prevent escapes. (This happened an hour before I came on shift.)
https://ilerlawfirm.net/elopement-wandering-nursing-homes/