Whenever we go to visit my grandpa at the nursing home, we usually help him out on the small things like putting lotion on his dry skin or trimming slightly overgrown finger nails or just trimming his hair (aunt was a hairdresser). This time however, he asked us to trim his toenails. When we removed his socks, we found extremely dry skin that was flaking off with yellow scabs around his toes. The toenails had grown well over an inch of where they should have been trimmed back. They had started to bend with the curve of his toes and they were yellow with brown stripes. I'm assuming it was some kind of fungus. I couldn't believe that they had allowed it to get so bad. Especially when they see his foot every day when they are helping him to shower and dress. What can I do in the future to make sure this never happens? It is simply not acceptable.
With my mom, often services were offered to her, as she was deemed competent. She would refuse them, saying " my daughter will take care of that". It took several months before we got this all settled.
No, i was so NOT going to shave her underarms or cut her toenails! I came to visit, not to work!
As was mentioned by BarbBrooklyn, a podiatrist should be on staff. Having said that, unless this is a 5-star facility, I would plan to do it myself. But it is something to rattle the cages of the administration about. An email to the Director of Nursing or other administrator asking when your grandpa can have a visit by the podiatrist might be in order. And also, ask for someone to put lotion on his feet regularly in order to avoid the dry cracked skin that can also make him vulnerable to infection.
Best of luck to you
Margaret