Ok, I am not the perfect employee who has perfect work ethics. But this is ridiculous. I am so disgusted with certain health care workers. When I worked in a hospital and now in a nursing home, the number one complaint from all the patients always is that no one comes to help them when they hit the call button for the nurse. And it's like that everywhere. I know they're busy. But 50% of the time I see those damn aides they are sitting on their butts gossiping about the latest crap going on while their patients are in need of help. I found out from a recent patient of mine that there is this "15 minute" rule where the nurses or aides have to answer the call button within that time. They get monitored apparently. Anyway, he told me that within 15 minutes of hitting his button, someone does come to his room but all they do is turn off the call light, walk out, and say someone will be in later to take care of his request. And then no one comes in to take care of his request. Or it gets taken care of hours later. I've talked to the Nursing Supervisor about this...nothing has changed.
Today I walked into one of my patient's rooms to work with him. His name is Leroy; he's a very soft spoken, polite gentleman, who doesn't like to complain. I walked in at 4:00 pm. He told me that he had been hitting his call button for the last 6 or 7 hours and NO ONE came to see what he needed. Unfortunately this man had been sitting there that entire time with poop in his pants. So I took him to the bathroom and cleaned him up. And you know what? It took me about 5 minutes to do it. That's all he wanted, was a few minutes of someone's time to clean him up. For just once I'd like those damn nurses and aides to put themselves in the shoes of one of those patients. THOSE PATIENTS ARE REAL PEOPLE. They have feelings and needs and deserve a pleasant stay while they are trying to get better. In school it was always emphasized to us that we should treat our patients as if they were a mother or father or grandmother or grandfather of ours. Those nurses and especially the aides don't even treat them like human beings half the time!
Now I have to be fair--there are some very good nurses and nurses aides. But they are scarce. Very scarce. It's so sad.
What if a patient is having trouble breathing and they hit the call button and no one answers it for 45 minutes? They could be dead! What if someone needs to go to the bathroom but were told to not get up by themselves, but to hit the call button instead, and no one shows up for a half an hour? Well either they have an accident in their pants or they get up by themselves and fall and break a hip. (The latter happens way too often.)
This is a huge issue. What do we do about it? And again, it's happening everywhere from what I have heard from healthcare workers and patients that have been in other facilities.
I'm just so disgusted with it.
Next Phase.
3 years ago
2 comments:
My Mom works as an aide and I know she's been through this situation before... lazy co-workers. It's very sad and disheartening. You could always go to your supervisor's boss, but be prepared to deal with the backlash of that if you do. Probably the best thing you could suggest is for the patients or their families to write or call (if they can) and complain to the president / board of directors for the nursing home. That would probably be taken more seriously since they're the ones ultimately bringing the $$ in and paying the bills.
Good luck - I know it's difficult and I will be praying for you. There's hope, though - my mom had troubles with her supervisor at first and eventually a patient complained about the supervisor and got her fired. Karma does kick in eventually... patience and a friendly nudge here and there might help to impact change.
Thanks, Ronda. I appreciate the advice!
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