A nursing home is a type of assisted living facility that primarily provides healthcare services for aging adults. Many seniors have medical needs that are too much to handle while living in their homes. If they need consistent access to nurse assistance or medical equipment, it may make more sense to live in a nursing home.
These facilities ideally provide safe and homelike environments where residents receive the care they need to make the most of the golden years. Unfortunately, abuse and neglect are widespread issues in this industry. Nursing facilities throughout the United States face lawsuits and allegations based on abuse and neglect.
Whether you are an aspiring nurse, a nursing home administrator, a resident, or the family member of a resident, understanding the common causes of abuse and neglect is essential. Let’s look at seven common causes to help you identify concerns in a nursing home.
- Staffing Shortages
One of the biggest problems facing the nursing home industry is a lack of qualified nurses, assistants, and aides. Many facilities struggle to find enough direct care employees to provide for all residents’ needs. Federal and state laws often dictate how many direct care personnel must be available and for how long at each facility. A lack of nurses, aides, and assistants could lead to certain residents receiving less care and attention than they deserve, which could be considered neglect.
- Poor Hiring Practices
This issue is often a consequence of the previous concern. Since nursing homes are desperate for employees, they may lower their standards for hiring direct care workers. As a result, they may hire unqualified people to care for residents. In some cases, employees who are rushed through the hiring process may even present a danger to the residents. For example, the number of convicted felons in the workforce may surprise many, and without thorough background checks, a nursing home could hire someone with a history of abuse or violence.
- Profits Over Care
A nursing home is still a business at the end of the day. Administrators can cut corners to save money and increase profits, but these strategies could result in a lower standard of care. For example, a nursing home may neglect to upgrade its emergency call system, resulting in a patient falling because no one heard the emergency alert when they asked for assistance. When skilled nursing facilities prioritize profits, nursing home residents will suffer more as a consequence.
- Overworked or Frustrated Employees
Physical abuse often happens in a nursing home because of tired or frustrated employees. A nurse’s assistant who is unable to master their anger could take out their frustrations on a difficult patient. They may use physical restraints inappropriately or even push the patient forcefully to make them cooperate. This is an example of physical abuse that is extremely unprofessional.
- Control Over Residents
No one would argue that a nurse’s job in an assisted living facility is easy. It can be incredibly challenging, especially when residents are not cooperative. However, it is completely inappropriate to use physical force to control a resident unless they are a danger to themselves or others. Employees who kick, hit, shout at, threaten, isolate, or use chemical restraints on residents are abusing their power and their patients. Even if this strategy is used to maintain control of a troublesome patient, there are better ways to address these issues.
- Unclean Premises
A nursing home must be kept clean so that residents are safe. Floor debris can easily cause falls that lead to complicated injuries. Refusing to change a patient’s sheets could cause a declining health condition or infection. Improper disinfecting practices could result in an infectious disease spreading among everyone in the nursing home. These facilities must create policies for cleaning the property and individual rooms to ensure all residents are safe. If this failure continues, a resident or their family member could call an elder neglect lawyer to pursue legal action.
- Lazy Employees
Workers who are not doing their jobs can also cause abuse or neglect in a nursing home. If a patient is supposed to be monitored after a procedure, but the assigned nurse does not make the effort, their health could decline quickly. Residents who struggle with mobility could develop pressure ulcers (an extremely prevalent issue) that get infected if employees are not around to help them move. Administrators who hear complaints of abuse or neglect and fail to take action are allowing those acts to go unpunished. Nursing home abuse and neglect are far more likely when employees are not putting effort into their jobs.
Lawsuits Can Hold Negligent Nursing Homes Accountable
A nursing home should be held to a high professional standard when caring for aging adults. If the issues listed above are happening in a facility, the chances of residents suffering from abuse and neglect are elevated. Sometimes, the only way to fix these perpetual problems is for victims and their families to file lawsuits. Legal action can force the facility to pay settlements and face the consequences of allowing abuse or neglect. Whether you are a resident, nurse, or facility administrator, pay attention to these issues to root out abuse and neglect in the nursing home.
