Where was the "physician"?
The man had penile cancer and was 97 years old. Nursing homes do not have resident doctors. Doctors blow through, look at charts, generate huge fees and generate bogus orders based on bogus charts. They seldom examine humans. Nursing homes are run by RNs who, if you are lucky, have an associate's degree. The nursing stations are managed by LPNs who have one year of training. They pass meds to residents every 4 hours. Nursing assistants provide the hands-on care, You can become a Certified Nursing Assistant in one month. In my nursing home, I have never knowingly met a doctor. RNs do not see patients (we call them residents). They process doctor's orders (paper work). LPNs pass meds, fill feeding tubes, insert catheters. What you are seeing in this article is a slimebag lawyer initiating the chain of blame. The doctor will blame the RN, the RN will blame the LPN, the LPN will blame the Aides. Aides will be fired and lose their certification and ability to make a living. It made news because of the word "penis". John Edwards is jealous that he didn't get their first. If the patient was diabetic and lost a toe, you wouldn't be reading about it. There is an immense shortage of nursing assistants because nobody wants to be the low-man on the chain of blame.
I am a CNA. How would this not be the fault of the CNAs who worked with this man caring for him, cleaning and bathing him?? CNAs are required to chart any open sores or changes in skin condition. If a CNA working with this gentleman failed to report this man’s changed condition during or at the end of any shift, IMO that CNA should be fired and should lose their certification.
You got that right. I passed the State exam and received my CNA certificate but never even tried to get a job after that because after 40 hours of clinicals, I knew being responsible for 8 or more mostly bed-ridden “residents” was just ridiculous.
The instructor for our class constantly tried to build us up and told us how important we would be because we would be the first to know when something was wrong. Then we got out on the floor in clinicals and saw what the deal was. The regular CNAs would purposely not change their residents and some of us would walk in each day to find those residents lying in their own waste from the previous night.
And your point about everything being abuse...dead on. A resident has the right to be clean, be fed, be safe, etc. but forcing them to take a bath, eat their food, sleep with a rail up is abusive if they protest.
When I completed clinicals, I went home and sent an email to my siblings detailing what I had seen and begged them to help me never to have to send our father to a nursing home unless there was just absolutely no other way.
One lady wouldn’t eat unless her daughter was with her for each meal. The daughter wasn’t there for each meal so the lady just didn’t eat.