There are some lovely nurses, CNAs, and physical therapists as well as fellow residents and their family members. I am thankful for the staff members who truly are invested in serving the best interests of the residents here. Of the complaints I have, unfortunately I do not believe they are unique to this facility- my complaints seem to be the norm for these types of places, so I will offer some insight as it’s not as simple as just picking another rehab facility.
I had a few experiences that led me to be concerned about my loved ones level of care (or lack thereof) on the nursing side at the facility. During one incident where I was trying to find immediate help for my loved one, I was met with callousness from not only the staff directly involved but also HR (when I asked for help as she happened to be in the area) and other members of management. I understand no one is perfect, and CNAs in particular have an extremely difficult job- they are overworked, understaffed, underpaid and truly deserve more compensation than they receive. However, the level of disregard my loved one experienced was concerning. This continued to happen on multiple occasions.
When I had legitimate concerns about my loved one’s level of care due to multiple specific experiences, when I brought them to managements attention, they did not take accountability. Based off multiple conversations that I have had with management, it became apparent that staff members are discouraged from being fully transparent with the families of residents.
You have to stay abreast of your loved one’s medical needs and care. Unless you are present at the facility 24/7, you don’t know what happens when you are not there. If you bring complaints to management, they seem to be more concerned about covering their tracks than resolving concerns or offering reassurance.
Trust is important to build with families. Unfortunately, due to conversations with management where I was told on more than one occasion (in regards to various casual comments that multiple staff members mentioned to me) that they (the staff members) “shouldn’t have told me” various (factual) things, they broke my trust. I don’t expect people to be perfect, but I respect people being honest, and management made it clear to me that honesty wasn’t their priority. Families would extend more grace to staff members if they felt they could trust the facility to come forward with complete transparency in regards to both the good and the bad of their loved one’s care and needs.
While I’m at it, I’ll mention, and to be clear I had a history of concerns, but at one point my family member fell out of her bed and had lacerations all over her arms. The night after she fell out of her bed I was standing outside of her room texting as I was waiting for the CNAs to finish helping her use the restroom and as I’m standing up to go back inside her room with my phone out because I was texting a family member, one of nurses on duty rudely accused me of taking pictures in the public hallway.. Imagine your loved is sitting in her room after having recently fallen out of her bed with lacerations all over both her arms and instead of being met with compassion, you have a nurse wrongfully accusing you of taking pictures in a public area as if you were a problem. I wish she and everyone else so concerned about preserving the image of the facility would direct that level of hyper vigilance towards the residents…
While I am thankful for all the work that people in this field do, the staff and management need to understand the difficulty of entrusting your loved ones to other people’s care, especially when said loved ones are in compromising situations and unable to advocate for or protect themselves. Having a safe, collaborative, and TRANSPARENT environment helps people to do their jobs better as well as provide better care for residents.