As humans grow older, it is a natural tendency for their health to decrease. From parents to great-grandparents, our own loved ones are not immune to this tragedy. In today’s society it is almost automatic for people to send their ailing parents or grandparents to a nursing home, but is this really the best option? Of course, not all nursing homes are troublesome, but the lack of respect and proper care some nursing homes give is very concerning and may put our loved ones at risk.
A study conducted in the last year by the minority staff of the Special Investigations Division of the House Government Reform Committee finds that thirty percent of nursing homes in the United States, 5,283 facilities, were cited for almost 9,000 instances of abuse over a recent two-year period. Common problems included untreated bedsores, inadequate medical care, malnutrition, dehydration, preventable accidents, and poor sanitation. In 1,601 cases, the abuse violations were serious enough “to cause actual harm to residents or to place the residents in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury,” the report said. Maureen Dyer, an English teacher at PV, says, “I think the problem with nursing homes is that they are understaffed because the employees are underpaid. There is a bunch of turnover, meaning when a better job opportunity comes along the nurses and nursing assistants will leave and take the better job.”
The treatment the patients receive at some nursing facilities is appalling. Nursing homes are supposed to be a safe place where injured, sick, or elderly people can receive assistance. Keeli Richards, a senior at Pleasant Valley High School, took a Certified Nurse Aid (CNA) class over the summer where she gained experience working with the elderly. “The nursing home I performed clinicals at to get my CNA license was terrible. Workers cussed at residents, didn’t use the lift equipment properly or safely, and were very unprofessional. It made me sad to see the lack of respect they had for the elderly,” says Richards.
The shortage of care patients receive at nursing homes is a growing problem. These patients are our loved ones and, in the future, we may find ourselves in the same situation. “My grandparents were both at a nursing home, until they passed away earlier in the school year. We believe that from the lack of nursing aids, my grandma passed away because of negligence on the part of the nursing home. Every time we would go in and visit my grandparents in the nursing home, it always seemed like they needed a bath that they never received, they hadn’t had their prescription drugs that were overdue, or the ringing of their bell was unattended to. It just breaks my heart to see that that was the care the people we love so much were receiving,” Dyer says.
