Nurses Fired for speaking Up
Posted by Patti on July 6th, 2006 / Print This Post
Nurses claim they were fired for speaking up:
CHARLESTON - Three Fayette County nurses say they were wrongfully fired from their jobs for speaking out about quality of care issues at a nursing home.LPNs Hubert Atkins II and Michelle Gill and RN Pamela Givens filed their lawsuit June 28 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services Inc. and RN Jean Lavender.
They “observed numerous quality of care issues pertaining to residents of (the) Glasgow facility including, but not limited to, nurses falsifying medical charts and substandard patient care,” they say in their complaint. “Plaintiffs repeatedly complained about the quality of care issues to managers and supervisors.”
Based in Fort Smith, Ariz., Beverly operates 354 nursing homes and 18 assisted living facilities across the United States, including homes in Kanawha and Fayette counties in West Virginia. Lavender, who also lives in Fayette County, was director of nursing services at Beverly’s Glasgow facility in Fayette County.
August 29th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
I was a nursing assistant for many years in different nursing homes , residential and private homes. I also worked as a carer within the community.
The problems bought up in this article are very common world wide. Easy for the money grabbers but not so easy for the workers because their work is restricted by either not having enough staff to finish the job properly or not having the equipment to do it well.
I worked in a residential home for 2 years and was it a struggle. Having to do it all alone while the boss was asleep all night killed me and I became very dissalusioned by it all. Struggling with a resident who is in the full throws of dementia is impossible. Lifting patients because the boss does not expect to be waken is not on. Sharing soap, face cloths and towels is inhuman and in the end I called the inspectors who , on my last night stayed with me and watched me struggle on my own. My boss was very surprised to see them in the morning after he had had a good nights sleep and came down fresh faced. But he knew he was in the wrong. It went to court and I spent 2 days being told what a liar I was. In the end he was found guilty of 8 out of eleven charges of neglect and I lost my job.It got to the papers though and I was glad to see the case had made the news. I suppose I am whats known as a whistle blower. The only people who dont like a whistleblower though, are those with something to hide and I know I did the right thing. I have my pride and I did my job to the best of my ability but when , all I could do was finish on time only because my residence could not be seen to properly , I knew I had to do something.
September 1st, 2006 at 9:43 pm
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