It is not to say that the state should not protect them but rather the state should not protect them when they no longer act like a nursing home resident but more like a mentally ill patient.

“A resident who hits and then brags is no less deserving than a resident who hits but has dementia. They cannot control this. We have no place to try to control them either.”

What line of reasoning is this? So you are saying that we have no place to control someone who tries to punch us or in the case of the female CNA with the broke rib we should let it be? CNAs have rights too and that is to be free of physical abuse and should be allowed and be given the tools to defend themselves when the barriers break down.

The assertion that if one does not like the violence they should leave the field is absurd. As no one I know likes to be beat up then 99% of the aides would leave the field, then who would take care of them then, eh? The nurses, perhaps? Sure, I can see that happening the day we land someone on Jupiter in nothing but their birthday suit.

I DO AGREE CNA’s should have CPI or MANDT type training…but even with this, aides are going to get hurt. As will nurses. And in some facilities, doctors. Patients, residents with mental illness are SICK people, just not with the convenient, easy to manage tasks we are so accustomed to. A resident who hits and then brags is no less deserving than a resident who hits but has dementia. They cannot control this. We have no place to try to control them either.

I work with some very violent, brain injured people…who have hurt aides as well. It comes with the territory. And my experience (15 yrs) shows me, more often than not, it is the approaches used by the aides that cause the violence and injury in the first place. This will irk some, but I think it is very true. I know I have done some things with my residents, that caused them to GO OFF, and I could have done things differently. I learned from my mistakes. I mentor new aides and share with them all these things too.
Part of the caring of this population is to look for patterns and get the nurses and doctors to assess, re-assess and change the care plans. A good health care team is vital to the successful management of these residents.

If the state doesn’t protect them, who will? A patient or resident will always have rights, and we always have the choice whether we continue to work in this field.

Too many times I have seen aides lose their job for alleged abuses that I know first hand for a fact that they did not do. What happens is these aides get on the bad side of the other older CNAs and left out in the cold when abuse allegations are leveled.

In this field you are dealing with very difficult patients who are more so abusive to the caregiver than vice versa. However, the caregiver is expected to retain their composure in every instance. When punched in the nose by a resident it is often considered funny, but should you punch back you are forever considered a vile scummy creature. This even in the face of the established norm of reflex defence of one’s own self. Most CNAs do not hit back and thus survive in this field.

In the ever increasing expectations of most states nursing rules, there has reached a level of absurdity that makes it difficult for the average CNA to do his or her job in that every action or inaction at the wrong or right time can be considered abuse.

There was once a member here who said that our job is not to wait on the residents hand and foot but rather aide and assistant them in the activities they cannot perform for themselves. Our job to prolong their independence, not to serve as a maid or butler. In the end unless you are doing private duty, for every 15 minutes extra that you are spending on Sally that is 3 minutes you are taking away from Fred’s, Margaret’s and Ben’s alloted CNA time.

With the above being said, it can be considered abuse if you deliberately ignore a patient’s needs, with caveat being the blurred margin between a “need” and a “want.”

Kudos to the Washington state Supreme Court and US Supreme Court. Maybe…at long last…the state inspired witch hunt of CNAs will stop.

There will always be abuses. They happen every day in mental institutions and other long term facilities. The state seems not to care about the pts in these types of hospitals, where drugs, restraints and seclusion are used on those patients that are violent as a matter of course. Once those same patients steps foot into a nursing home they are given free reign to hit, spit and verbally abuse whomever they want while being protected by the state.

Just yesterday a female CNA had one of her ribs broken by a resident who kicked her. Now she will have to deal not only with pain of this injury but from the lack of work this injury caused. What was done to this resident? Nothing. He was even bragging about it in the chow hall. Had this CNA received the same training that psychiatric workers get, such as crisis intervention and prevention training, mayhap this injury would have not happened. The short story is that the nursing home resident of today is not only some frail bedridden granny but also some stronger mentally ill residents.

Clearing and convincing evidence. That should be the standard. Thank God our highest court agrees.

I agree with the point that we want solid proof, not hear say and rumor…but I cannot help but think SOMETHING very negative happened here.