Aides Gone Wild
Posted by Heather on August 31st, 2008 / Print This Post
Again.
To make “work fun” four young nursing home aides abused 15 demented residents by hitting their breasts and genitals, sticking fingers in their mouths or noses to keep them from screaming, and taunting them, according to a state investigation made public Friday.
The four unidentified women, who were working at Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Albert Lea, Minn., were fired in May when the abuse was discovered. The Freeborn County Attorney is considering criminal charges.
The details of the case were revealed after family members had been recently informed of the abuse of their loved ones.
Their treatment of the residents, which apparently went on for months, was “pretty horrific. This shocked everybody,” said Mark Dickerson, spokesman for the Good Samaritan Society, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., which operates 40 nursing homes in Minnesota. “We’ve asked ourselves how this could go on and nobody find out. We just don’t know.”
The four women — one adult and three juveniles — were fired after a fifth aide, who was fired for swearing in front of residents, blew the whistle on them.
The four committed verbal, sexual and emotional abuse of residents in their care, said a report by the Office of Health Facility Complaints at the Health Department.
Where do we find such fine people to work among us?
Why did they do these things? Oh, just to pass the time.
“To them it’s just a joke, funny, something to amuse you at work,” an aide who witnessed some of the abuse told investigators. “They don’t think of it as being bad, they just think of it as a joke.”
Another aide told investigators that the four talked about what they were doing. It was “making work fun or to get a good laugh,” she said. She said they would close the curtain by a resident’s bed so they could not be seen if someone walked in. She said the four were confident the residents wouldn’t complain because they don’t “have their minds.”
According to the report, one aide spat in a resident’s mouth, sexually “humped” some residents, and sat with bare buttocks on the lap of a woman resident who was in a wheelchair.
Uugh.
It gets worse though…
One aide who witnessed the abuse said that three of the aides would grope one man’s genitals to “get a rouse out of him, as in sexual teasing.” Another said that all four aides talked of hitting residents “boobs or crotch, or rub it around” to make the residents angry.
All four aides would hold down some residents who resisted care and put a hand over the residents’ mouths to muffle their cries or screams.
At times they would say things to upset residents. When one resident asked “Where am I?” one aide allegedly told her she was in jail.
And we think these aides will be properly punished? Perhaps.
Freeborn County Attorney Craig Nelson said Friday that he will decide by late next month whether to bring criminal charges.
He said the aides might be prosecuted for acts against five or six of the 15 residents. He said “the standard of proof is higher for criminal charges than for the Health Department’s findings. There is no real physical evidence, so it will depend on what people saw and might testify to.”
It’s all allegations at this point. No one has been found guilty. But there seems to be an awful lot of detailed reports and co workers have stood up to speak out.
How do we keep these bad apples out of our nursing homes? When they’re young and just starting out, they likely have no previous employment records. It wouldn’t shock me to learn they have criminal backgrounds however.
And is there a lesson here? When you see something happening that you know isn’t right, REPORT it right away. Don’t turn the other way. DON’T WALK AWAY. Don’t let the rotten aides bully you into silence, as I suspect happened here. Our residents deserve SO much better and it is up to us to guard their dignity and pride.
September 1st, 2008 at 7:44 am
Where do we find such fine people to work among us?
I bet we find them graduating from the CNA mills. Really. That, and the basic respect for other people is a foreign concept for so many young people now. Where do they get there morals, values and a simple knowledge of right vs. wrong?
How do we screen for these bad apples? Up the education and training requirements; make it more expensive; make it more book worthy and homework worthy; up the age requirements…among many other things. I hate to suggest becoming a CNA harder, but we need to do that. We need to have more training, education- not some fast classes that can be done in a couple weeks.
September 1st, 2008 at 8:44 am
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. I was always told “what goes around comes around” and the ones that did this, WILL HAVE THEIR DAY. The sooner the better.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:18 am
I was a witness to abuse where I used to work. One aide would scrape the leftovers from several plates of food and force feed her “pet resident”, another shower aide would take residents into the shower, strip them and pour baby powder on them and redress them…no bath at all. Her excuse…not enough time or they refused their bath among others.
When I reported them I got written up for not being a team player…I got very disillusioned and left that place for a different career path. When I went for a visit recently the very aides I complained about had all been fired for “abuse”. Family members had eventually caught on and made it happen.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
It isnt fair to suggest they commited theese acts in part because of their youth keep in mind that nearly all career nursing assistants got into it at a young age i myself got into it at 19 i am 25 now and have worked at the same facility the entire 6 years and have performed my duties with dignity and class and have reserved a seat in an upcoming lpn program to take it to the next level i think its rediculous that anyone would play the “age card” here and i fail to accept that my healthcare story is the exception not the rule theese cna’s were ignorant and childish at best however i have witnessed much worse things by not cna’s or even lpn’s RN’s who have no patient care concept seeing as rn’s in ltc are no more than secretaries and when rarely are made to give direct care they have a fit and take their frustrations out by rushing the resident in an effort to get the menial task of “cna work” over with asap and return to their clarical work
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Steve thanks for stopping by…and you’re right to a point. But I see Heather’s point. In my experiences it almost always been the younger or foreign aides who cause troubles. Not all. And not always…but the majority of abuses, neglects and poor work ethic standards violations have been committed by these aides.
On the other hand, I know older mature aides who are from the OLD SCHOOL and who are just terrible with attitude, skill, adapting to new things AND who are rough, tough, mouthy and disrespectful. It comes from all. And it’s up to all to stand up to it and end it.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Wow, this story is shocking. However, I recall working with a male CNA who did similar things. When I brought it to the attention of the DON, nothing happened. It was extremely frustrating. He was well liked by his actions on the outside and fooled the management. They did not believe the accusation! He was later fired for lateness.
I also agree that abuse from someone is not because of youth. It all depends on the person’s value system, no matter what stage in life he or she is in.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:33 am
People are born good, but they are changed by the environment