I worked for assistant living, and we had a violent resident, well this violent resident beat up another resident one night and left him with a busted lip and some bruises, instead of sending this violent resident to a place where they could adjust his medication so that his violent behavior could be controlled , they allowed this man to stay, so four nights later this violent resident throws hot coffee on me, and 30 minutes later he cuts up this same resident that he beat up four nights earlier, this resident had cuts up and down both arms all the way down to his fingers, skin was lapped over where the nurse had to set the skin back over the wounds on several of his large cuts, it was pretty bad, instead of the nurse sending this man to the hospital she lets the family member of the violent resident talk her into not sending the abused resident to the hospital, because she knew that the police would have to be involved, the only thing that would have happened to that violent resident was, he would have been taken to a facility that would have put him on medication that would help control his violent behavior, the violent resident has Alzheimer's so he is technically not responsible for his behavior, but because the nurse covered up this abuse the abused resident was not giving the proper medical treatment that he may have needed, not only did they not give him medical treatment at the hospital, but they allowed that violent resident to stay in the facility even after he cut up that resident, and threw hot coffee on me so this violent resident was still allowed to harass and verbally abuse this resident, needless to say this abused resident developed a nervous conditions and started urinating on himself, I complained and complained to our executive director over and over, nothing was done, so I sent my executive director a memo stating that I was going to go higher to talk with someone on corporate level to let them know about the abuse, needless to say the executive director called me into his office and fired me, this incident just happened in December 2007, so I went to the news papers and other organizations, to expose this abuse, I am also in the process of filing a law suit, I'm in my forties and I know about the real world and I know about the evil that's out there, but when something as cold and cruel as something like this happens it still surprises me and it hurts. I was always told that anytime you are in a situation where you don't know what to do, Stop and think of the consequences, put yourself in that person's position if it involves hurt and pain close your eyes and feel that hurt and that pain feel the anger and the confusion, and then open your eyes if there is at least one tear, Don't do it because it is not in your nature to cause hurt or to destroy, and that is a good thing, I just wonder how would the executive director would feel if this abuse was done to him? would he continue to feel that abuse should be ignored and that the things that happened to this man was no big deal,of course not, people like him are selfish and can be very dangerous, dangerous because they like what it takes to care, love and have compassion for others, it still amazes me how a person can see someone in pain and not do or say anything? how can you see a person hungry and not feed them? I know I need to wake up and not only smell the coffee but taste it too, I must tell you sometimes the coffee smells good but the taste is bitter. Its sad when the one who speaks up against abuse is terminated and the ones who condones and ignore abuse are still working for the company? If you have any questions or comment please write back, I will gladly let you in on more details.

WOW! that was a mouthfull. I do think the charge nurse used poor judgement all the way around. Didn't the injured patient's family have to be notified? They could have gone to the Administrator with complaints. It seems the nurse took alot upon herself and in doing so, covered up the incidents, leaving one patient frightened and the other, a danger to patients and employees. Not to mention, all the moral and legal issues plus facility protocols she violated. Her conduct is questionable and why the Administrator would choose to stand by her actions and not look into this situation, makes his conduct questionable too. I think you did the right thing.

i think you did the right thing by exposing this issue. regardless if police are going to be involved or not, that nurse held the responsibility for caring for both patients. and obviously she neglected both patients and potentially enabled the abuse to take place.
where i work, we had a patient report to one of our nurses that another resident had attempted to rape her. we immediately took action and called the authorties, sent the complainee to the hospital for rape kit and every other necssary tests. the patients were kept seperated and the suspect was removed from the facility, ASAP. just a month ago our nurses were in court over this incident.
both of those patients needed to be cared for and neither of them were! she should be charged with abuse and neglect and not be allowed to practice again. your job means nothing when the welfare of your patients is neglected and forgotten about. that should be the numbr one priority as , not necessarily just the nurse but all healthcare professionals involved. by taking the patient into your facility, you are promising the patient and the family that the best will be cared for to the best of our abilities and will be free from harm.
does anyone remember the patients bill of rights????

theala said:

If a nurse refused or failed to send an injured resident to the hospital (or at least failed to contact the physician to notify him of the injury and the circumstances of it) then she fails her fiduciary duty to the extent that it becomes criminal negligence. Residents of an assisted living or nursing home center have the right to be safe from harm.

If, after having gone through your chain of command at the facility and getting no response, I would have anonymously notified state authorities. If management is concealing criminal behavior, going to corporate isn't going to do any good, and in any case health care workers are under a legal obligation to report elder abuse to Adult Protective Services (who should have been called). Threatening to go over an administrator's head is asking to be fired, unfortunately. However, you may be able to challenge the termination in court, since it seems unjustified.

Unfortunately most states though have what's called "free will employment" which means an employer can terminate your employment at any time, for any reason. I would look into it first, or count your lucky stars, and move on to bigger and better things!

Actually, as far as I know, she and her husband did sue. I'm not sure what come of it though...I left, and went elsewhere. You know, bigger and better! ; )

Some confused, demented, or even mentally ill patients will become violent suddenly, with no provocation at all. I once walked into a room to pick up a tray. The patient burst out from behind the curtain and tried to stab me with the (metal) table knife. She was old, demented, and sundowning. She was frightened because she didn't know where she was and didn't recognize what was going on. Fortunately, the knife was blunt, and I was easily able to take it away from her before she could hurt me. Once we reoriented her she was fine for the night.

But some patients are persistently violent, hitting, spitting, biting. Those patients need to be treated with caution, and sometimes seperated from other patients. The facility has a duty to protect others from harm, and take reasonable measures to ensure violent patients are not a danger to other patients, staff, visitors, or themselves. That was the real issue with the original post.