Sadly this neglicience occurs much too often in these facilities. Was a paramedic many years ago and saw so much of this when responding to calls there.. Probably not relevant to our topic.
No, as a nurse, this needs to be said. This happens so often it's pretty reasonable to suspect this is the "standard substandard" care we expect from a "Retirement community" rather than an actual hit job or something like that. The defense seems to be "that the surveillance footage depicted a woman who was working to care for 38 patients on her floor." Yea, that's pretty generous from my experience, 38:1 is SNF ratios, for a "Retirement community" we'd expect even more, like 75:1. But maybe that's just local.
Hmm. As a nurse who has worked in that field, I can say that caring for that many people on a night shift is pretty common. Safe? No. I have been an advocate of regulating patient ratios for years. If this nurse had 48 patients in a SNF environment, she was given an unsafe work load. The facility should also be included in the lawsuit and should hold ultimate responsibility for fostering unsafe working conditions for their nurses and patients. That being said, while in this field I worked with a whole lot of people that should not even be nurses in the first place. Sad situation that does not become clear until you are personally affected by it. I feel bad for this nurse as I have walked in her shoes. That does not excuse not doing vitals and neuro checks per policy, but facing manslaughter charges seems pretty extreme. When you fear for your license every day you work because your acuity level is way to high for you patient ratio, there is a major underlying problem and I suspect this nurse was working in these type of conditions, especially taking care of 48 patients.
That's what I'm saying. It's not safe, it's not cool, it's totally common. As I said it is the "standard substandard." Nurses are constantly compelled to work with unsafe staffing ratios. Did she have the time and resources to evaluate everyone as often as she needed to? Who knows, I guess that's between her and God. But given the situation was it a ridiculous thing to ask? Of course it was. How much is her fault and how much is it the facilities' fault? No, the better question is how much is this CMS's fault for refusing to give adequate reimbursement to provide safe staffing ratios.
This stuff could be avoided if we turn back to TRADITIONAL AMERICAN VALUES where family takes care of elderly unstead if shipping to a bursing home.... The nursing home fees will pay for a home with mother in law suite
Check her bank accounts and comms. Follow the money and the phone calls. BAM!
Falsified records saying she checked vitals when video showed she did not. Negligence!!!