A busy, high-traffic nursing home requires a sizable, dedicated nursing staff. Experts recommend a ratio of one nurse for every four to 10 residents. But nurses themselves disagree with this ratio, stating that a nurse/resident ratio of 1:4 is quite enough.
Anything beyond this puts enormous stress on a nursing home skeleton crew that’s already struggling. Continuous understaffing is dangerous for staff and patients. It can lead to harm and injury for both groups, with aging, special needs residents suffering the most. Here are some common issues typical of an understaffed nursing home.
Less-Than-Perfect Resident Hygiene
Nursing home residents can’t fulfill their most basic everyday needs by themselves. They rely on the nurses charged with their care to help them. But if there are too many residents and not enough nurses, residents’ most basic everyday needs go unfulfilled. Like hygiene.
Dirty, unwashed, bedridden residents can’t move or wash themselves. They’re more likely to develop edema, bed sores and infections from lying in their own waste. Nurses at understaffed nursing homes are more likely to:
- Miss administering meals
- Leave residents lying in bed for days
- Miss giving out meds
- Neglect residents emotionally
- Deliver rushed, disrespectful care
- Fail at documenting care and incidents
Social Disconnection and Injuries
An overstretched nursing home team is more likely to experience burnout, make mistakes or forget important aspects of resident care. This can affect patients on many different levels and in all kinds of ways. Higher rates of nursing home falls are typical in understaffed institutions. Lack of oversight can leave guests ill and declining without any care.
Skipped or forgotten meals can cause dehydration, which is potentially fatal for older, infirmed individuals. Handling residents hastily to make up for lack of team support can lead to rough handling and injury. Residents might experience emotional neglect from limited social interaction with nurses and other residents. Some residents act out in frustration, leading to a sharp increase in the use of restraints for staff convenience.
High Staff Turnover
Understaffed nursing homes experience disproportionate percentages of staff burnout and turnover. High staff turnover leads to even more cracks in company culture when those left behind become even more overworked and cynical. Overworked, cynical, burnt-out team members are the worst candidates for any nursing home job.
The worst case scenarios include nurses with underlying personal challenges who use access to residents for antisocial reasons. The known history of nursing home neglect includes bitter, angry, overworked nurses who seriously harm residents. The harm might be intentional or inadvertent, but either way, the patient suffers most.
What Do You Do About Nursing Home Neglect?
When your loved one gets injured from harmful nursing home neglect, call a lawyer for nursing home abuse. You and your loved one, the resident, have rights. Don’t wait for delayed wound care, neglect and subpar nursing assistance to result in a serious medical emergency or death.
A seasoned lawyer who focuses on nursing home abuse can work with you personally, tailoring your case to your specific situation. They can investigate abuse with professional knowledge and experience. They can offer guidance, secure resources and justice for the plaintiff. They can, and do, fight for fair compensation.
Nursing or elder home abuse lawyers excel at handling complex legal procedures pertaining to personal injury law. They are personal injury lawyers who specialize in elder or nursing home abuse. If someone you love suffers abuse at an elder or nursing home, retain a nursing home abuse lawyer immediately.
Understaffing at nursing homes limits accountability, attention and, most importantly, time. Whatever time your loved one has left should be as dignified, respectful and comfortable as possible. Poor to little care from an understaffed nursing home team is disrespectful, undignified and dangerous to all parties.
Don’t let nursing home abuse diminish your loved one’s quality of life or worse. Visit My Nursing Home Abuse Guide to learn how to spot the signs of negligence and what steps to take next.
