Yesterday, a Certified Nursing Aide's estranged husband entered a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, where she was employed, and
killed 7 residents and a nurse during his shooting rampage.
Usually the nursing home deaths which make the news are related to mistreatment of residents or improper care procedures which lead to death. This is one of the reasons more people are opting for care in the home, instead of a nursing home, especially for short-term care needs, as a one-on-one caregiver can often deliver better care.
Nursing home incidents which result in inferior care are usually connected to staffing issues. Sometimes nursing homes staff only 1 nursing aide to as many as 15 residents. This is why many times experienced Certified Nursing Aides will move into home care positions where they know they can provide quality care to just one client,.
Earlier this year, an Itasca, Illinois nursing home employee watched television for more than an hour and ignored the alarm that indicated a woman with Alzheimer's disease was wandering. The elderly resident went outside in freezing temperatures and her frozen body was later found in the facility's courtyard.
The employee was charged with criminal neglect.
Senior Home Care Agencies provide professionally managed caregivers for seniors and these caregivers are usually highly qualified and experienced. Home care agencies perform background checks on all caregivers and also train and actively manage the caregivers for each assignment.
You can learn about the
background check laws in each state on Caregiverlist's "by state" information section (because as in the situation above, it is also important that companies do not hire someone who has demonstrated poor judgement in the past. Most career caregivers want to receive high recommendations from their managers as they know they will need to be reassigned after a current client's condition improves or after the senior passes. And, as they have invested in training to become a professional caregiver, they want to continue to be employed).
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