Working in a Nursing Home

Along the lines of controlling the masses, a Nursing Home where once again everything is pre-programmed for you so you don't think for yourself.

You will get up at the time decided for you by the Nurses and CNA's of your unit, you will not have a bath everyday, maybe only 2 - 3 days a week, and you will eat this because that is what the Dr. says you can eat, and these are your meal times, and you can only wear these medically approved socks.

Oh and best of all, "well gee Mom and Dad everyone else's parents live in a nursing home and we just don't have the time to care for you because of our jobs and school and the kids."

The Orientals, Japanese, Koreans, etc... have very minimal nursing homes in their countries, Nursing Homes are not the primary caregiver it is the family.

Why is that?  Because they venerate their descendants! It is seen as an honor to care for one's parent's, grandparent's, etc... in old age. They also do not see them as useless old codgers who can't do anything anymore.

Most Orientals remain productive well into their 70's and 80's, they might not being performing heavy work in the traditional sense of the word, but they can still care for grandchildren, perform chores around the house, and many other services that help to keep them functioning both mentally and physically.

In our society, once our seniors stop working and making money they are seen as a burden and useless. In my area alone there are 41 nursing homes, that doesn't include specialty facilities, like Hospice, Assisted Living, Retirement communities, Adult Day Care, etc... if you do then that number jumps to 194, just here! What does that say about how we care for our loved ones and senior citizens. Oh just dump'em in the nursing home they'll take care of them.

Now I know some of our seniors need rehab and the like from a fall or for hip fractures, etc... and some seniors make the decision on their own to move into a nursing home or retirement community, but the large percentage do not.

Another thing, while almost all the CNA's, Activities, and Nurses who work in these facilities are loving, caring, and compassionate, they sure don't receive pay that is commensurate with the services they provide.

The administration makes all the money while the front line staff make a pittance.  Does Admin have to clean up the messes, change Depends, feed, transfer people into bed or wheelchairs, keep them entertained? Nope, but Adminstration makes the large percentage of the money.

Now in some instances where someone has worked their way up the ranks, then yes they should be rewarded. But for the poor CNA who's making $8.00/hour wiping dear old granny's behind, something's wrong there.

If we expect these strangers to care for our loved ones then we should pay them handsomely to do it.

Ever wonder why you see all those commercials on nursing home abuse? It's because the staff isn't paid what they're worth, they have too many people to care for and not enough time to do it in. So guess what? They hurry up, make a simple mistake and someone gets hurt; all because Admin. doesn't want to pay to have more staff and pay the staff they do have well, in order to keep them.

Now the Agency staff that come in they get paid great! Sometimes double to triple what the regular staff are making. That money should be going to the regular staff that are there day in and day out, and maybe... just maybe, there wouldn't be so much agency staff to have pay so highly for.

Enough of my ranting.

Give it some thought.

Mad Doc
 
Remember *Writing is the socially acceptable form of Schizophrenia*

Two of my favorite sayings in closing:

1) If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced.

2) "It is the duty of those who CAN see what is going on to expose to those who cannot see, the situation that they are unaware of!"


Below a little something else to think about... 

All of us learned this tidbit in school right 90% of the worlds cash is in 5% of the world's population's hands. Why is that? No wonder we have 3rd world countries whose per capita incomes are less than $200.00 a year.

And another thing credit bureaus annoy the hell out of me. Why? Because how are they legal? They have all your personal info, Driver's license number, Soc. Sec. number, home address, telephones, who you've bought from, loaned to or from, I am sure the CIA, NSA and, FBI would love a piece of that action, that is if they don't already.

It is too much information for one entity to have, and yet no one says our privacy has been violated, and anyone with a couple of bucks can get this information from them without your consent.