Short-Staff Harms Nursing Home Patients

The CBC is conducting a multiple part investigation on the quality of nursing home care.  It appears they have started at the right place: under-staffing.  Understaffing is at the heart of nursing home malpractice.  In this story, one nursing home employee said she has "come home [from work] and cried.  You cannot do everything that is expected of you in a day.  It's impossible."   She described providing care is like working on an assembly line.  She only has 10-15 minutes to get a resident up, toileted, washed and dressed in the morning and she commonly has over 10 residents to care for.

Understaffing has a direct correlation to poor care.  An overworked nursing home employee does not have the time to provide the quality of care nursing home patients need.  Understaffing leads to serious mistakes like medication errors, falls, and pressure ulcers.

Here is a link to the CBC story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/short-staffing-hurts-nursing-home-residents-workers-1.1927777