No doubt you have all heard the hype that has been in the paper the last few weeks about our aged care facilities in Sydney (which I leave unnamed).
The allegations from this woman’s diary are serious and make it clear that we in aged 
care do nothing but neglect our residents. When reading the article I couldn’t help but feel enraged at this woman.
How dare she? For her 15 minutes of fame she has not only hurt the facility that she has been volunteering at but ruined a whole industry that is struggling already.
Many of the things that I read seemed to be a little far-fetched and I know are not the truth (as I know one of the facilities she was volunteering at).
Her allegations that she was told to keep things from the family and told that if a family asks about something to simply say “that is confidential” could not be further from the truth.
By law NOK/Guardians and any power of attorney have the right to see and get information from the facility in regards to their relative or client. Anyone who is not legally looking after the person of course can’t. But this goes for anywhere doesn’t it?
When I ring the hospital after sending a resident for acute care, 9 times out of 10, I am told that information is not allowed to be given to me in regards to the health status of my resident even though I am ringing on behalf of the nursing home and we are the primary carers of the person (not to mention that I am the care manager of the facility).
She complains that she was feeding and transferring residents without qualifications. Well I find this also hard to believe.
In aged care we are very much governed by legislation and I know that one of the facilities that she was volunteering in she was specifically told NOT to do any tasks that are specialised such as feeding and transferring, yet she was caught doing them and asked to please refrain from doing so as it is a danger to the residents.
This person entered these aged care facilities with the intention to catch them out — not to help. If she was hearing people calling out into the corridor and the staff were engaged with helping other residents why did she not simply get them that blanket? Or give them their bedside phone to make the phone call etc?
When you enter a nursing home you will hear residents calling out into the corridor, particularly if they have dementia and don’t know how to use the call bell or they have no concept of time and they may have only just rang the call bell and what feels an hour to them may only be a few moments thus complaining that the buzzer is not answered for hours and they never get what they need. But the reality is the nurses were busy taking someone to the toilet and as soon as they are done they will attend to that resident’s needs.
What is the most upsetting about this whole thing is that this lady is not a professional.
She has no idea about aged care she is purely making assumptions on the small snippet she has witnessed. Food does get cold, when you are serving more than 10 people at the same time and you have to feed the majority, unless you have a staff patient ratio of 1:2 – this can’t be helped.
It is against food and safety regulations to re-heat food in aged care facilities. So what would she like the catering department to do? Serve food resident by resident?
She passes comment on what the staff say during their “smoke break.” Well I don’t know where to begin to state how wrong this is.
Staff’s mealtime and break times are there for staff to de-brief, state whatever it is they feel like whether it be right or wrong, whether is be PC or not. If they said what she states they said (which is hear say in any case) is it not a person’s rights to do or say as they wish on their break away from their residents?
Nurses swap patients all the time, and say things about their patients particularly if they are difficult ones. That is how we let off steam and that is how we get emotional support from our colleagues.
I could go on and on rebutting everything this woman disclosed but I guess it would be useless the damage that this woman has done to our industry is too great.
Spot checks are taking place all through the aged care industry, unannounced visits have already started and will continue now for the rest of the year I suspect. You know what I say to that…… BRING IT ON!!!
The place she complained about had a 3 day accreditation and investigation and they found nothing.
Are you telling me that all the residents lied? If people understood the whole investigative processes of the department they would understand that not only are staff interviewed, but residents, relatives, visitors are all interviewed in fact who ever walks through the front door is interviewed.
Documentation is checked and so is achieved documentation. It is quite hard to pull the wool over the department’s eyes.
The department is trained to spot BS a mile away, and when an unsubstantiated complaint is made. I have done the assessors course so I am well aware of the processes. Whilst once upon a time neglect ran rampant throughout the aged care industry, now it is not the case we are a very heavily regulated industry and welcome these regulations to ensure our elderly get the very best they deserve.
Even if someone was to be nursed 1 on 1 they still might end up in a wet pad or calling out at any one time, this is human nature and life. The question that should be asked is…. Is this happening all the time? Does this person have deteriorated skin, or shows signs of neglect?
It has taken decades to try to get rid of the stigma of aged care and get the wider community to understand that aged care these days is not the end of the road full of neglect, but a place where the elderly can get their life back and enjoy the time they have left.
With one sharp swift of the pen this woman has taken us back to square one. She has stopped aged care facilities in trusting volunteers and thus as a result many will close their doors on volunteers from now on and who gets hurt in the end?
The elderly who so love having volunteers come in to be with them. I hope this woman is happy that she has caused more harm than good. All for the price of 15 minutes of fame.
What do you think about this whole saga? How did you feel when you read what she wrote? Did you believe this to be true or did you feel enraged at her story?
Image source (http://www.fotosearch.com/CSP126/k1264445/)
therapy. This decision was made by the practice manager over the phone after I had spoken with her at length about Mr X. I finally got him an appointment for an assessment at the hydrotherapy place, sent him off, and after an hour he was sent back.
This is the second part of this article. 
and acute mental health wards. But, those of us working in aged care, we too face violence everyday in our work place.
r in my time working in residential care that have not been elderly? 
I had this amazing resident that I looked after as an AIN, RN and as a manager. She was in the same facility for 8 years. I used to call her Nanny. She was a Registered nurse from WW2 days. She was the resident that I would go to if i had any issues just to talk (she was a world of wisdom).
There is such a shortage of young energetic nurses in this field. In fact, it is very rare that you will find a new grad going down the aged care path. The situation has gotten so bad that even the universities have changed their curriculum.
Since becoming a member of the NSWNA, I have had a many chances to expand my horizons. I am very proud to be a Delegate for our branch of the union.
