Coronavirus prep

With the situation in nursing and assisted living homes, I'm sort of reevaluating my life plans. A block from me, there's a brand new assisted living place, a very nice one, with 4 coronavirus deaths and, I think, 38 infections. There's been another one in a neighboring county where the employees were either too sick or too scared to come to work and they had to evacuate the patients. I find the situation of the elderly in these circumstances almost too heartbreaking to bear.

My mother is almost 80 and lives alone. This whole situation is making me realize that I don't ever want her to have to go to an assisted living home if we can at all avoid it. I live in a different state than she does, but I'm also the only one in the family in a reasonable position to live with her when that time comes. I'm feeling very selfish that I really do not want to have to move to her city, but also trying to accept the fact that I think that's the very best option. I know it will still probably be several years before I have to do that, but I think it's the best choice; I just hope I can learn to be happy about it before it's time.

And meanwhile, my mood is a strange kind of sick of staying at home, but also too lazy to even want to go out for a walk today. And I'm sad that I didn't get to have any Easter candy. Does See's not realize they're an essential business? Isn't my need for chocolate eggs worth someone's life? (that was sarcasm).

whoami67 wrote: »

With the situation in nursing and assisted living homes, I'm sort of reevaluating my life plans. A block from me, there's a brand new assisted living place, a very nice one, with 4 coronavirus deaths and, I think, 38 infections. There's been another one in a neighboring county where the employees were either too sick or too scared to come to work and they had to evacuate the patients. I find the situation of the elderly in these circumstances almost too heartbreaking to bear.

My mother is almost 80 and lives alone. This whole situation is making me realize that I don't ever want her to have to go to an assisted living home if we can at all avoid it. I live in a different state than she does, but I'm also the only one in the family in a reasonable position to live with her when that time comes. I'm feeling very selfish that I really do not want to have to move to her city, but also trying to accept the fact that I think that's the very best option. I know it will still probably be several years before I have to do that, but I think it's the best choice; I just hope I can learn to be happy about it before it's time.

And meanwhile, my mood is a strange kind of sick of staying at home, but also too lazy to even want to go out for a walk today. And I'm sad that I didn't get to have any Easter candy. Does See's not realize they're an essential business? Isn't my need for chocolate eggs worth someone's life? (that was sarcasm).

I work for a nursing home myself, where one of the homes ended up with cases of it between several staff and residents. The one I work at, well all.of them here, there is temperature screening at the door, health questions asked, hand sanitizer is applied before you can even touch the door handle and your phone is also to be sanitized before you can take it into the building. Staffing in nursing homes has always needed to be looked at and improved, the people who work there, they do love the residents with their whole hearts, they care about their safety just like family, this situation does put a strain on workers, who are working 12 hour shifts and work short normally, now even more so with the virus, staff are being denied entry with even a slight rise in their temperature, and there is no one replacing them, so the ones working have to work harder. They burn out.. and that's the sad truth, they're worried too just as much as anyone about catching it and giving it to a resident or another staff member.

Masks are mandatory here now. All residents from a unit have been moved to make a space for isolation in case someone does get sick, residents dining tables are spaced out for social distancing and they are not allowed to leave and go to other neighborhoods or leave the property and all visitors and care packages have been banned from the facility.

I really hope this becomes a wake up call to the government here that their funding to these facilities and their requirements for staffing levels are insufficient, even more so now in this time because there is no one there to fall back on

I hope my grandmother or mother can also stay in their home, not because the staff would treat them terrible or neglect them, but because the government is leaving them in a situation that in an emergency can lead to not being able to provide the care they deserve.

It’s hard.
If it were up to me, I’d see my DD. My only child. Then, knowing how devastated she would be, for the rest of her life, if one of us contracted the virus and she felt responsible for possibly giving it to us, I know it’s for the best. Same way I would feel if I gave it to her.

There are a lot of very wise and selfless people on here. It truly helps getting through this. Thanks!❤️

No need to thank me, I truly do love my job and love being there for the residents.

Min wage here is 11.55 an hour. We are paid 16.61 an hour, I am considered support services, I do food generally, so cooking, dishes, making sure residents who need special diets get what they need, snacks and hydration, CCAs who provide the care get paid a little bit more then I do.. but maybe only like 1.50 more.

Weekends we get paid 2.15 more an hour. The nursing home I work for is a non profit and rely heavily on donations, our wages are determined by the government, so doesnt matter where you work, if its government funded the wage is the same, the government also decides what acceptable staffing levels are, which is about 8 residents per 1 care worker. The old nursing home I worked at had 24 residents per unit and had 3 staff, the one I'm at now has 13 per unit and they have 2 staff. The government decided that this is acceptable, so having an extra person per unit to share in the load and offer more divided attention to each resident is not something they are willing to budget for, in fact a couple years ago they removed 3.2 million in funding. We had a wage freeze for years, because our contracts usually come with a wage increase yearly, they stopped that for a long time. We only recently obtained 16.61 as our wage.

I cant speak for other nursing homes, but I know the one I work for, if they had the money it would be spent on the residents and the facilities. They just recently built solariums for the residents to have an open space to share with their families. They have done things like incorporate something called "true doors" where the resident occupying the room can choose a design of a door that looks like it comes from a beautiful Victorian house, they come in tons of styles and colors and they made the units look all different and unique to remove that "hospital" feel. These things made possible due to donations from businesses and wealthy people who support the company.

They do their best to listen to their residents and their families needs.

But as you mentioned staff turnover is high. Not only that but because of staffing shortages, a lot of staff are denied vacation, leaving them more opportunities to burn out and call in sick.

Staff are heartbroken when any resident passes away. They dont just want more staff to make it easier on them, they want staff to give the residents more.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

KrissCanDoThis wrote: »

whoami67 wrote: »

With the situation in nursing and assisted living homes, I'm sort of reevaluating my life plans. A block from me, there's a brand new assisted living place, a very nice one, with 4 coronavirus deaths and, I think, 38 infections. There's been another one in a neighboring county where the employees were either too sick or too scared to come to work and they had to evacuate the patients. I find the situation of the elderly in these circumstances almost too heartbreaking to bear.

My mother is almost 80 and lives alone. This whole situation is making me realize that I don't ever want her to have to go to an assisted living home if we can at all avoid it. I live in a different state than she does, but I'm also the only one in the family in a reasonable position to live with her when that time comes. I'm feeling very selfish that I really do not want to have to move to her city, but also trying to accept the fact that I think that's the very best option. I know it will still probably be several years before I have to do that, but I think it's the best choice; I just hope I can learn to be happy about it before it's time.

And meanwhile, my mood is a strange kind of sick of staying at home, but also too lazy to even want to go out for a walk today. And I'm sad that I didn't get to have any Easter candy. Does See's not realize they're an essential business? Isn't my need for chocolate eggs worth someone's life? (that was sarcasm).

I work for a nursing home myself, where one of the homes ended up with cases of it between several staff and residents. The one I work at, well all.of them here, there is temperature screening at the door, health questions asked, hand sanitizer is applied before you can even touch the door handle and your phone is also to be sanitized before you can take it into the building. Staffing in nursing homes has always needed to be looked at and improved, the people who work there, they do love the residents with their whole hearts, they care about their safety just like family, this situation does put a strain on workers, who are working 12 hour shifts and work short normally, now even more so with the virus, staff are being denied entry with even a slight rise in their temperature, and there is no one replacing them, so the ones working have to work harder. They burn out.. and that's the sad truth, they're worried too just as much as anyone about catching it and giving it to a resident or another staff member.

Masks are mandatory here now. All residents from a unit have been moved to make a space for isolation in case someone does get sick, residents dining tables are spaced out for social distancing and they are not allowed to leave and go to other neighborhoods or leave the property and all visitors and care packages have been banned from the facility.

I really hope this becomes a wake up call to the government here that their funding to these facilities and their requirements for staffing levels are insufficient, even more so now in this time because there is no one there to fall back on

I hope my grandmother or mother can also stay in their home, not because the staff would treat them terrible or neglect them, but because the government is leaving them in a situation that in an emergency can lead to not being able to provide the care they deserve.

Bless you, @KrissCanDoThis , for the work you do, in the circumstances in which you do it - under normal circumstances, let alone these times.

This next is generic, not intended as just personal to you, just for clarity:

I'm seeing nursing home workers, sometimes now, being demonized as uncaring or incompetent, when these circumstances arise. I'm sure that there are rare cases where that's true. I think it's also true that some profit-driven nursing homes cynically create circumstances where caring and proper precautions are impossible, or where workers are so pushed and prodded by poor management until their normal humane impulses are driven out of them. It's a field with, generally, high turnover and under-training. But I think the majority of workers are doing the best they can, in the circumstances where they find themselves, and - when that breaks down - feeling devastated by the deaths of elders that they truly care about. And they, themselves, have heightened risks for themselves and their families, like other health care workers.

This occupational field is one where understaffing is common, and low pay is widespread. The high cost of care almost drives this to be true: Care is expensive, and average people can't afford it. It's a high-touch field, difficult to automate into reduced costs, and therefore costs rise disproportionately over time (as is also true with other high-touch, high-staff fields like general health care, education, and more).

When my dad wanted (<= right word) to move to assisted living, we were lucky to find a privately-owned facility that was reasonably cost-competitive, but with enlightened management: They realized that if they paid workers a little more than the average, trained them well, and treated them well, they'd have much better staff retention. That meant that not only were their training costs lower, and maybe even slightly fewer (trained) staff could provide better care than more (less experienced, trained) staff, so costs were more stable. Moreover, the long-term staff came to know and understand their individual residents, and were better able to tailor care to them and their health.

Nursing home/assisted living workers are one of the groups I'm holding in my heart now. I can't imagine how difficult it is, how frightening, for the many caring, humane, decent people who are in those jobs.

I shared this earlier, but will summarize quickly just so you know where I’m coming from. The nursing home which was the only facility we were able to get my father into was criminally negligent. They were for profit and not cheap. They already had repeated violations for all the circumstances I saw, so there was no point in reporting them. They also, according to my friends who work in health care, are about typical for our area.

On the surface they looked good. There were signs at the doors warning visitors not to come when ill, with hand sanitizer dispensers. The staff were all polite and pleasant and seemed caring.

You had to actually visit to learn that the gentleman who was my father’s roommate, who wasn’t allowed anything by mouth due to choking hazard, screamed and wailed for hours in a mostly incomprehensible voice that his mouth was dry and he was thirsty. It was like living in a circle of hell listening to the tortures of the damned, my father didn’t understand what this guy was doing or who he was, just that someone was continually wailing in agony. Only once did I ever see anyone address this guy, when someone was in to speak to me and could see that I was shuddering, she said, “You know you can’t have anything by mouth, Mr. So-and-so.” And left him to continue wailing. Setting aside the question of what should have been done for him, it was to me unconscionable that someone should be asked to share a room with someone screaming constantly, but we were at that point just grateful to have a room anywhere after being on a waiting list for two months while caring for my dad 24/7.

You had to visit to learn that when I asked for gloves to help my father who had a MRSA infection they didn’t even know where their supply of gloves were because it had never occurred to any of them to use such a thing. I watched them mess around with picc lines with filthy hands.

They didn’t match drugs to the illness when someone was sick. If you were sick you got the one antibiotic they prescribed to everybody who was sick, and the doctor signed off on it without actually visiting anyone.

You had to visit to see that my father, who needed assistance eating because he had no fine motor control, was literally left to starve. His meal tray wasn’t even placed within his reach, but on a table across the room. He wasn’t ambulatory since he was recovering from a partial amputation of his foot. Then the nurse had the nerve to tell me he “didn’t eat much.”

You had to visit at the right time of day to catch the “speech therapist” who claimed she was having “good sesssions” in which my completely non-verbal father “talked a lot,” sitting reading a book instead of interacting with him at all.

The first week I was unable to visit because I had an illness was also the week he went sharply downhill and then died. Yes, they basically killed him, and no, there was no point in suing when this is the standard of care everywhere here, with a couple of exceptions.

Sorry, I meant this to be short, but I still have a lot of anger. I’m sure there are lovely and caring nursing home workers somewhere. I never met one here. The ones here are underpaid and the low pay does not attract a good quality of people. In fact if I had a dollar for each time I’ve heard about someone useless who can’t finish college going to get a certification to work in health care, I wouldn’t have to work myself.

College completion doesnt always make someone less useless or more caring..

I only say that as I have a grade 9 education, and my level of care to the residents isnt a result of schooling, it comes from inside.

I'm sorry that the nursing home experience you've had to deal with was that negative, it's unfortunate that the level of care is not kept.in check.

In the facility I work in, everyone has their own private room, only the two newest admitted residents share a double room until a private room opens. There is 1 double room on each unit. The LPNs are overseen by an RN and a nurse manager, residents symptoms are discussed and addressed professionally and privately.

In regards to the man screaming.. the resident and the surrounding residents would be an immediate concern. Firstly because dry mouth is an easy fix, and also they value the quality of life that the residents have. That is why cleaning machines cant be run in the neighborhoods during morning care or during meal times. Any residents required to be fed, even if they are in their rooms, the cca stays and feeds them, all food eaten or wasted is documented 3 times daily as its required by law and used by the dietitian that works there to address any dietary needs or changes.

Our facility goes through something called accreditation, where an outside company not connected to the facility comes in and checks everything, from cleanliness to making sure all paper work completed, right down to the temperature of the dishwashers, they also make sure that the facility is constantly making improvements to the residents lives and living areas. Accreditation scores are how the facility gets funded, last year we scored a 98.5% out of 100.

Everyone wears gloves. Gloves are changed after each care, gloves are changed between each room a housekeeper cleans and gloves are also worn by kitchen staff if something is required to be served by hand, like a sandwich.
Housekeeping carts are not transferred between units, housekeepers have 2 carts , 1 on each side to prevent cross contamination.

There is always some downtime through the day, but it's never put before the residents, if they need anything or a call bell rings, its answered.

Even our most challenging residents who have dementia, are met with patience and understanding, we try to be fair to everyone, because it's all their homes, we wouldnt be there without them.

I really wish you could experience a facility like the one I work at..

Agreed, as a part timer, I move from unit to unit, I dont get to spend long periods of time in one place and it really helps because you get a fresh environment and different staff and residents, you dont experience the heavy feeling when the scenery is always changing.

I always felt that should be the case with full time staff, however the facility also strives for continuity of care, where residents see familiar faces and staff arent always learning their needs and making things frustrating for the resident, so I get that too..

That's why vacations are so important.

Crazy, our premier told police to go easy at first but now... tickets, tickets, tickets

lemurcat2 wrote: »

I wonder how 38 calls/9 violations observed compares to normal in San Antonio. That seems low for one evening in a larger city. I'm sure we had way more overall, and yet the only thing I observed/heard was some fireworks.

We are issuing tickets (and I am in favor), but one wonders how much that helps as (at least in some areas) people likely just won't pay the tickets, and it's not like putting more people in jail is going to happen (especially as there are outbreaks in jail).

I feel for the LEO's today. They have to risk the virus breaking up groups. Local officials have to get reelected or they lose their jobs and in some places that can cost LEO's their job if their boss gets fired at the next election. The KY governor came out an said there will be no one charged if they are caught at church yesterday. If tickets are written it could cost states millions in legal fees to prove a governor/mayor had the legal power to restrict the rights of law abiding citizens. In KY marshal law has not been declared.

Common sense is not that common. In my case I do not want to die or to cause others to die so I do not get hung up when someone tells me to not bunch up with other people because I stopped doing that before I was told. Before the governor started shutting down a lot of activities I told the people at church they would see me when they next saw me. The storms caused them to call off the Easter service yesterday.

Yes there are still some saying this is just like the flu but does not kill as many as the flu does each year. Yes many can get this bat flu and never even know it. Others that get hospitalized and still live can have a body with major organ damage until their final death.

A few will stop smoking, stop being obese and other high risk life styles but most that live through these times will go right back to their old ways. I have given up on trying to get others to act right and work on getting my self to act right.

KrissCanDoThis wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

KrissCanDoThis wrote: »

Mmmm... I guess that's what I meant by "cant you miss easter" I think I just didnt say it right lol... those scenarios you described were who I was directing that comment too, the people who blatantly put everyone at risk just because it's a holiday, if today is about your faith, worship, but for the love of your family and friends, the bbqs, the beer, the close quarters and no protection, cant you just miss that this one time?

We did, but it's hard. Easter in my family is another family feast day much like Thanksgiving or Christmas. A big component of the holiday is getting together as a family and doing a ham or leg of lamb, etc and sharing as a family. My mom desperately wanted to come over to enjoy the holiday and to see my boys who she hasn't seen in a month now except for face time, but I had to say no. It's hard telling your mother she can't come over.

I agree, my birthday back in march was much the same, she couldnt understand why I wouldnt just sneak into her building and celebrate with her and my grandmother (at that time their apartment building had banned visitors) but it had to be done, and yeah it sucks spending anything alone lol.. but I feel better knowing I didnt go.

Every time I go to the grocery store I wonder if that's the trip where I touched that can of soup or pack of chicken that someone else infected touched and it will be my turn.

I don't worry so much about what I touch in the grocery store. I have control over not touching my face and over washing my hands as soon as possible and over slathering my hands with sanitizer in the meantime. What I can't control is the people who decide to walk (or come stand) right by me, while they continue talking on their phones or with whomever they went shopping with -- or sneeze, or clear their throats, or cough. That's what makes me anxious.

My brother suggested we get together for pizza on Easter (not traditional, just what he likes). We each live alone and we're both telecommuting, and haven't being socializing with other people for a full month, but I told him no. I said if we did, we'd have to be at least six feet apart while we ate, and we'd have to wear face coverings when we weren't eating. I didn't think that would be much fun. I met him to give him a container of "Easter" disinfectant wipes.

If it's any consolation to you re: your grandmother not being able to see your uncle while he is dying from cancer, any of the folks who spread COVID among their families with their large gatherings could soon be in the same situation: not able to visit dying family members, because no visitors are allowed in the covid wards. Not to anthropomorphize a virus, but this truly is a cruel disease in so many ways -- the lengthy incubation so people are spreading it without knowing it, the respiratory distress, the lengthy recovery with continued disease shedding, the dying alone ...