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Airlines and Nursing Homes: Underinvesting in Quality Inadequate airport security is now widely recognized as no longer being an acceptable dimension to assure safe air travel. The terrorist attacks of September 11 were, in part, undetected by the various screening mechanisms in place at that time. After the previous terrorist attacks in the early 1990s, airport security was defined as an airline responsibility for funding purposes and government responsibility for defining policies and practices. Both were inadequate and these limitations were clearly shown on September 11. Airport security failure was inevitable, and all who were involved were fully aware of the high risk involved. Government knew that if the cost was borne by the airline industry, the staff used to provide the security would be minimum wage, high turnover, low-skilled employees. All travelers also knew that any serious “terrorist” could board an airplane and inflict serious damage. Entire articles are available only in CNAToday magazine, click here to subscribe Quality Care: Who is Willing to Pay for It? There are many crisis gripping the headlines of our nation’s newspapers and receiving 24-hour television news coverage: the war in Afghanistan, escalating conflict in the Middle East, and the Enron scandal just to name a few. However, there is a catastrophe occurring here, in our own country, that is not grabbing the exposure it deserves. This looming disaster is taking place in our nation, our home states, our communities, and our neighborhoods. The casualties of this “silent crisis” will be far greater than any of the heavily publicized international events. The victims in this “silent crisis” will be our nation’s nearly two million vulnerable elderly and their caregivers in this country’s skilled nursing facilities. The “silent crisis” is the recurring grave under funding of this nation’s long term healthcare system. It has been written that long term care is the second most regulated profession in the nation. The Department of Health and Human Services, along with each state, regulates the 17,000 nursing facilities nationwide. Governmental regulations dictate nearly every aspect of patient care and subsequently daily operations with little or no regard for the frontline staff, the caregivers. Entire articles are available only in CNAToday magazine, click here to subscribe Nursing Assistants...Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Historical records show that the practice of hiring someone to assist nurses was already underway during the time of the Reformation, which was around 1500. They were called helpers or watchers and were hired to assist the sisters, as the early English nurses were called. Throughout the years, the helpers or watchers have had many titles such as nursing assistants, nurses' aides, orderlies, and attendants. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, typical job descriptions for a nurse revolved around unskilled housekeeping tasks. These might include scrubbing floors, dusting furniture, washing windowsills, and washing clothes. They would be responsible for keeping the stove stocked and the kerosene lamps trimmed and filled as an even temperature and good lighting were very important to maintain. Other nursing care responsibilities were making beds, giving baths, making and rolling bandages, preventing and dressing bedsores. Nurses and assistants monitored their patients' secretions, expectorations, skin, respirations, sleep, elimination, appetite, body temperature, and pulse. (Only the physicians were allowed to take blood pressure back then.) Nurses also gave enemas, inserted catheratures, applies bandages, applied friction to the body and extremities, and carried out physicians' orders. The conditions of healthcare during the Reformation were very dreary and not attractive as much has been written through the years about the women who tended to patients being drunks and thieves. During this time, even women desiring to be nurses found themselves in competition with workhouse inmates who were cheaper workers for hospital administrators. Entire articles are available only in CNAToday magazine, click here to subscribe Fair Haven Nursing Home in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, is a mid-size nursing home in a small town in the Midwest. Clean, friendly, and family-oriented — just like many nursing facilities across the country. Or is it? Fair Haven stands out from the rest, taking its family-friendly reputation further than the rapport between residents and staff. Many of the employees are related to one another – sisters, aunts, cousins. And one such family boasts three generations of nursing assistants, all working together. Imagine this Fair Haven employee family tree: Virginia Sayre, grandmother. Her daughters, Ginger Bryant, Vicky Hamm, and Shelley Thiel. And Shelley’s son Joey Sayre and daughter Erica Sayre. All are STNAs except Erica, who at age 15 is a Personal Care Assistant. Entire articles are available only in CNAToday magazine, click here to subscribe Assistance in the Aftermath, part 2 In response to the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the Jewish Home and Hospital in Manhattan, NY, has responded by providing beds for residents of an assisted living facility near the WTC which was uninhabitable due to damage from smoke, dust, and flying debris. Beds were also made available for patients from Mount Sinai and Lenox Hill hospitals to make room for disaster victims at those hospitals. Dr. Leslie Libow, vice president of medical services, and Dr. Richard Neufeld, head of medical services at the Manhattan Division, traveled to the hospitals with a van to help organize the transfer of appropriate patients. According to Sheldon Goldberg, president and chief executive officer, Jewish Home vans also were dispersed to provide transportation up and down Third Avenue and Broadway for those who were lost, confused, or simply unable to find their way home Tuesday during the disaster that brought the city transport system to a standstill. Staff also went outside with wheelchairs and picked up those who were unable to walk, pushing them sometimes 20 or more blocks to their homes. In addition, the food service department prepared and delivered food, fruit, and drinks to the firemen, police, and emergency workers. Entire articles are available only in CNAToday magazine, click here to subscribe |
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