I work in a home that is understaffed and each person works ten hour shifts alone juggling the care of a dozen residents. There is one male resident who is full assist with everything & he seems to be angry about being assisted by an opposite-gender caregiver. And whenever I have to help him to bed or get him up he hits me which leaves bruises on him. I'm as nice to him as I possibly can be, even when I'm hurt and angry. His family is very suspicious of everyone and I'm afraid they'll try to get me fired. I document everything but have no witnesses since I'm alone. I don't know what to do.
Even in one ER a nurse grabbed my mom's wrists so hard I got up to intervene
I also remember a woman working as a sitter in the hospital tell me her mother suffered a broken finger in a nursing home from staff grabbing her but by and large I've seen caregivers Jump back to avoid being scratched or hit and I've seen some pretty volatile demented situations in the past year
You step away. You do not EVER hit, slap, push, kick or (God forbid) bite or spit back.
The home the OP posted about shouldn't be open. I don't think she's been back, has she?
Have you alerted the family to the violence and what's really going on and that he's hitting you and not the other way around?
Another thing I must ask is whether or not your facility is equipped with video surveillance. If so, just play back any video when needed and even get a copy of it each and every time the incident happens. To some reasonable degree, I strongly believe there should be a video surveillance even in the bedrooms so appropriate people know what's really going on back there.
One thing I must suggest is to speak with your supervisor if you haven't already done so. If your facility happens to be equipped with video surveillance, tell the supervisor to play it back and tell them precisely what time and day the violence happened. You can't keep putting up with this, it must stop even if you find you must get the cops involved even if this is a nursing facility. If he's not in an ALF and this is a regular nursing home or even a rehab facility, then this man may very well be of sound mind and you can still get the cops involved. If you can make a report and even press charges, that will put the family on alert especially if there's video surveillance proving your claim. You definitely need to do something and quick because he can end up hurting you pretty bad if this isn't stopped now.
What you may also have to do when you need to move this patient is take with you a background witness who can watch from afar. These days we now have smart phones with video recording capability. I would definitely use this as an extra layer of protection and just have the witness bring their phone and just record from a safe distance. That way someone has a recording even if the facility does and the recording may not cover back too far. At very least someone will have a recording on their mobile device for later play back but make sure you also have it backed up on another device just in case some suspicious supervisor decides to take your phone and delete the video. These days it pays to be overly cautious, and you don't know what's really going on in some cases because some supervisors may not be very nice and it sounds like this particular supervisor probably doesn't care about the residence or they would have hired more staff. If they are underfunded then they should be shut down. You said something about a caseload of 12 people, that says enough right there that the facility just can't handle this workload if they have only 12 people and only one worker for 12 people. Don't you see the red flags? I sure do and I can tell you they need to be shut down and what you need to do is contact whoever is up over the nursing homes for your state and report this. While you're at it, I personally would be looking for another job and just get out of there before this particular patient has a chance to cause you serious injury if he happens to strike you in the face or even the head. I don't know if he's demented, has alzheimer's or is of sound mind, but if this were my facility, he wouldn't be staying there, he would be taken straight to the hospital and not allowed to come back to my facility. This is what I would do for the safety of my residence because I wouldn't be able to work if I were seriously injured by one of the residents and I'm the only one there for 12 people. If this were my facility, there would be at least one worker for each resident on each shift, and the facility would be a bit bigger to accommodate more workers. Only one worker for 12 people is definitely a recipe for disaster and that facility shouldn't even be open. If I were you, I would contact the state and see if this place is even licensed, it sounds like they may not be. If they are, check to see what the rules are on the operation but I can tell you there's definitely a recipe for disaster from your description and it sounds to me like disaster is already happening. If this patient because you serious injury from assault, then you can't be there for the rest of the patients. If you ask me, I seriously doubt this is even a legit facility, facilities legit facilities have more workers for the caseload. Another thing to point out is now I understand why some patients are neglected, your story really opens my eyes because some workers don't want to handle violent patients, especially not alone, I don't blame them because neither would I. Being a survivor of childhood abuse, I know the abuse cycle all too well. Therefore, you can bet your bottom line that this same patient has probably hit others before, even residents. I know all too well when someone's violent, there are other victims, and the abuse won't stop. This patient needs to be moved to another facility that actually handles this type of person and surrounded by staff who are specifically trained in this area.
Yep, I definitely see the red flags just from your description, I can see right through everything in this place definitely needs to be shut down
Buffy, look for another job.