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…which necessitates my seeing the loafers in person after that. If you are not going to do your job—get out of this industry. #2. I grieved the loss of my mother long ago when she chose her son/my brother over all others; I had to re-parent and nurture myself. So, I don’t need her now nor do I feel close to her.



I do feel fortunate in that I believe the facility she is in, is a good one. It is clean, absent of odor and I have never seen neglect like the nursing home horror stories we have all heard. I just hate constantly staying on them about, why is her head greasy, why is she still in bed, are you seeing to it that her teeth are brushed, she has clothing—why is she in a hospital gown, etc. I feel like a parent and a boss rolled into one. It is just easier to not visit often. I am her Power of Atty and I do A LOT of stuff others are not aware of.

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“….get out of this industry…”.

A sensible, functional admonition. I’m sure there are at least 10 applicants at a really high level of competence just waiting to fill each of those slots, hurrying to empty the bedpans at minimum wage.

Oh, wait……
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If you feel she's in a nice clean facility, why do you feel the need to micromanage the workers and call them loafers?
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Miss Pearl, have you called the admins where your mom is, and ararnged a care conference where you can present them with a list of concerns that you have regarding your Mom's care?

Have they had such a conference with you? And how did it go?
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Based on my mother’s years in a NH, I’d bet the emails are only a minor annoyance to the person receiving them and aren’t effective at all in any real or lasting change. My mother received good care, with kindness and compassion, but I have no illusions that all was perfect. The workers are chronically short staffed and the work itself is often hard, physical labor. There’s a high incidence of injury among CNA’s. What every resident in every kind of managed care setting needs is regular visits from people who will advocate and ensure their care is good. This doesn’t happen by criticism, though that’s sometimes warranted, but more often by kindness to the staff and showing them that the resident is a person who is cared for and valued. It rubs off on them to care more also, and taking some doughnuts or cookies or a basket of anything nice occasionally never hurts. Everyone likes feeling appreciated
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There are many hours in the day. You are not able to cover them all.

Try to relax, mom can refuse any care that is offered and staff must respect her decision even if she is incapacitated.
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Is "mom" in a "nursing home aka Skilled Nursing facility or is she in Assisted Living or Memory Care?
Since you have no info in your profile as to what level of needs your mom has some answers might be different.
In the State of Illinois the requirement is that a person be showered 2 times a week. Check your State to determine what the minimum requirement is.
Now a CNA can not "force" a person to shower.
They can not "force" a person to get up out of bed nor can they "force" a person to get dressed.
They can not "force" a person to eat, to join the rest of the residents.
Many staff have ways to get someone to get up, get a shower, get dressed but they may have to leave 1 resistant person and get back to them later.

Rather than emailing and coming off as "*itchy" when you do visit greet the staff, thank them for the care they are giving to all the residents. Smile, say good morning or good afternoon. Say good bye when you leave.
As my Grandma used to say..you catch more flies with honey then vinegar.
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Are Happygo50 and Misspearl the same person?
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lealonnie1 Apr 2023
Sure seems to be A LOT of people on a.c. posting under LOTS of different screen names these days. No rules = chaos folks.
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My DD is an RN and when my Mom started in care I was told to pick my battles. Mom will never be taken care of like you would have. Like said, she may have refused a shower, getting out of bed and dressing. By law, she can't be forced. There is a shortage of CNAs so they must move on to other residents. I will tell you, the sqeaky wheel does not always get the grease. Sometimes aides just ignore a family member who does nothing but complain. They don't get paid enough. Find out what an aide on day shift has to do in the morning. Go with your complaints to the DON.
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You may need to meet with the social worker and the nursing director to voice your concerns. Some nursing homes have a beauty shop or a person that comes in regularly to provide some salon services such as hair care, ask the social worker about this service. Another time in which you can voice your concerns is at a care plan meeting.
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JoAnn29 Apr 2023
Not at my care meeting. They talked. Not enough time for my qyestions, 15 min.
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In my experience I HAVE found the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Sad is that way, but it just is

When my dad was in care a few years back I was there quite a bit to keep an eye on the care but also to let them know I may show up at any time,

Unfortunately, in a way, I think my dad did get a bit better attention that way, but just the way I found it. Yes, because of that maybe others received less care, though to be honest I tried to keep an eye on other patients in the hall too and tried to make sure they got help. And YES, I know this is not the norm, but much of the time I found aids at the end of a hall playing on their devices. Min wage or not, that is not acceptable and I blame the management for not keeping an eye on that.

The whole industry is a mess. Just finished an old John Grisham book, Camino Winds, that reminded me of the abuse in this industry. Not that the abuse is like that in the Grisham book, but it reminded me of the issues.
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Daughterof1930 Apr 2023
We very much found that our family showing up often and at varied times made a big difference. And I should have added a caveat to my reply—I’m very aware that when my mother was in NH, not everyone had a cell phone attached to them all the time. That in itself has made a huge impact in how well people stay on task with their jobs in all manner of industries. We’ve truly become slaves to staring at a phone, and the impact to others is significant and sad
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