Do You Know What A Bad Nursing Home Looks Like?

Do you think you can judge a nursing home by its cover? Sometimes you can, but usually you have to look much deeper.

Today as I was writing an article on signs of a bad nursing home, it brought to mind a bunch of memories about things I saw while working in a long-term care facility. The type of things that really made you uncomfortable.

The scary part? The worst nursing home I was ever in didn't look bad at all. In fact, it looked perfect. This is why it is VERY important to be careful when choosing a nursing home for your loved one. This post tells about the not-so perfect nursing home, and will give you some ideas on warning signs:

This was when I was doing clinical rounds for nursing school. Everyone had to start out by gaining their CNA certification, which meant they took all the students to the nursing home and dumped them off without any guidance other than a "be helpful and learn." 

This place was clean. It smelled nice. The first thing you saw when you walked in was a group of happy people playing games and doing stretches. 

Then it came time to help with the showers. We were supposed to accompany aides to all of these tasks. Our aide wasn't happy about the company. We soon learned why. 

She finally succeeded in wrangling a screaming resident into a shower chair and wheeled her to the shower room. 

" I don't want a shower!" the woman screamed. "Don't make me take one!" 

"She has dementia." the aide said. 

The shower "room" was a narrow closet. It had room to wheel the chair in, but not to turn it around. Residents were undressed in their rooms and draped with a huge cape before being transported. We all four squeezed in, barely able to move. The aide took the shower head off and turned on the water. 

After a few seconds of adjusting the temperature, she stated "Sorry, ma'am, that's as warm as its going to get today." then proceeded to give the screaming resident a cold shower. The facility had such a limited hot water supply that if anyone was using the whirlpool tubs, the showers were left with cold water only. But the aides had to give the showers. 

We realized then that she wasn't unhappy with our company. She was unhappy with her job. She made it as quick as possible, then toweled the lady off. By this time, we were ankle deep in dirty water from the backed up drains. Yes...residents poop in the shower. And that goes down the drain (hopefully). 

As soon as we were out, the janitor ran in, worked on the drain and spritzed the stall with disinfectant before the next soul went in. We didn't see any more, we were called to help with meals. 

In the dining room, there were groans of dissatisfaction as plates of brown gloop were set out. Of course, some residents are on pureed diets, but these plates all looked the same. They had some chunky brown goo, a piece of dry cornbread, and some sort of vegetable. The menu called it fried okra. I think that was stretching the imagination. 

"We had this for lunch." a man complained. 

"And dinner last night." A woman added, pouring salt in the "beans". 

" I like beans!" someone replied cheerfully. 

"Well I wish we could have chicken every now and then." 

"Or maybe a hamburger." 

The grumbles about the food went on as residents poked at their food, and we tried to spoon feed cold bean paste to the stroke patients. If you just looked around, what you saw was about fifty people at the tables. The residents were clean, combed and perfumed. There were bouquets on every table, staff members rushed here and there making sure glasses were re-filled and everyone had their little butter servings opened. 

There was no way to know that earlier these people had been forced into cold showers (except the lucky few who received baths). That the nurses had walked down the halls and yelled at the aides to just leave the residents in soiled underpants and hurry UP and get them to the TABLE. They were behind SCHEDULE. 

There was no way to know that the super sweet smell of potpourri was from the nurses spraying cans of air freshener up and down the halls, in the rooms and around the residents, to blot out the odor of unchanged diapers and old food. 

"Hurry up and clean those plates." a woman in a suit appeared in the dining room. We have the minister coming in a few minutes. You need to be in the rec room. She tapped her watch for emphasis then snagged an aide who was starting to wheel people out of the dining room. 

"Get the students to help get them all changed. Make sure the troublemakers are in their rooms when they get here. And we need all those trays back in the kitchen before the cooks go home today." 

Aides jumped to rush residents to their rooms. Everyone was stripped and changed. Skin ointment was applied to too many ulcers to count. The "well-behaved" people were taken back out to the rec room. 

Our teacher appeared from wherever she had been hiding and said it was time to go. We were a much quieter crowd as we left. Many of the students dropped out within the next couple of days. Others went on to pursue their dreams of being nurse practitioners or ER nurses. 

Me, I just knew that for the rest of my life, even if I didn't work on the floor,  I wanted to help the elderly and the mentally disabled. I hope posts like this can help family members to understand that just because something looks perfect on the outside, it can still be rotten at the core. 

At the same time, I believe in advocating for care providers. Because I know that not all seniors are easy to care for. Whether caregivers are family members at home, or aides on the floor being forced to do things they don't agree with, they all deserve respect from the community. 

Whether you plan to work at a nursing home or place your loved one there...I suggest you research everything you can about the facility first. Talk to people. Visit the place. Look deep into all the nooks and crannies. Because a bad facility is bad news, no matter which side hall you are on.