How To Start Working With A Patient

The Patient's Bill of Rights is necessary because they live there and need to be treated in a standardized way.

The Patient's Bill of Rights are state and federal laws created in 1973 by the American Hospital Administration AHA. Incident Report is filled out with the accidents in a healthcare facility. This is any accident that affects patients, visitors or employees.

Resident's Bill of Rights was created to meet federal regulations for long term care facilities. There must be written policies to protect the rights of the resident. This is just a list of the rights and freedoms of residents in a long term care facility.

This is why C.N.A.'s need to be certified because in a nursing home there is less professional staff and more patient abuse. Unfortunately, there is always abuse so the federal guidelines in 1978 made it so C.N.A.'s have a standard care and practice plan.

Advance directives are legal forms that allow adults to decide if they want to be do not resuscitate patients or not. They need to know if they want to be kept alive by machines like respirators or just die naturally as a D.N.R.
The Patient's Bill of Rights is necessary because they live there and need to be treated in a standardized way.

The Patient's Bill of Rights are state and federal laws created in 1973 by the American Hospital Administration AHA. Incident Report is filled out with the accidents in a healthcare facility. This is any accident that affects patients, visitors or employees.

Resident's Bill of Rights was created to meet federal regulations for long term care facilities. There must be written policies to protect the rights of the resident. This is just a list of the rights and freedoms of residents in a long term care facility.

This is why C.N.A.'s need to be certified because in a nursing home there is less professional staff and more patient abuse. Unfortunately, there is always abuse so the federal guidelines in 1978 made it so C.N.A.'s have a standard care and practice plan.

Advance directives are legal forms that allow adults to decide if they want to be do not resuscitate patients or not. They need to know if they want to be kept alive by machines like respirators or just die naturally as a D.N.R.

The Ombudsman Committee shows up to protect patient's rights in a nursing home. When restraints are put on a patient it is dangerous for the patient as most patients get injured or die. Also keep in mind that elderly patients are very thin skinned and tear easily.

Another example of a clear line of Nursing duty is medicine administration. If they put medicine in applesauce the nurse still has to feed it. The nurse gives out the medicine, not the certified nursing assistant.

There are two ways to look at a patient: subjective and objective. Read on for how to know the difference.

Subjective is when someone tells you something. For example, someone tells you they fell off a chair.
Objective is when you observe something as you can think of the "O" as looking. This is something that you can see with your eyes.

Look at the patient. Does the patient look sad? Is everything symmetrical on the patient? Does the patient look pink? Is something wrong with the patient?

This article focuses on some of the signs of abuse.

Look for bruises at the face, hands, arms, legs, genitals, buttocks and back of the patient. Look at the shape of the injury does it resemble a known item like an iron or a rod. Look out for cigarette burns and blister burns from rope. This is when people have been tied up at the wrists or the ankle.

The first stage of a bruise is it's purple for the first 1-5 days. The second stage of a bruise is it's green. The third stage of a bruise is it's yellow. Children's behavior is sometimes an indicator of abuse. If you see a child with fearful behavior, aggressive behavior, or demanding behavior be suspicious.
There are also indications from the parents that abuse is going on such as the parents are unable to explain why their child is injured or they change doctors or change hospitals a lot. When sexual abuse is involved be on the lookout for torn or blood stained clothing. If the child has a fear of going home or there are sexual references for that child be suspicious. Violence is an act carried out with the intention of physically hurting another person.

Abuse usually starts over disputes about relationships, property and money. Abuse includes pushing, shoving, hitting, tripping, biting, choking, using a weapon or referring or speaking about violence. Elder abuse includes medical neglect when the family won't take an older person to the doctor, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and financial abuse such as a widow with money and a relative controls all of her assets.

Report abuse by talking with your supervisor or contact the health care team or discuss the case with your social worker. As a certified nurses aide you are a mandated reporter meaning that it's not your responsibility to prove the case but to report it. Try to recognize the causes of anger and utilize resources like peer counseling for that person.

It is a Class A Misdemeanor for failure to report and also civil liabilities as well. If you suspected abuse and the nurse did nothing about it go to the Social Services Department. Also you could ask if there is a team at the medical facility that is prepared for all that kind of stuff? Say I told a nurse about it and she said there was nothing to be done about that. Was I all right? Did I do the right thing? This way you have covered yourself. Look for bruises at the face, hands, arms, legs, genitals, buttocks and back of the patient. Look at the shape of the injury does it resemble a known item like an iron or a rod. Look out for cigarette burns and blister burns from rope. This is when people have been tied up at the wrists or the ankle.