The Truth About Nursing Homes from a Tired Old Nurse

For over 25 years I have worked as a nurse in nursing homes, hospitals and clinics. I have so many things to tell you that my fingers cannot keep up with my thoughts, and I keep having to re-write everything.

My W-2 for the nursing home I last worked at listed “Financial Investments Group” as my employer. There is a very large group of humans profiting off of geriatrics and disabilities. It is time to open up the dialogue about this scam. Lives are literally being tossed into human dog pounds.

The first thing I would like to bring to your attention, is the disgusting, and shocking world of privately owned nursing homes. If you have ever visited a nursing home, you have basically seen them all. Bricks that have been painted over at least 3 dozen times. Hard cement floors, a few recliners and an old sofa by the constant yammering of the television. Keep walking down the hallway and you will hear the ding of the call lights, and you will smell the piss. It is always there. Even when everything is sparkling clean, you smell it. It has seeped into the walls.

If you have ever considered admitting your loved one into a nursing home, you were probably met at the door by the administrator and walked around the best parts of the nursing home. They will show you the kitchen (Your mom can have anything she wants to eat at any time she chooses). If you are paying privately, they will show you their best empty room. Chances are that they have even painted it in a gender specific color, hoping your mom would like it. Every employee has already seen the administrator do her circus act a hundred times. A nursing home administrator is simply a glamorized car salesman.

Patients are only seen in terms of money.

One nursing home I worked at had signs taped above every phone:

“If a family calls, get their information and call the Administrator. You receive a bonus $100 for the lead.”

According to Genworth’s Cost of Care Survey*, a private room in a nursing home costs $290 per day, or $8,821 per month. Semi-private rooms are more affordable, though they average $255 per day, or $7,756 per month.

If a nursing home resident worked and saved up their entire lives to own a home and land, they probably have ‘too much’ money to be covered by Medicare/Medicaid and are considered ‘private pay’. Administrators love private pay patients. They pay significantly more than Medicare does, therefore more money for their pockets. Can we look at the cost again? Approximately $8000 a MONTH.

What does 8 grand get mom? If she is on Medicare/Medicaid, she will more than likely spend her time in a tiny room with another Medicare patient in a bed on the other side of the room. 9 out of 10 bathrooms are tiny, with no bath or shower, paint being the only thing that changes. During the day, (when you are probably visiting) the facility is busy with the administrator making sure that her bills are paid, the Director of nursing, the assistant director, the charge nurse and the CNA’s will be bustling about. The charge nurse will be passing meds, doing treatments and dressing changes, making Drs appointments, assisting with care and charting each and every thing that she does all day long. It looks like there is plenty of staff to give great care!

I understand that caring for someone at home is hard. I am the last to judge. It’s exhausting and it will wear you down in ways that you never thought possible. Both physically and mentally. Being a caretaker for anyone is the most difficult, selfless things that can ever be done. Sometimes caring for your loved one is exactly like caring for a newborn. You are angry and tired and your back hurts and you have no help. Sometimes the day comes that you realize that you just cannot do it alone. Situations call for your loved one being cared for elsewhere. Please, though, for the love of God, please find a welcoming final home instead of a privately owned facility. Essentially, the main purpose of a privately owned nursing home is to PROFIT. It is not to give great care, or to enrich the experience of a life well lived. It is not to provide pain management or give superb medical treatment. It is to squeeze the last bit of money out of a human before they die.

I have watched many a farmer lose his entire farm and all of his belongings because they were in the nursing home so long that it took their life savings. I’ve seen the pain in an elderly couples’ eyes, because they had to legally divorce to be able to pay for their nursing home stay. Entire trusts are wiped out while families are left in shock.

I know that not all for-profit nursing homes are awful. However, I have seen firsthand how profit comes before care in most cases. Visit the care facility that you are considering putting your loved on into. Go after 5pm. Speak with the nurse, speak with the CNA’s and if possible, speak with the other residents.

Many nurses work at private facilities because they pay better wages. The average starting wage for Licensed Practical Nurses is $20/hr. While it does usually pay more per hour, you know going to work at a nursing home that you will be over-worked and under-staffed. You’ll be given complete responsibility of everyone inside of the building, yet you will receive no appreciation, no empathy, no mental health assistance and you will do this all without being able to speak a word about it to anyone else.

On top of staff being under-paid and over-worked, COVID has ravaged a lot of long-term care facilities. I have witnessed nursing home staff having to buy their own PPE because the nursing home administrator stated that they could not afford it. The nursing home could not budget for gowns and masks to keep the nurses and the staff safe. I witnessed the same administrator telling staff how disappointed they were because they couldn’t go on vacation when COVID was killing their residents almost daily.

The government handed over BIG money for nursing homes for COVID relief. I hope you have the opportunity to ask a nurse if they have seen even a dollar of Covid relief go to nursing or resident needs.

Why aren’t these things being discussed? As a single mother working as a nurse, I was always under the complete understanding that I could not stir the pot, or I would most certainly be terminated. Nurses strictly follow HIPPA and do not discuss patients or work environment to anyone.

If they were given a safe platform to safely discuss workplace environment and the problems they face every day, it would be a complete game changer.

Most nurses aren’t offered any type of coping strategies or tools for the anxiety they face daily. Nurses have been the only hand to hold while our friends and family were dying.

Any night nurse can attest to working with only one CNA on the floor, and most of the time the aid has already worked the day shift. Burnout is rampant, staff are physically and emotionally drained. Tolerating a sub-par administration, no help, and a hostile work environment have become the norm for as long as private pay nursing homes have been around.

I have witnessed so many things while nursing that I suppose I became numb to the constant neglect and awful treatment of nurses. It is a harsh realization that I will probably never go back to my chosen life-long profession. I have chosen instead, to be the voice of all of the nurses who are both legally not allowed to talk about their jobs and who are afraid to lose their jobs if they do.

The nurses do care. They do give the very best that they have, and many times they love each resident just like family. The daily treatment of staff and of residents by admin and owners, should absolutely be exposed. The silk curtain should be pulled back in the most dramatic fashion. You all should see what is really going on.

I know so many of my friends and past co-workers WANT to tell you the truth. We want you to visit first when no one is around. Research the facility, the owner (or investment company), and speak with other residents and family members. You do have options, and you do not have to settle for placing mom in a pink brick room.

In 25 years, I never once even saw the owners of the nursing homes I worked in. The facilities are ran just like any business, only instead of a product, it is your family member and you are the customer.

It is so freeing to finally be able to talk about something that I have been living in for so many years and it is a true honor to speak for all of the nurses who are right in the middle of it.

If I have helped you to more clearly see and evaluate the surroundings instead of assuming everything was on the up and up, then I have accomplished my mission.

Our elderly are treasures. They deserve peace, laughter and love in the last chapter of their lives. The geriatric community should be treated with respect and with revere. Behind the wrinkled eyes is a wealth of knowledge and a wisdom. It we can make a better life for the geriatric community at the end stages of their lives, maybe it will be just as nice for us when it is our turn.

• Source: https://www.genworth.com/aging-and-you/finances/cost-of-care.html