Coronavirus

[BoSoxGal]

PCAs and nurses aides are trained on infectious disease protocols and when provided PPE are perfectly able and conscientious about using it. It’s disgusting to insinuate that they, who for the greatest part lovingly care for the elders and infirm in their care, are the cause of covid19 devastation in nursing care facilities - which have ALWAYS been vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks.

[Guinevere]

That’s not at all what I wrote. I fully appreciate and respect the work PCAs and aides do - but they are not nurses and it is the lack of skilled nursing care I was commenting on, as well as the overall lack of staff. Even the most dedicated are stretched thin. Early intervention by medical professionals like nurses, and more eyes and morw frequent eyes on any resident may have made a difference in separating residents and increasing the level and intensity of care, so as to save their lives.

Please go back to ignoring me, if you’re going to continue to twist what I write into things that you then decide to use be outraged at me.

[RayThom]

Had I not already had my ADA compliant apartment to come home to, Presby would have discharged me to a regional rehab facility stocked with PCAs just as the COVID pandemic started to rage.

God only knows how many virus vulnerable old folks I'd have been surrounded by. Another health complication I did not need.

And life is good.

[Bicycle Bill]

-"BB"-

[Darren]

I've been through two nursing homes. One looked like a really nice hotel the other was a hodge podge of building that was a nightmare even though it was sprinklered including the attic. The hodge podge was a warehouse for the elderly. They've always had help wanted signs out front.

Doc worked there for a very short time always as the only RN on duty during her shift. It was dirty and there was an extreme lack of care for the patients. And yes a complaint was filed with the state which came to naught.

I have no doubt nursing home residents are dying en mass.

[Darren]

I've been through two nursing homes. One looked like a really nice hotel the other was a hodge podge of a building that was a nightmare even though it was sprinklered including the attic. The hodge podge was a warehouse for the elderly. They've always had help wanted signs out front.

Doc worked there for a very short time always as the only RN on duty during her shift. It was dirty and there was an extreme lack of care for the patients. And yes a complaint was filed with the state which came to naught.

I have no doubt nursing home residents are dying en mass.

[BoSoxGal]

I’ve worked as a PCA in several nursing homes and assisted living facilities here in eastern Massachusetts, from Wellesley to Taunton to Cape Cod - all of them were clean, well run facilities with excellent staff who for the most part cared deeply for the residents. While there are occasional bad eggs, the biggest difference I’ve noticed in nursing is that most folks drawn to it are caring and compassionate - while in the law I noticed most were egotistical assholes.

There is no model of healthcare system that can function with only RNs, who actually spend most of their time pushing paper; it’s the PCAs, CNAs, LPNs et al. who do the dirtiest and most difficult labor of patient care from hospitals to nursing homes to assisted living to home care - and they ARE skilled, any suggestion that they’re not is just ignorant.

In Massachusetts as I’m sure is true in many other states, a PCA can administer medications and provide high level care such as ventilator/trach care, feeding tube care, catheter and oestomy care, etc. in the home care setting. Some facilities may have different rules about who does what because of their liability issues, but it doesn’t mean lower level nurses aren’t capable or trained to provide that care. About the only nursing care that we can’t do by law is administering IV meds/starting IVs.

Nursing care facilities are at high risk for infectious disease outbreaks JUST AS HOSPITALS ARE - because they are large facilities where numerous vulnerable people with health issues reside together, often eating communally, and being cared for by staff who must by design move from room to room working on various patients and who are coming into the building after going out into the world to their families, to the community, sometimes to second jobs.

This virus is hitting care homes hard all over the planet and it’s not because the nursing staff at any level are dirty or unskilled - if anything it’s because PPE was not provided and the management staff - which includes the ‘skilled’ RNs who are the nurse managers - didn’t institute measures immediately to lock down facilities from visiting, deliveries and other means where virus could enter - and again didn’t expend the resources to provide the kind of PPE that might’ve protected the patients from all levels of caregivers who were asymptomatic carriers. That PPE wasn’t even available in large enough quantity to protect all the medical staff in hospital ICUs, however, so I’m not sure how much the facilities can actually be blamed.

There are certainly some nursing homes that are outdated and underfunded and all across America there is a crisis in hospitals and all levels of care facilities with regard to patient/nurse ratios, that’s one reason I choose to work home care and I know many RNs who do as well - you don’t get forced to work overtime and put in a position where you have such a high patient load that all you can do is the basic care without having time to engage in enriching and meaningful communication with your patients. But that’s not really why covid19 is hitting these facilities so hard - it’s for the same reason that doctors and nursing staff at all levels are catching covid19 from their patients in hospitals. It’s dangerous to work in healthcare facilities when infectious disease is present - every year we go through periods during flu season when everyone on staff is masked to protect the patients from transmission.

I don’t know a lot about the Soldier’s Home in Holyoke Massachusetts where the largest cluster of deaths (83) has occurred, but it certainly sounds like the issues are linked to staffing shortages and management decisions that to some degree were forced by those shortages. Why do the shortages happen? Because the pay is often shit and the conditions can be terrible due to the aforementioned nursing staff/patient ratio and forced overtime, so it’s hard to get help. This isn’t the fault of the caregivers, it’s the fault of the owners/investors at private facilities and elected officials at government facilities, none of whom want to put the money into patient care - for different reasons.

It’s tragic.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcbos ... 282/%3Famp

[Jarlaxle]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pandemic ... ZBMVGVVGOo

See sig.

[MajGenl.Meade]

What a pile of horse dung

From the linked article:

On April 20, University of Washington (Institute of Health Metrics) Professor Ali Mokdad said, “The United States is already past the “peak” in terms of daily covid-19-related deaths.” The IMHE modelers recently revised projected coronavirus-related deaths sharply downward, estimating 60,300 coronavirus-related deaths by early August

IMHE must be a bunch of tossers. 67,448 dead thus far. Why should anyone pay attention to the same people making projections about suicide?

[Guinevere]

Meade - exactly. Massachusetts is just passing through its peak of positive cases, and peak of deaths is now starting to roll through, sadly.

The Chiefs I work with have reported a drop in calls for service, including OD calls.

[TPFKA@W]

I wish I worked in magical Massachusetts. Poor Indiana RN's who work in LTC settings get paired with QMA's who cannot do anything but pass pills. One long summer I had to work 2 halls with a Q. I had to do all her insulins, all the tube meds, all the skilled dressing changes, hang all the IVs (that was the summer of wound vac hell), take all the phone calls, make all the oncall calls all the admissions, all of the "paper pushing". I lost 30 lbs that summer while not on a diet because I never got lunch. I never had time to pee and would only go when it was either that or pee my pants.

I laugh at people and am truly amused by anyone who has dipped their toes in healthcare and believes they are taking a swim. Keep those laughs coming.

[Darren]

duplicate

[Lord Jim]

Here's the way a real President sounds at a moment of national challenge like this:



Well said, Mr. President.

And what was the POS-I-C's reaction to this eloquent, hopeful, empathetic, and unifying message?

Why, he issued a self-pitying attack against Bush of course:

Trump Berates George W. Bush for Calling for Unity During the Coronavirus

On Saturday, former president George W. Bush released a video calling for national unity during a pandemic that has killed at least 67,000 Americans. “Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat,” Bush said, over shots of people bonding between a pane of glass and providing for the elderly. “We are not partisan combatants, we are human beings … we rise and fall together, and we are determined to rise.”

But calls for unity contradict President Trump’s electoral message. Though the video did not mention the president by name and steered clear of controversies like reopening protests, the president found an opportunity to attack his predecessor for his call of national healing. Citing a comment from Fox News’ Pete Hegseth wondering why Bush did not call for an end to partisanship during the impeachment process, Trump tweeted:

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump

.@PeteHegseth “Oh bye the way, I appreciate the message from former President Bush, but where was he during Impeachment calling for putting partisanship aside.” @foxandfriends He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history!
116K
4:42 AM - May 3, 2020

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/05 ... unity.html

Anyone who continues to support this incompetent, murderous scumbag, who clearly doesn't give one tiny shit about the American people, should be deeply, deeply, ashamed...

Honestly, I have no idea how you are able to look at yourself in the mirror in the morning...

[Crackpot]

What Trump doesn’t understand is Bush probably did him a favor by not issuing a call to put partisanship aside during the impeachment.

[Burning Petard]

"There is no model of healthcare system that can function with only RNs, who actually spend most of their time pushing paper; " That was not always the case. i have a SiL who retired a couple of years ago after 32 year as an RN, about 2/3rds of that in pediatrics. She says she became an administrator(manager and paper pusher) after the church which had owned and operated the hospital for about 70 years, sold it to a for-profit corporation.

Just when did the model of healthcare systems in USofA reach a consensus that sick people should be a profit center?

snailgate.778

[BoSoxGal]

I'm not arguing that the for profit model of healthcare is ideal, but even in a not-for-profit, it isn't possible to use RNs for all the nursing care that patients require. Just as you don't have doctors emptying bedpans and doing bed baths and helping patients dress and eat and get back and forth to the bathroom where applicable, you hardly ever see an RN doing such tasks in healthcare facilities. It is PCAs, CNAs, LPNs, et al. who perform those essential basic care tasks that are the most time consuming. That is how it has been for decades, since my aunt was an LPN in the 70s - well before the advent of the savagery of today's for profit healthcare model.

Again the insinuation that PCAs, CNAs, LPNs et al. are somehow not competent to do this care and that somehow care is lesser under such a model is really insulting to those healthcare workers.

[Lord Jim]

What Trump doesn’t understand is Bush probably did him a favor by not issuing a call to put partisanship aside during the impeachment.

Good point...

It was pure partisanship that saved his ass from being removed from office...

[Econoline]

[ex-khobar Andy]

What Trump doesn’t understand is Bush probably did him a favor by not issuing a call to put partisanship aside during the impeachment.

Thirded or fourthed - I've lost count. But yes, yes, yes.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I watched the video of Bush which LJ posted. During those years, I had no problem calling Bush a moron or probably worse, but I had no idea what history had lying in wait for us.