Select The Right Nursing Home

Entrusting the care of a family member to a nursing facility is a difficult decision. After you have narrowed down your choices and visited each facility, you may still have doubts. A common concern is selecting a facility with adequate staffing to properly care for your loved one.

Understaffing and frequent staff turnover has plagued the nursing home industry for many years. Insufficient staffing is not only a disruption and hindrance to the resident's daily routine, but can also result in impoper care and treatment such as failing to turn and reposition patients to prevent skin breakdown or failing to provide assistance during mealtimes.

How can you tell if a nursing home has sufficient staff? First, be aware of the medical staff that should be available to each patient during their residency in a skilled nursing facility. Nursing home residents can receive care from a variety of medical staff in addition to their primary care physician. Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Certified Nursing Assistants, Medical Technicians, and in some cases, Feeding Assistants, are caretakers who are available to skilled nursing facility residents. Many facilities have nursing staff that specialize in restorative care or wound care. Find out about the staff that will be available to care for your family member.

In addition, careful observation during your visits to the facility can help you to determine whether there is an adequate level of staffing. How many nurses and Certified Nursing Assistants do you see during your visit and what are they doing? Are the residents' requests for assistance answered in a timely manner? Visiting the facility at varying times of the day can help you to have a more accurate picture of the staff available to care for your family member.

Finally, ask questions about the staffing levels and staff turnover rates within the facility you are considering. Once you have admitted your loved one to a skilled nursing facility, be sure to visit them frequently and speak with the facility's Administrator or Director of Nursing if you notice any areas of concern.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") provides information to the public on the average staffing hours for a nursing home facility located in the State of North Carolina. According to CMS, in a facility with 98 residents, a Registered Nurse would average 36 minutes with each resident per day; a Licensed Practical Nurse would spend 48 minutes per day; a Certified Nursing Assistant would spend an average of 2 1/4 hours per day. Be aware of the time that the staff is spending with your family member. For example, standard nursing practice requires that a resident who is immobile and totally dependent upon the nursing staff for care, should be turned and repositioned at least every two hours to prevent the development of pressure ulcers.

Understaffing may continue to be a problem for the nursing home industry. Nevertheless, by being conscious of this issue and by being actively involved in the care your loved one receives, you may lessen the consequences of staff shortages in the nursing facility you have selected.