Governmental hoop jumping........................................

I don't know about where you live, but in my state it seems like the more that big corporations figure out how to get around things the more ways the government finds to control us small business owners. Let me talk about what I know, senior living.

A couple of days ago I got a letter in the mail stating that they had passed some new something or other (I honestly didn't understand what they were talking about, but I have learned that there will be a constant flow of paperwork to follow that will eventually get around to explaining things so I didn't worry too much about my lack of understanding) and they had set up a (as in one) manditory training date that I would need to attend.

I am really okay about the need to regulate my business, but what they fail to understand is it is not always easy to just drop everything for a day and run to a training. They forget that some of us are running these businesses by ourselves and it is easier said than done to get someone to fill in so we can learn this valuable information that will be repeated ad nauseum in that trail of paperwork that I was mentioning above. I REALLY am smart enough to be able to figure out and apply any new rules that are passed regarding my business. Honest!

Big corps have actual positions that do nothing but attend meetings all day long (gosh I would hate that job!) so this training is no big deal to them. When they have their trickle down and in-service all the staff, again management will not suffer. Who will suffer is the one staff member that is left on the floor to answer all the call lights and the residents who will not be able to get to the bathroom in time because every body but one staff member is in a stupid in-service meeting. This brings me to my real beef about the current system.

The big thing in my state lately has been the Governer passing this law requiring all people that work with seniors to be finger printed. This is her idea of assuring quaility care in nursing home and other establishments. Do I have a problem with fingerprinting? Since I don't plan on commiting any crimes in the near future, not at all. What I do mind is the Governer thinking that this is actually a solution to elder abuse. It might be a start, but no way does it assure quality care. Take this example below, told to me by a Hospice nurse:

One of her patients (living at "one of the nicer" nursing homes in the area) was in the end stages of dying, and obviously bed bound. She had morphine orders PRN (which means whenever she ask for it). When the nurse went to visit her, she was moaning in pain. The nurse went to find the staff nurse and ask why she had not been giving any morphine to control her pain. The staff nurse replied, 'Well she didn't ask for any, and I can't be running down there to check on her to see if she needs it." I am sure this staff nurse passed the finger print test with flying colors, but in my opinion she was abusing this lady by causing her needless suffering.

And did you know that in a nursing home staff ratio is something like six (or ten, or whatever) to one resident, but all of the people that are employed count in that ratio? What this means is that there can be one person on the floor providing direct care to twenty or more residents while the director of nursing, the social worker, and the dietician are sitting in their offices doing paper work and the nursing home is in total compliance. How can any legislator think that this is anything but elder abuse? But hey! We know that they don't have a criminal record so we are not going to bother to look at what really needs to be changed.

I looked, AND I changed what needed to be changed in my small little corner of the world. Unfortunately, because I am not a big corportation, I get no governmental assistance to provide the best possible care in the world, while the nursing homes get five grand a month to provide sub-standard care at best, by people that are already stressed by life in general, and yet get very little of the five grand per resident they care for. I also drop everything and figure out a way to get to whatever training the government wants me to go to so I can continue to provide quaility care to as many people as possible, why the big corps continue to spend lots of money on lobbying and other endevors to keep the rules and regulations tipped in their favor. What is wrong with that picture?

So, as 2006 draws to a close, pray that 2007 will be the year that our legislators catch on to what our seniors that can not speak up for themselves really need. Fingerprint as many people as you want to, but look deeper into what really needs to happen to a system that has failed so many in the past, and will continue to fail many in the future if someone in power doesn't open their eyes to what is really going on. Thanks for letting me vent!