I work in the health-care field and have for years. If I can cough up an extra $25,000 I'm going to get one of those Visiting Angels franchises. I did get fired one time at a nursing home. All I can say is: stay out of nursing homes. They're dangerous. I was a CNA - Certified Nursing Aide. The two others on the hall went gone, exceeding their break, which they took at the same time. The nurse was outside smoking cigarettes. Everything suddenly went haywire. One Alzheimer's patient started yelling he was going to crap his pants. I got hmi in the bathroom, then I heard a fight break out in another room. I ran in there and found another Alzheimer's patient cursing his visiting wife and trying to hit her. She is frail and a fall risk. If you break your hip when you're elderly that is often a death warrant. After I got the fight stopped I heard an alarm go off. I recognized it and knew the guy is a fall risk. He has three alarms and I found him out of bed tottering toward his wheelchair. I got him in and locked his seatbelt and pushed him in the hall. Then I went back into the bathroom, where I knew the guy was not a fall risk. Turns out the nurse was not outside on the four cigarette breaks she takes every shift. She and I never got along. She stomps into the bathroom and asks me if I left the guy alone in the bathroom, which is a violation of company policy. I told her I was alone on the hall, the two other CNAs were exceeding their break, and that I did not appreciate her being outside half the time smoking cigarttes. I told her there had been four falls in the last ten days, one broken hip, one bump on the head (and her daughters curse everyone and threatened lawsuits), and two not hurt. I told her I had never had a fall, had never had a skin tears (old people's skin is like tissue paper, and some of those black girl CNAs toss those people around and tear their skin all the time), so the policy is stupid.
The next day I got fired for leaving a guy alone in the bathroom. I was told the fact I might have prevented two falls was not my responsibility. If they had fallen and broken bones or gotten killed, not my business.
Now I go to people's houses to help them. As I said, once I can get the $25,000 I'm opening a franchise.
You don't want your parents in nursing home. Go visit one sometims.
One woman who stayed in my mind was bed-ridden with a hip fracture. She was too old for it to be treated. All she said was "Help me, help me" and begged me to not leave. She was on hospice (six months or less) and they did not treat her pain sufficently. She told me once, "I hate this place."
Imagine being confined to bed for six months with an untreated hip fracture, in pain all the time, and you're not going to leave until you die.
The way we treat elder people in this country. It's a disgrace. We kept our grandmother at home until she died.