I was working in a Nursing home in Indiana from Aug 2020 to Oct 2021. I was hired into a management position, Customer care coordinator. I had no previous healthcare experience, just a lot of years in customer service and mid management. I was hired in at the salary of 52,000 a year. My previous job had collapsed due to the pandemic and This kind of income in 2020 for a degree less single mom is hard to come by in my area, and def contributed to the ignoring and excusing of on my part. My primary responsibility was as the grievance officer. I was also responsible for the facilitation of a customer care program, new admission responsibilities as well as D/c tasks. I’m very good with people so I was quickly saddled with employee moral responsibilities as well. Honestly had no clue to the scam I was involved in until the summer of 21. The facility had a Covid outbreak 2 mo after I was hired and it continued for 10 mo. It was absolute chaos most of the days. The building was an accute care facility with a vent unit and dementia ward. Not your average gram and gramps NH. Only 10-12 of the 125+ census were capable of completing ADLs on their own. The building was so understaffed at the beginning Fall of ‘21 they asked managers to take a NA course and help CNAs on the floor. It wasn’t but a shift or two in that there weren’t any CNAs to help and if I didn’t change someone they wouldn’t be changed. So I did what I would have wanted done for my gram (who was a resident there for two weeks while recovering from a fall in the spring of ‘21)
This is where I couldn’t excuse or ignore the mistreatment that occurred at my facility. I was put on third shift in the dementia unit for several weeks where I met a CNA who was mistreating patients. And I witnessed a nursing manager not only supporting this CNAs vial behavior but participating. What I witnessed firsthand and the second hand reporting of a longtime trusted CNA sent me flying into the EDs office one morning. She dismissed me and said she would investigate. That night when I arrived they were both still on the schedule. So I called the corp compliance line and told them what was going on. I honestly still thought the care of the residents was priority. The next day all hell broke loose. The ED called myself and another witness into her office and screamed about how much she cared and how fucked up calling compliance was. I ended up packing my desk in a trash bag and calling state. There was an investigation and the building received tags including an IJ. To my knowledge both still work in their respective fields, but for another company. This is state funded long term care. I’d Unalive before ending in a place like this. 0 quality of life. Get a one story wheel chair accessible home and be kind to your loved ones so they’ll take care of you.