If you’re looking into nursing homes and trying to find the right one for your loved one, you may wonder how the nursing home chooses its staff members. If someone retires or quits, how does that person get replaced? Can you trust that the company does all it can to avoid having dangerous staff members?
The reality is that not all nursing homes look for the same things, so you should be asking these questions to the director when you visit the nursing home. The nursing home director should discuss whether or not background checks are performed and how they choose the next replacement for someone who leaves the job.
Another important thing to talk about is how the nursing home handles complaints against staff members. What can you expect the home to do if you have a complaint? Will the director look into the complaint directly? Is there a process for formal reprimands or firing negligent or dangerous personnel? Understanding the reporting process and how the nursing home addresses problems is good, because it gives you an opportunity to see if the nursing home knows how to handle trouble when it occurs.
You should also talk to the nursing home director about staff turnover and retention. If the staff turns over regularly, there is likely some kind of issue within the nursing home itself. Quality nursing homes that pay well and support the staff tend to keep staff members longer, so they have a longer history of working with patients and experience dealing with the day-to-day challenges in the nursing home environment.
Our site has more on nursing home abuse and neglect. No patient should have to go through this difficult situation.
