Sadistic Trump Admin Rescinds Min Staffing Rules for Nursing Homes

[Dear_Prudence]

70. Horror

I was a nurses aid, for a few years, fifty years ago. After that experience, I decided not to go into the field of medicine. Staffing at the home was tight, too tight. I failed residents, I still remember some incidents, but the task was beyond what is humanly possible. Yes, I did hold the hand of a woman moaning in pain because the morphine was not enough to erase the pain of her terminal cancer. But another day I forgot that I had wheeled Tom, a paranoid schizophrenic wheel chair-bound resident, out on the front porch. I was flying around, taking care of too many residents, getting them to dinner, spoon feeding some. When I finally remembered Tom, he was chilled, upset, and late for dinner. It was horrible. But instead of launching into his near-constant, loud, angry, paranoid rant of "You are trying to poison me", Tom forgave me. I'll never forget that moment of grace, his voice, his humanity shining through his disease and through my failure. But it should never have happened and, given how cold Colorado gets after sundown, it could have ended in tragedy. There needs to be Congressional hearings that explain what happens when staff are overwhelmed and patients are neglected. The impacts are staggering.