Failure to Assess GNA Competency at Hire Leads to Abuse Incident
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure that Geriatric Nursing Assistants (GNAs) were competent in their skill sets, as evidenced by the lack of completed competency skills evaluations or check-off sheets for a newly hired GNA involved in a substantiated incident of verbal abuse toward a resident. Upon review of the employee file, it was found that no competency assessment had been conducted at the time of hire, and the Director of Nursing confirmed that staff competencies were only assessed if an incident occurred, rather than as part of the initial orientation process. Although 60-day and 90-day evaluations were present in other new employee files, the GNA in question did not reach the 30-day mark before being terminated and reported for the abuse incident.