Failure to Protect Residents From Verbal Abuse and Neglect by a GNA
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to protect a resident from verbal abuse and neglect by a Geriatric Nursing Assistant (GNA). According to the facility’s own investigation, an allegation that a GNA verbally abused and refused to provide care to a resident was substantiated. On the morning in question, a GNA asked a coworker to assist in repositioning the resident. As they entered the room, the resident stated that they had been asking for help to use the toilet for a long time and urgently needed to urinate to avoid wetting themselves and the bed. The assigned GNA responded that they were serving breakfast trays and told the resident to go ahead and urinate in the bed, stating they would clean the resident up later. The coworker then left to return to their own assignment and, upon returning later to pick up breakfast trays, the resident again reported needing help to use the bathroom, stating they badly needed to urinate and believed they had started to wet themselves. Additional statements in the investigation file from other residents described broader concerns with how the same GNA provided care and spoke to them. One resident reported that when they asked this GNA for anything and the GNA was in a bad mood, the GNA would become upset, say they hated their job, and the resident felt scared to ask for help. Another resident stated that the GNA would offer a bath, say they would return, and then not come back until the afternoon, and also told the resident they did not have time to change them and would do it later, causing the resident to be afraid to ask for things because they would be told no. A third resident reported that the GNA would say they would be right back in the morning but would not return until after lunch even though the resident was wet and dependent on staff for help, and also reported hearing another resident yell in pain during a bath while the GNA told that resident they did not have to bathe them and could be taken off the assignment. The coworker GNA confirmed the accuracy of their statement during an interview, and the facility’s investigation concluded that the allegation of verbal abuse and neglect was verified.
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