Inadequate Staffing and Resulting Abuse and Neglect

One of the most common reasons that nursing home abuse goes undetected is that many facilities are understaffed.  Finding highly qualified and well-trained people to work in these facilities is difficult, so administrators must often settle for hiring individuals with little to no nursing home experience.  Some abuse and neglect may occur just because these untrained individuals do not know what is expected of them in terms of patient care.  Those who are abusive are able to get away with abuse because other employees are busy caring for patients and trying to do extra work to compensate for being short staffed.  Instead of being supervised and held accountable for their actions throughout each shift, abusers can get away with abuse because other workers are too busy to provide adequate supervision.  If activity logs are kept, they can be falsified easily because supervisors may be busy dealing with the needs of residents and may not know what is really going on during each shift.  Having a facility that does not have an adequate amount of staff members to meet the needs of residents is one of the top reasons why nursing home abuse and neglect occur.  If you feel this is one of the reasons why your loved one has experienced abuse, contact a San Diego nursing home abuse lawyer to find out what the best course of action is for preventing more abuse and holding the abusers responsible.