Causes of Inadequate Staffing in Nursing Homes Can Led to Neglect

Working in a nursing home is very hard work and often does not pay very well.  This leads to difficulty in recruiting and training the best possible staff members for many facilities.  Many of the truly talented and caring candidates with nursing home experience want to be compensated fairly for their efforts.  Sometimes the only candidates that will accept below-market pay are those who have no experience and little or no training.  This can create situations where nursing home residents can be abused or neglected.  Neglect can occur due to a lack of staff members to monitor and care for patients.  When a heavy workload is divided among only a few staff members, many tasks can go unfinished.  This can include managing the pain of the nursing home residents.  Pain assessment may be reduced or done away with altogether and requests for pain medication may go unanswered because there are not enough staff members to distribute the drugs and take notes on the patients’ reactions.  Abuse can occur due to a lack of staff members because this lack of resources means there are more opportunities for abuse to occur.  In a nursing home with a full staff, there are more checks and balances in place.  There are also many staff members available to watch patients.  In a facility with a staffing shortage, there aren’t as many checks and balances in place.  The staff members who are employed there may not notice possible abuse because they are busy with a heavy workload.  If you feel a lack of staff members is allowing abuse to occur, contact a San Bernardino nursing home abuse attorney for more information on preventing and stopping abuse.