A niche to explore what's worth holding on to and what's not...
Responsibility and Neglect
Posted 04-26-2009 at 12:03 AM by lacuna
This past week due to a mis-communication via a third party I found myself arriving 45 minutes early for a scheduled appointment and having to wait for someone I had never before met. It happened to be at a Gainesville area nursing home. One of those places that sits rather incongruously in the midst of apartment complexes filled with a much younger segment of Gainesville's population. Rather than being irritated at having to wait I welcomed the opportunity to sit in the lobby and observe the activity. It was a busy place. If asked to describe what I observed I would say it was hyperactive inefficiency.
The lobby of this institution was intersected on the north side by a pair of opposite facing 10 feet wide corridors. Anyone walking from the east wing to the west wing or west to east walked through the lobby. I selected a chair near the intersection of the west side which gave me an excellent vantage point to scope down both the west/east corridors, the reception desk, the nurses station and a third corridor into the south wing. The lobby reminded me more of an airport concourse than a hub for a nursing home. Most of the residents that came through were shuffling themselves along in wheel chairs. Mixed in with the old were a couple of youthful quadriplegic residents in their wheelchairs, fancy rigs tricked out with technical apparatus allowing their chairs to move using a breathing control device.
Having recently read some material relating to nursing home regulations I knew water on the floor was considered a hazard to be removed as quickly as possible. And having also recently joined a volunteer organization that visits lonely and neglected nursing home residents I knew volunteers are prohibited from performing certain maintenance for which the staff is responsible. So with increasing incredulity I watched as two female staff members, walking through the lobby from west to east, chatting and laughing about something they were viewing on a Blackberry like device, walked into a small puddle of water near the north wall of the lobby. One stopped and made a comment about water being on the floor. The other responded saying she would go get something while the first stayed on the spot. Assuming she was off to get a mop to remove the small puddle ( about 12 inches in diameter) I was a little surprised when she returned with a yellow sandwich board type warning sign that said, "Caution, wet slippery floor". And then even more surprised when a third employee turned up with two more similar signs to ward off the small spill on the three sides away from the wall. All three staff members then proceeded with whatever they had been doing prior to that incident, leaving the water on the floor.
This was not an isolated event of neglect nor the only one that gave me concern. As well as being the veritable intersection of 34th and Archer, the lobby was a spot where many of the wheelchair bound residents congregated. One old man, shuffling his feet propelled himself slowly through the corridor finally managing to reach the lobby where he fell asleep with his wheelchair almost but not quite in the middle of the corridor and a foot or two into the lobby. His resting place was a hazard to foot and wheel traffic in the busy area. Dozens of staff passed by him while I sat nearby and no one made a move to push his wheelchair out of the way, closer to the wall where he would not present such an obstacle despite the fact his awkward positioning caused number of bottlenecks several times.
My contact finally arrived and we left the lobby to visit with a couple of residents. We were gone for approximately 30 minutes and when we returned the old man was still in the corridor and the three wet floor warning signs were still in place. And the corridors were still full of self absorbed bustling staff that had much better things to do.
Not being familiar with the staff I don't know if the three who placed the slippery, wet warning signs around the puddle were part of the nursing staff or the building maintenance staff. As they produced no mop to eliminate the puddle they likely were part of the nursing staff and did not consider themselves responsible for removing the water.
In the days since last week's visit I have come to regret that I did not get up from my chair and walk the four or five steps to the sleeping man in the wheelchair and move him a few feet to a more protected area. No, it was not my responsibility to do it, but if I don't overstep the regulations placed on me by the recognized authority, when the rules are ridiculous who will step in and take on the responsibility when those who should be are not?
We have become a nation of people so single-mindedly engrossed in our own lives that any slight deviation or alteration in our routine becomes an inconvenience to be avoided. Our self absorbed pursuits blind us to what we could do to help others in need and perhaps eliminate a bit of suffering or prevent a small problem from becoming an insurmountable one. We diminish ourselves when we fail to care for our fellow man. We are each others keeper and taking on a bit of extra responsibility to look after others who need a bit of care also means it is likely to be there for us when we find we, too, could use some. Taking responsibility isn't a bad thing. Even when the rules need to be bent a little.
The lobby of this institution was intersected on the north side by a pair of opposite facing 10 feet wide corridors. Anyone walking from the east wing to the west wing or west to east walked through the lobby. I selected a chair near the intersection of the west side which gave me an excellent vantage point to scope down both the west/east corridors, the reception desk, the nurses station and a third corridor into the south wing. The lobby reminded me more of an airport concourse than a hub for a nursing home. Most of the residents that came through were shuffling themselves along in wheel chairs. Mixed in with the old were a couple of youthful quadriplegic residents in their wheelchairs, fancy rigs tricked out with technical apparatus allowing their chairs to move using a breathing control device.
Having recently read some material relating to nursing home regulations I knew water on the floor was considered a hazard to be removed as quickly as possible. And having also recently joined a volunteer organization that visits lonely and neglected nursing home residents I knew volunteers are prohibited from performing certain maintenance for which the staff is responsible. So with increasing incredulity I watched as two female staff members, walking through the lobby from west to east, chatting and laughing about something they were viewing on a Blackberry like device, walked into a small puddle of water near the north wall of the lobby. One stopped and made a comment about water being on the floor. The other responded saying she would go get something while the first stayed on the spot. Assuming she was off to get a mop to remove the small puddle ( about 12 inches in diameter) I was a little surprised when she returned with a yellow sandwich board type warning sign that said, "Caution, wet slippery floor". And then even more surprised when a third employee turned up with two more similar signs to ward off the small spill on the three sides away from the wall. All three staff members then proceeded with whatever they had been doing prior to that incident, leaving the water on the floor.
This was not an isolated event of neglect nor the only one that gave me concern. As well as being the veritable intersection of 34th and Archer, the lobby was a spot where many of the wheelchair bound residents congregated. One old man, shuffling his feet propelled himself slowly through the corridor finally managing to reach the lobby where he fell asleep with his wheelchair almost but not quite in the middle of the corridor and a foot or two into the lobby. His resting place was a hazard to foot and wheel traffic in the busy area. Dozens of staff passed by him while I sat nearby and no one made a move to push his wheelchair out of the way, closer to the wall where he would not present such an obstacle despite the fact his awkward positioning caused number of bottlenecks several times.
My contact finally arrived and we left the lobby to visit with a couple of residents. We were gone for approximately 30 minutes and when we returned the old man was still in the corridor and the three wet floor warning signs were still in place. And the corridors were still full of self absorbed bustling staff that had much better things to do.
Not being familiar with the staff I don't know if the three who placed the slippery, wet warning signs around the puddle were part of the nursing staff or the building maintenance staff. As they produced no mop to eliminate the puddle they likely were part of the nursing staff and did not consider themselves responsible for removing the water.
In the days since last week's visit I have come to regret that I did not get up from my chair and walk the four or five steps to the sleeping man in the wheelchair and move him a few feet to a more protected area. No, it was not my responsibility to do it, but if I don't overstep the regulations placed on me by the recognized authority, when the rules are ridiculous who will step in and take on the responsibility when those who should be are not?
We have become a nation of people so single-mindedly engrossed in our own lives that any slight deviation or alteration in our routine becomes an inconvenience to be avoided. Our self absorbed pursuits blind us to what we could do to help others in need and perhaps eliminate a bit of suffering or prevent a small problem from becoming an insurmountable one. We diminish ourselves when we fail to care for our fellow man. We are each others keeper and taking on a bit of extra responsibility to look after others who need a bit of care also means it is likely to be there for us when we find we, too, could use some. Taking responsibility isn't a bad thing. Even when the rules need to be bent a little.
Total Comments 0
Comments
Total Trackbacks 0
