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Quality Care. Quality Jobs. For Better, Safer Nursing Home Care.
If you support safe staffing in our nursing homes, take a stand:
If you support safe staffing in our nursing homes, take a stand:
Nursing home workers and senior care advocates are celebrating the federal rule that creates the first-ever national minimum staffing standard for nursing homes.
Championed by those who have long pushed for the changes needed to improve care and care jobs, this historic step toward long-term care reform will help protect workers and residents alike.
Despite overwhelming public support — and demand — for staffing standards, the nursing home industry continues to make excuses. They, along with some members of Congress, are trying to stop this lifesaving reform before it even starts by making federal minimum staffing standards illegal.
We can't wait any longer. Unless we act now, workers and families will continue to suffer, and this crisis will only get worse. We must hold the industry accountable to billions in public dollars it receives, and to the largely Black, brown, Indigenous and immigrant nursing home workforce.
No more delays. No more excuses.
Tell your member of Congress to support federal minimum staffing standards for nursing homes, and stand against anti-worker, anti-care attacks.
We are all speaking out to demand nationwide safe staffing standards. I’ve spent too long knowing that I’m not giving residents the time, attention and care they deserve because there’s just not enough of us to go around.
When we work 17 residents to one CNA, that quality of care suffers. Safe staffing ensures that residents receive the necessary care, attention, and assistance they need.
We hear those words – “short staffing” – all the time, but what those words can’t tell you is what it’s like to be the only certified nursing assistant caring for 15 residents with Alzheimer’s. You’re supposed to only have 5 to 7 Alzheimer’s residents for each certified nursing assistant. At that level, you can provide quality care. At that level, you can make sure everyone is fed, bathed, toileted or changed.
These are choices we have to make on a daily basis. No human being should have to make these choices, which is why I am demanding safe staffing standards for nursing homes across the country.
Some of these residents have mental health and neurological conditions that can make them aggressive and it can get dangerous for both them and workers. It’s really important to have the adequate staff you need — Because without that, there is no one to call to help diffuse the situation and keep everyone safe.
On top of the care needs, there are issues like making sure our supplies are stocked – We may not have enough briefs or soap and have to spend part of our shift just looking for those supplies. That can easily take an hour. That’s an hour our residents aren’t getting direct care.
Some nights I have 28 residents to care for. We have to restock supplies but many of the residents don’t sleep, so we’re on a continuous loop. If a resident falls, gets sick, or alarms are ringing, you’re running back again and starting over. Some nights I never get a chance to sit down.
He [a resident] was laying down. He dropped his remote and it bounced underneath his bed. So he put on his call light and 5 hours later somebody came ... the aide said, "Hey, I'm the only aide here." There were 40 residents on the unit that day. THAT is unacceptable.
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