Letter
This is not the care we provide in our home
River Staff speak out about recent news
article
Wednesday, May 10,
2006
We are appalled, angry and shocked at the
comments published in the Examiner by Ms.
Joanne Hill with regards to the care at our
Home, Riverview Manor. Ms. Hill has no right
to speak on behalf of the care that we the
employee’s provide to our residents;
she may speak on the care that she herself
provided, but in no way is her description
of care the care that we as caregivers provide
to our residents. We treat each of the residents
as if they were our parents or grandparents;
they are our family.
Joanne comments on being understaffed,
we have better staffing now then we have had
in over 5 years or longer; generally we are
full staffed and if not we pull together as
one family, its called teamwork.
When we are short staffed it’s not the
fault of management, it is generally due to
staff being ill.
We have specific plans in place
in times of staffing shortages; we divide
up care groups to ensure the work gets done.
Staffing is an issue in Long Term Care Homes
across the Province, we have recently pleaded
to Jeff Leal to take our concerns regarding
funding to Parliament.
Our residents are our family,
we treat them with respect, dignity and love;
we do not cut corners. As Mrs. Karen Sullivan
of the Ontario Long Term Care Association
comments, we may not always respond immediately
to a call buzzer or a request but we do get
to each resident within a reasonable time
frame, leaving no room for safety concerns
or care issues.
Comments made by Ms. Hill regarding ‘not
taking residents to the bathroom’ are
completely false; why would we do such a thing,
we would be making more work for ourselves
and would ultimately put our residents at
increased risk for skin breakdown.
Care protocols require our residents to be
toileted every two hours or more often as
needed. Many of our residents suffer from
incontinence and can not request to use the
washroom and we can not always anticipate
when a resident needs to use the washroom;
our residents are provided incontinence care
to ensure comfort and dignity. Failure to
toilet a resident or provide care would be
considered abuse / neglect of duty.
Nor were Ms. Hill's comments
regarding our residents not being washed in
the morning true; our residents are provided
a morning and evening sponge bath, they are
also provide with 2 tub or showers each week
depending on their preference.
Comments regarding ‘skipping
the wash if resident looked fairly clean’
are unfounded, again actions like what Ms.
Hill described would be considered abusive
under the policy definition of abuse used
in our Home. Weekly tub baths or showers are
generally a relaxing experience for our residents,
bath time is usually 20-30 min in total; we
have beautiful spa rooms utilizing ‘hydrotherapy
tubs’. Our home’s policy strictly
enforces bathing/showering protocols and failure
to follow would result in progressive discipline.
Ms. Hill describes a very unsafe
method for lifting a resident and her actions
described would be considered unsafe and abusive
and definitely would not be tolerated. Our
home has a strict policy regarding the use
of mechanical lifts, staff not following protocols
for safe transfers and lifts would result
in discipline up to and including suspension
and or termination.
Ms. Hill describes caring for
up to 15 residents at one time; this does
not occur at Riverview nor has it. Our current
ratio of PSW’s to residents is approximately
9:1, it could be at times up to 11 residents
depending on their care needs, some of our
residents need very little care as they are
basically independent. If working short due
to absenteeism the ratio may increase minimally
but again everyone pulls together as a team
to get the work done….the end goal is
the care of the resident comes first.
Ms. Hill’s comment regarding
‘what goes on behind closed door’
is basically rubbish. If care doors in the
Home are closed, we are providing care, we
as common practice close privacy curtains
and doors to ensure privacy and dignity for
those we are caring for at that time and never
would it imply abuse is occurring, our Administrator
would not condone abuse of any kind.
Ms. Hill commented that ‘baby
powder is used to mask smell, due to lack
of care’; first of all we do not use
powder in our Home and secondly our Home does
not smell; you can not mask odour with baby
powder. We are proud of the care that we provide
to our residents and the cleanliness of our
Home. We as employees in all departments go
above and beyond the call of duty to try to
give something extra to each of our residents.
In closing, we are shocked and
saddened that Ms. Hill has painted the employee’s
of Riverview Manor with a stroke of her brush;
the picture of care she herself describes
is truly not the picture we paint of our home
or the employees that work at Riverview. We
work hard, we give 110% daily to our residents
and we care for each one with dignity and
respect. We care for our residents like family,
as that is what they have become… our
parents, our grandparents, our extended family;
we laugh, we cry, we love and we grieve with
them.
We encourage each reader who
read this absurd editorial to ask themselves
why we at Riverview Manor would consider employing
any care giver like the one Ms. Hill has described.
We encourage the Examiner and community members
to visit our Home, see for yourselves the
care that we provide to our extended family,
the residents. Come and visit at any time,
witness the daily acts of kindness, caring
and love that occurs within our walls.
The Caring Staff at Riverview
Manor
Diane Fife, RPN Janice
Kitchen, HSK/LND
Mary Lou McAdams, HCA Cindy Northey, HCA
Tammy Hazlitt, PSW Jan Edwards, HCA
Jane Livingstone, RNA / HCA Jen Goodwin, RPN
Dan Cassel, PSW Liana Joncas, HCA
Tina Hutchinson, HCA Virginia Witteveen, HCA
Barb Reynolds, HCA Laurie Reynolds, RPN
Sherry Baldwin, LEC Lori Wallace, CC
Faye Hetherington, ESM Mary Lou Raymant, RCA
Dave Routly, MM Barb Joyce, RCA
Also See:
Article outrages Riverview staff
Letter - I have seen Riverview's quality
of care first hand
