When families come together to make the important and often difficult decision of moving a loved one to a nursing home, they want the peace of mind that their family member is getting the best care they need to stay healthy. That includes knowing that the facility has sufficient highly trained staff to devote to all residents.
We at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also believe that staffing is a vital component of a nursing home’s ability to provide quality care. That’s why nursing home staffing information is listed on the Nursing Home Compare website, where families making these important decisions can research the quality of facilities in their communities.
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Certified Nurses Improve Facility Quality
Training for gerontological certification turns out to be a win-win proposition for nurses, administrators, and residents.
Registered nurse (RN) staff are in a unique position to affect quality in long term care settings at the bedside and to influence the care delivered by both individual staff members and the team as a whole.
RN staff in long term care settings need to have well-focused clinical assessment and judgment skills, as they are usually the primary assessor of the patient. Medical support is not always immediately accessible, so the nursing staff must analyze clinical situations and have the confidence to make decisions concerning when residents need additional care.
Europe Struggles With High Antipsychotic Rates, Study Finds
We are engaged in a battle to reduce the unnecessary use of antipsychotics to control behavior in our long term care facilities, favoring the use of behavioral interventions instead. Turns out that our struggles in this effort are not unique to the United States.
Nearly two out every five European elders who suffer from dementia are being given antipsychotic drugs, a new study has found. Click HERE to read more.