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I think it’s just easier for the people working there if patients are kept calm with medication.

Broken_Hippo 7y ago
That is, in part, because many if not most nursing homes are understaffed. In Indiana, they always knew when they were getting inspected and forced overtime on folks those couple of weeks. Why the past month's payroll records aren't checked more often for staffing levels I never know.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  The system is built to be this way. Nursing care is expensive. Very expensive. No one wants to pay for it, either because people didn't or couldn't save enough for it prior to needing it, or government can't get the will together to properly fund it (Medicaid/Medicare aside) with taxes. People still end up in homes, caregivers continue to be chronically underpaid, and there's some occasional public concern or outrage over it so society can feel better about the situation. "Thoughts and prayers" over meaningful elder care reform.
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    “Nursing care is expensive. Very expensive. No one wants to pay for it, ” My estimate would be that you probably need around 1 person for 5 people or less to do the job some justice. Plus doctors and other personnel. This would be freakishly expensive.
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      Your estimate matches closely to HHS findings and recommendations: https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/state-initiated-nursing-home-nurse-staffing-ratios-annotated-review-literature https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/state-initiated-nursing-ho... Also, it is as expensive as you assume: "This report, authorized by the Chairman of the Virginia Senate Committee on Education and Health, studies the provisions of Senate Bill 1125 of the 2001 Session of the General Assembly. Senate Bill 1125 requires Virginia nursing homes to implement minimum nursing staff standards of 5.2 hours per resident day (hprd). For Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), the Bill requires minimum ratios of 1:5 residents (day), 1:5 (evening), and 1:10 (night) or a total of 4.0 hprd, and minimum licensed nurse-to-resident ratios of 1:15 (day), 1:20 (evening), and 1:30 (night) or a total of 1.2 hprd. These minimum standards exceed those of all other states as well as those recommended by advocacy and research organizations. The fiscal impact on the Medicaid program is estimated to be an additional $91.2 million from the general fund annually."
  - crispyambulance 7y ago
    Yes, very expensive. However, less than 5% of people end up in a nursing home for a significant length of time (>1 year). It would be nice if we could all live to a ripe age, enjoy many years of retirement maintaining mobility and a lucid mind and then suddenly die in sleep. Unfortunately, it doesn't always turn out that way. Hopefully by the time many of us get to be that age, euthanasia will be a mainstream option.
throwaway5752 7y ago
You might underestimate the agitation and distress that comes with dementia and the pain of infirmity. Nursing homes are a tough, sad place a lot of them time. It probably is easier for caregivers, but don't assume malice. ps - Sorry for misreading. I completely agree with you about nursing home workers in general, and I'm sorry about your father.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  I don’t assume malice. My father has dementia. He is not even aggressive but it takes incredible effort and patience to deal with him. Nursing home workers are probably the most under appreciated profession. They are understaffed, underpaid and do incredibly difficult and draining work. To me they are heroes.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - wolco 7y ago
    Heroes as in someone a little child aspires to? They are not part of that police, firefighter, teacher, scientist, sports figure group. Astronaut is probably the biggest. Nursing home workers do a job that is important, few want to do or could do. Most do it for pay. Most do not aspire to the job but end up there for practical reasons
    - Ididntdothis 7y ago
      A hero to me is somebody who does heroic things. Their job is harder than any of the other jobs you mentioned. Some people maybe do it for the money and others probably out of compassion. But in the end it doesn’t matter. It’s a very tough and thankless job.
  - PaulHoule 7y ago
    It depends on the patient. My wife has been helping care for a dementia patient who is a really nice guy and easy to live with. He just doesn't remember how to get to the cafeteria or do many activities of daily living. Other dementia patients are nasty and might try to strangle a caregiver that they don't recognize.
m463 7y ago
I recently visited a nursing home and everyone had a TV in their room. Instead of being calming, they were tuned to broadcast channels where the news channels announced the-world-is-going-to-pieces between loud advertisements.
- mjevans 7y ago
  I think it would be more kind to have a closed automated DVR system and a rotated library of kids movies.
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Let us consider the ethics of filtering out the news channels at the building level and injecting 24-7 Bob Ross Joy of Painting reruns in their stead.
- danbolt 7y ago
  I'm a millennial and I like to play video games on my spare time; usually puzzle, adventure, or platform ones. One thing I hope to imagine is that if/when I'm in an elderly care setting is if I'll be able to enjoy them in some ways like when I was a child. I'm curious if video games being a more common (plus potentially social) activity will be more common in retirement home-like settings.
  - arthens 7y ago
    I've been thinking the same.
  - m463 7y ago
    I may be cynical, but I don't see hospitals and nursing homes providing systems or connectivity for something like that in the future. If they do, it will be a service priced like airline wifi. Maybe by that time we'll have personal VR setups with internet connections that route around health-care-system influence.
- jen_h 7y ago
  My grandfather likes National Geographic, and was always into science programming. National Geographic and MSNBC are his channels. The last time he was in rehab, their cable subscription didn't have MSNBC, but it did have National Geographic, so I got to see a lot of it sitting with him...lo and behold, National Geographic, the channel associated with those amazing magazines I'd stack and read as a kid, now runs these weird one-sided fascist, xenophobic prison documentaries all. day. long. It's sick stuff.

That is, in part, because many if not most nursing homes are understaffed. In Indiana, they always knew when they were getting inspected and forced overtime on folks those couple of weeks. Why the past month's payroll records aren't checked more often for staffing levels I never know.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
The system is built to be this way. Nursing care is expensive. Very expensive. No one wants to pay for it, either because people didn't or couldn't save enough for it prior to needing it, or government can't get the will together to properly fund it (Medicaid/Medicare aside) with taxes. People still end up in homes, caregivers continue to be chronically underpaid, and there's some occasional public concern or outrage over it so society can feel better about the situation. "Thoughts and prayers" over meaningful elder care reform.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  “Nursing care is expensive. Very expensive. No one wants to pay for it, ” My estimate would be that you probably need around 1 person for 5 people or less to do the job some justice. Plus doctors and other personnel. This would be freakishly expensive.
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    Your estimate matches closely to HHS findings and recommendations: https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/state-initiated-nursing-home-nurse-staffing-ratios-annotated-review-literature https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/state-initiated-nursing-ho... Also, it is as expensive as you assume: "This report, authorized by the Chairman of the Virginia Senate Committee on Education and Health, studies the provisions of Senate Bill 1125 of the 2001 Session of the General Assembly. Senate Bill 1125 requires Virginia nursing homes to implement minimum nursing staff standards of 5.2 hours per resident day (hprd). For Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), the Bill requires minimum ratios of 1:5 residents (day), 1:5 (evening), and 1:10 (night) or a total of 4.0 hprd, and minimum licensed nurse-to-resident ratios of 1:15 (day), 1:20 (evening), and 1:30 (night) or a total of 1.2 hprd. These minimum standards exceed those of all other states as well as those recommended by advocacy and research organizations. The fiscal impact on the Medicaid program is estimated to be an additional $91.2 million from the general fund annually."
- crispyambulance 7y ago
  Yes, very expensive. However, less than 5% of people end up in a nursing home for a significant length of time (>1 year). It would be nice if we could all live to a ripe age, enjoy many years of retirement maintaining mobility and a lucid mind and then suddenly die in sleep. Unfortunately, it doesn't always turn out that way. Hopefully by the time many of us get to be that age, euthanasia will be a mainstream option.

throwaway5752 7y ago

You might underestimate the agitation and distress that comes with dementia and the pain of infirmity. Nursing homes are a tough, sad place a lot of them time. It probably is easier for caregivers, but don't assume malice. ps - Sorry for misreading. I completely agree with you about nursing home workers in general, and I'm sorry about your father.

Ididntdothis 7y ago
I don’t assume malice. My father has dementia. He is not even aggressive but it takes incredible effort and patience to deal with him. Nursing home workers are probably the most under appreciated profession. They are understaffed, underpaid and do incredibly difficult and draining work. To me they are heroes.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- wolco 7y ago
  Heroes as in someone a little child aspires to? They are not part of that police, firefighter, teacher, scientist, sports figure group. Astronaut is probably the biggest. Nursing home workers do a job that is important, few want to do or could do. Most do it for pay. Most do not aspire to the job but end up there for practical reasons
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    A hero to me is somebody who does heroic things. Their job is harder than any of the other jobs you mentioned. Some people maybe do it for the money and others probably out of compassion. But in the end it doesn’t matter. It’s a very tough and thankless job.
- PaulHoule 7y ago
  It depends on the patient. My wife has been helping care for a dementia patient who is a really nice guy and easy to live with. He just doesn't remember how to get to the cafeteria or do many activities of daily living. Other dementia patients are nasty and might try to strangle a caregiver that they don't recognize.

m463 7y ago

I recently visited a nursing home and everyone had a TV in their room. Instead of being calming, they were tuned to broadcast channels where the news channels announced the-world-is-going-to-pieces between loud advertisements.

mjevans 7y ago
I think it would be more kind to have a closed automated DVR system and a rotated library of kids movies.
logfromblammo 7y ago
Let us consider the ethics of filtering out the news channels at the building level and injecting 24-7 Bob Ross Joy of Painting reruns in their stead.
danbolt 7y ago
I'm a millennial and I like to play video games on my spare time; usually puzzle, adventure, or platform ones. One thing I hope to imagine is that if/when I'm in an elderly care setting is if I'll be able to enjoy them in some ways like when I was a child. I'm curious if video games being a more common (plus potentially social) activity will be more common in retirement home-like settings.
- arthens 7y ago
  I've been thinking the same.
- m463 7y ago
  I may be cynical, but I don't see hospitals and nursing homes providing systems or connectivity for something like that in the future. If they do, it will be a service priced like airline wifi. Maybe by that time we'll have personal VR setups with internet connections that route around health-care-system influence.
jen_h 7y ago
My grandfather likes National Geographic, and was always into science programming. National Geographic and MSNBC are his channels. The last time he was in rehab, their cable subscription didn't have MSNBC, but it did have National Geographic, so I got to see a lot of it sitting with him...lo and behold, National Geographic, the channel associated with those amazing magazines I'd stack and read as a kid, now runs these weird one-sided fascist, xenophobic prison documentaries all. day. long. It's sick stuff.