Workers at 27 nursing homes across the county recently went on strike to protest low wages.
You may ask, “How does this affect my nursing home-bound relative?”
Well, if your loved one is in an environment with people who are underpaid, it could affect their treatment.
Nursing Homes are known to have lower retention rates than most medical facilities, meaning that they retain fewer employees than hospitals. Studies show that registered nurse (RN) turnover in US hospitals is approximately 14%. That means that they retain 86% of the nursing staff.
In 2010, the overall retention rate of nursing care staff was the lowest amount all nursing facility employees according to the American Health Care Association. Only 51.4 % of registered nurses working in nursing homes across the county returned to their jobs the following year. That translates in to a lot of new employees each year. New employees may have the skills sets of the old ones, but they have not developed relationships with your loved one that comes in time.
Facts
- The average employed RN in a Greenville County hospital makes $63,000 per year.
- The average employed RN in a nursing home in Greenville County makes less than $54,000 per year.
As you can see, registered nurses at nursing homes make less annually than registered nurses in hospitals. Registered CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants) at nursing homes, on average, make more than $12,000 dollars less than registered nurses working in hospitals per year.
These are the people to care for your loved ones on a day-to-day basis. Certainly we all would like to see them treated well so they can, in turn, treat all their patients well.
Wouldn’t you want your loved one to develop relationships with the people taking care of them? Due to their low income, nursing home workers are frequently replaced. This creates the inability to develop those close relationships and perhaps not care as much which could lead to neglect.
If you suspect that your loved one is being neglected in nursing home care, please speak up. Make that first step by calling Varner and Segura. They have experienced lawyers that can assist you through this process.
If you have any unanswered questions, call (864) 271-2232 to ask Greenville attorney Jimmy Segura with the firm of Varner and Segura.
NOTE: Nothing above is offered as legal advice, and nothing above should be construed as a substitute for retained legal advice.
PHOTO CREDIT: AFGE / Distributed Under Creative Commons