One of several reasons people decide that elders with chronic health problems are better off in a nursing home than in their own homes is safety. Unless a family is able to afford a private-care nurse team, or an in-home agency for 24-hour care, assisted living centers and nursing homes can often afford greater safety for the elder than living alone.
The obvious point of safety in nursing homes has always been that there are trained professionals on the spot in case of a fall, mediation reaction or other health issue. However, with advances in technology, nursing homes have advanced in safety measures over and above what they once provided.
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Background checks for nursing home staff
First of all, good nursing homes are very careful with who they hire. They do thorough background checks on their employees to screen out anyone who has been disciplined for abuse or other issues that could affect the way they care for elders.
When I had loved ones in a local nursing home, my mother and I often commented on the incredible quality of the people that staffed that particular home. It was obvious that this home's administration worked very hard to find quality people. This, of course, means more than a clean background check. However, background checks are helpful. Now, with the emergence of computerized records shared between law enforcement in different states, reliable background checks are easier to confirm.
New technology combined with a stronger awareness of safety issues is helping in other ways:
- Computerized medical records make it easy for nursing home staff to double check medication records for allergies and reactions.
- Pre-packaged medications are often used so that nurses have all of the pills and capsules a resident needs to take at one time in a sealed packet. This eliminates much of the human error that is inherent in giving medication to many people at once.
- Alerting systems that buzz nursing home staff when a resident who is at risk of a fall gets up unassisted are used in many homes.