Title: Nursing Home Understaffing - Neglect and Liability
Headings: Nursing Home Understaffing
Nursing Home Understaffing
Why Are Nursing Homes Understaffed?
Overtime and Exhaustion
Understaffing Effects on Care

Content: In a survey, 46% of the nurses said that they have missed changes in a patient’s condition because their excessive workload. Nurses in understaffed facilities do not have time to pay attention to detail, and that can lead to mistakes, injuries, and death of nursing home residents. Patients who need the most medical attention and who are immobile are at greatest risk when a facility is understaffed. Nursing assistants must help these patients eat, drink, and go to the bathroom. They must also make sure that they turn and move these patients and change their clothes often in order to prevent bedsores and other dangerous infections. These high workloads make it impossible for nursing staff to provide individualized care. One of the most common causes of injury in nursing homes is falling. Staff is supposed to supervise patients and make sure their basic needs such as eating and going to the bathroom are met, so that patients will not wander or try to do too much on their own. Unfortunately, this is impossible in some nursing homes where there is not enough staff. When staff members are overworked and exhausted it leads to stress and frustration.