Working with entitled families of home care clients.
I'm a paid Home Health Aide, and I was wondering if anyone who has worked in the field had experiences where you showed up at a client's home and no one will opened the door.
Well, this has been happening a lot for me lately especially this past summer where I would show up for a case on time and would have to wait twenty or thirty minutes outside on foot before someone would open the door. Both the family and patient would both be in a deep sleep. You would think that the client's family would set the time later in the morning.
The straw that broke the camel's back for me last week was when I was in route to one client's home and almost getting into an accident. This is the third time I had been to this assignment and when I got there, I knocked on the door for at least ten minutes. Afterwards, I went back to my car and called the office. My shift was to start at 8:00 am, but I called the office at 8:14 am to let them know that no one answered the door. I was placed on hold while the answering service tried to reach a staffing person in the office. Later they came back and said that they were not able to reach anyone in the office. I told the answering service that it made no sense to sit and wait another fifteen minutes, so I pull off. I'm in traffic at 8:20 am and get another call. At around 9:30 am, I'm really angry because I've wasted my time going to a client in crazy traffic and the client's relative pulls this stunt again and of course I get blamed.
I told the coordinator what happened and to not assign me to that client again since this has been an issue before. I really liked the client. The granddaughter has an untreated mental health condition that makes it difficult to care for her grandmother. The home has a terrible roach problem that I told the agency about. Roaches were crawling on the walls while I was trying to care for the grandmother. They were crawling on the couch, and lampshades. The granddaughter handed me the container of wipes and a roach crawled over that. That first day there, the granddaughter hovered over me to make sure I didn't make her grandmother yell and scream.
I have another client that lives in a smelly old apartment and it is really disgusting to walk on the floor.
It's hard to maintain a salary because client's won't answer their doors, but it is my problem when something happens. It feels like someone is trying to pass the buck. It's a guilty and disconcerting feeling I get bordering on shame.
I think the reasonable amount of wait time is fifteen minutes, call the answering service and explain the situation, wait for further instructions. Why do agencies expect you to wait thirty minutes before someone decides to come to the door or not. It is really uncomfortable when I'm in an unfamiliar neighborhood without my car.
I'm to the point now that I will drop a client who wastes my time or living in dirty and nasty homes.
The Roach issue, eww 🤢, that's all I got to say on that.
But honestly I feel that this is the office neglect, to not charge them
I once showed , no one answered, I called the office, they said , that , they would call the clients children, but if they don't answer to find a way in or call 911 to get a wellness check.
Might be different states but this just feels like the office just doesn't care about there employees or the client for that matter.
Roaches is a deal breaker for me.
The agency should make a rule their staff wait only 10 minutes when appt. has been made. Why make early appts. they can't wake up for?
I also agree with the dirty homes. I'd report the roach client to APS. They can buy roach traps and get rid of them easy. Disgusting!
This is why my daughter will not do in home care. When she was on rotation for her nursing degree, she had to accompany a Visiting Nurse. The one place they went to was awful. The woman was bedridden and weight 300 to 400lbs. Daughter had to give her a spoung bath. In one of the folds of fat, my daughter found the woman's remote control. The woman's response "I have been looking for that".
Yes, if no one answers the door or responses to ur call within 15 min then you leave. And, if its because they are still sleeping, maybe your agency needs to change the time u come.
1. No roaches - check!
Maybe there is already an ongoing Discussion on this topic??
People drive like nuts here in this city. This person got in the wrong lane to make a left turn while the car in front of him was sitting in the correct lane waiting to make a turn. Luckily for me I drove slowly into the intersection and braked in time. The traffic was horrible.