Abuse, Neglect: Aide Disqualified From Patient Care.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
July 2018
Two nurses noticed that a resident in a wheelchair seemed to be frustrated and agitated while trying to push herself away from the wall. Looking closer they saw that someone had tied her wheelchair to the railing on the wall with a trash bag.
The CNAs were immediately called into a meeting. The guilty party said it was just a joke and also claimed she did it so she could go and help a nurse with the nurse’s patient. The CNA was reported to the state Department of Health. The Department found her guilty of abuse and neglect and placed her name in the registry of persons disqualified from patient care work.
The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, upheld the disqualification. The resident’s frustration and agitation over having her movement restrained fit the definition of abuse and neglect under state law. It was an injury willfully inflicted by the CNA which resulted in physical harm, pain or mental anguish.
Amador v. Dept. of Health, 2018 WL 2924412 (N.J. App., June 7, 2018).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/abuse-patient.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/abuse-inflicted-pain.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/abuse2.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/abuse1.htm