Columnist Susan Snyder: Nursing home woes draw reactions

Sunday, April 23, 2000 | 9:34 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Well, it's about time somebody got mad.

A group of people who identified themselves only as local certified nursing assistants wrote a letter saying the tales of woe appearing here the past two Sundays painted all nursing homes with a broad brush and negative hue.

Good employees feel bad, and nursing home residents and their families are suffering more anxiety.

No doubt, there are well-managed homes staffed with dedicated people. We expect that. It's supposed to be part of the deal.

But focusing on what's positive in a system changes little for those putting up with what's wrong. And if pointing out what's wrong makes people angry, that's good. Angry people act. We need more action.

Norma Lacey is willing. She's a Las Vegas law office administrator who says she has a few free evenings a week and would spend them helping out at a nursing home.

Her father-in-law lived three years in one of the area's corporate-run homes and was treated well.

"But a lot of it is because we were there every single day. You have to do that because they're so understaffed," Lacey said. "They do need a lot of help."

And she's willing.

A local air conditioning technician who once worked in a huge California nursing home also volunteered to repair the air conditioning in a Las Vegas facility where a resident said it didn't work.

Maybe bad stories don't have to end badly. Maybe they help people see where they're needed.

And maybe they're unnerving to the rest of us because they force us to admit that we, as individuals, know there's probably something we could offer.

But we're busy. It's not our job. We don't want to get involved.

It is easier to show concern for teenagers we never knew who died a year ago at a Colorado high school. It's easier to spend our time bickering over whether a 6-year-old we never met should be sent home to Cuba.

It's easier to confront our community's problems when they're slathered over the front page or pinned to our lapels or slapped on our bumpers.

We have a T-shirt or balloon bouquet for every occasion. We have become so adept at marketing our intentions we are confusing them with actual deeds.

No Hallmark moment awaits the nurse's assistant who bathes and dresses a person who slapped or spat at her 10 minutes earlier.

No media-hyped candlelight vigils greet the volunteer who pushes a mop, holds a stranger's hand or reads a book aloud.

Good work is a thankless job. Just ask the long-term care workers who go into the business for the right reasons. They are working as hard as they can, but they are weary of criticism and an industry that emphasizes money over people.

"When you have run off all of the people who are dedicated and making an attempt to provide quality of care, who will you look to to take care of you?" they write.

Good question. Why are we running them off?