In late July, activist group Raise the Bar on Residents Care gathered in Providence to release a report on nursing homes standards in Rhode Island. The more than 1,000-member group protested low wages, high turnover rates and heavy workloads for nursing home staff, and the lack of required hours of daily care for nursing home residents.
North Providence resident Nichole Ward, a longtime CNA who works at Greenville Skilled Nursing & Rehab Center in Greenville, is a member of the group and explains how it is working for change.
PBN: What is Raise the Bar on Resident Care, and when was it formed?
WARD: Formed earlier this summer, Raise the Bar on Resident Care is a coalition of nursing home workers, residents, family members and community groups united behind a common cause to raise nursing home standards in Rhode Island. The community groups in our coalition include the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, Fuerza Laboral, Sista Fire, District 1199 SEIU New England, Rhode Island AFL-CIO, Rhode Island Organizing Project, Rhode Island Working Families Party, and the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty.
PBN: You recently released a policy brief detailing what you are describing as a resident care crisis in Rhode Island nursing homes. What are some of the key points in the brief?
WARD: The crisis we’re experiencing in Rhode Island mirrors the trend we’re seeing nationally: caregivers are being assigned more and more residents while staffing levels drop. This is a huge problem in Rhode Island, especially when you consider that our state has the highest proportion of adults ages 85 and older in the nation. Also, recent survey data from our Department of Health found that the majority of aging Rhode Islanders have two or more chronic diseases, with nearly 50% of residents over age 85 reporting some sort of physical limitation.
Rhode Island’s population is getting older, but our state is only one of eleven states across the country that doesn’t require a minimum number of hours of direct care per resident during a 24-hour time period. We’re also the only state in New England to not require staffing levels above the current federal regulations. Without standards, caregivers like me are forced to rush through the very basics of care —tasks like feeding, bathing and dressing our residents. To make matters worse, caregivers are leaving the nursing home industry because of short staffing, and nursing homes can’t recruit and retain new caregivers because of low pay. It’s a cycle that is dragging down the quality of care for residents.
PBN: What are some of the factors that are contributing to problems with the care of nursing home residents in the state?
WARD: A variety of factors are driving the resident care crisis in Rhode Island. Study after study has shown us that nursing homes have serious quality of care deficits, and we know that many of these deficits can be traced back to poor staffing levels. It’s a vicious cycle: low staffing levels are associated with high turnover, and turnover is really bad in our facilities.
Nursing home work is tough work. It is physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting, and low staffing levels only increase caregiver stress levels and turnover. I love my residents and my co-workers and I want to spend more one-on-one time with them, but current policies are hurting bedside care. Our residents deserve consistent care and caregivers deserve to earn a living wage and carry a reasonable workload.
PBN: What do you propose as a solution to the problem?
WARD: The Raise the Bar on Resident Care Coalition has several proposed solutions to Rhode Island’s resident care crisis. First, we are demanding that our R.I. General Assembly pass a minimum staffing standard that ensures that every resident gets at least 4.1 hours of care per day. It is also past time to raise the wage. We need to improve wages in the nursing home industry so our homes can recruit and retain more staff. Finally, to keep pace with current and future resident needs and treatment requirements, Rhode Island must properly invest in the training and education of its caregivers.
PBN: Have you received support from state officials or from the nursing home industry?
WARD: Our coalition is currently collecting petition signatures from residents all across Rhode Island calling on our General Assembly to raise the bar on resident care by ensuring that every nursing home resident gets a minimum of 4.1 hours of care per day and by raising wages for caregivers. We look forward to building our coalition and we will engage with various stakeholders as we fight to win quality care for residents and dignity for nursing home workers.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Email her at Graham@PBN.com.
