Southern California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog
Staff burnout at nursing homes in Los Angeles County can have significant — and sometimes life-threatening — consequences for elderly residents who are relying on those staff members for care. While certain kinds of nursing home abuse are intentional and result in both psychological and physical injuries, there are many types of harm that can occur due to passive neglect. To be clear, staff members at a facility might not intend to cause any harm, but they may not have enough time to properly attend to all of the residents’ needs, or may be too burnt out themselves to address certain patient issues at the end of a long shift. What do you need to know about staff burnout and nursing home resident injuries? Consider the following information from our Los Angeles County nursing home neglect lawyers.
What is Staff Burnout?
What is burnout? In short, according to the Mayo Clinic, it is “a type of stress linked to work,” which often “includes being worn out physically or emotionally.”
It may be more prominent in workers with particular underlying conditions, but the major point is that employees who experience burnout have more difficulty fulfilling the duties of their job. More often than not, burnout occurs in fields with heavy workloads, long hours, in “helping” professions involving health care, and in jobs with little support.
How Does Staff Burnout Lead to Injuries Among Elderly Nursing Home Residents?
Staff members may not intend to cause harm to patients, as we have clarified, but their inability to provide the level or specificity of care that a resident needs may result in a serious fall and hip fracture, for example, or debilitating bed sores due to a lack of attention. While nursing homes can be liable for a staff member’s intentional acts that cause harm, it is critical to know that these facilities can also be liable for unintentional harm that arises from negligence due to burnout.
How does burnout lead to injuries among elderly nursing home residents? According to a journal article in Acta Biomedica, staff burnout at nursing homes has three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. When taken together, those factors lead staff members to make more mistakes with patients and to be less likely to provide the amount or detail of care that is often required to prevent harm. Indeed, according to the journal article, “burnout impacts negatively upon staff members,” but the bigger harm may be that “quality of care is impacted.”
Contact Our Los Angeles County Nursing Home Negligence Attorneys Today for Assistance
Nursing home residents can sustain injuries and suffer harm for many different reasons. Much too often, elderly residents are harmed because of the intentional acts of staff members. At the same time, however, a high number of nursing home injuries and serious infections result from passive neglect. Whether a staff member is experiencing burnout or is simply overworked on a particular shift, the nursing home may be responsible for harm that occurs, and an experienced Los Angeles County nursing home neglect lawyer can help you with a claim. Contact the Walton Law Firm to find out more about how we can assist you.
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