How Lack of Staff Training Impacts Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Cases

Lack of training can be a major factor in abuse and neglect cases. We had a case not too long ago involving a woman who was actually being restrained to her bed by one of the staff members—she was being tied down. And another staff member found this, observed it, and didn’t report it. The reason she didn’t report it was because she wasn’t properly trained. Every single staff member inside of a nursing home is something called a mandated reporter. They are supposed to report any kinds of abuse or neglect that they observe. That’s the law; that’s what they’re required to do.

If they’re not properly trained, if they’re not told that they need to do that, or if they don’t understand what they’ve seen—if they don’t understand what is abuse or neglect—then they won’t understand that they need to report it, and they won’t understand what they have to report. And because of that, lack of training can definitely lead to serious injuries, and it can lead to people being harmed because the “gatekeepers”—the ones who are supposed to be making sure that everyone’s being honest, that everything is happening properly—might not know that they’re supposed to report it to the state.