Every nursing home resident is entitled to receive various types of nursing care for a certain number of minutes each day. The government requires that each resident have at least 45 minutes per day of treatment by a Registered Nurse (RN), 35 minutes each day from a Licensed Nurse Practitioner (LPN), and 2.6 hours a day from a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). Having earned a degree from a four-year institution, RNs are the most skilled of the three.

A study compiled by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that 9 out of 10 nursing homes in the United States do not meet recommended standards of nursing care time per resident per day. In fact, as many as 66% of nursing homes fall short for RN time, while 38% fall short for LPN time. An astonishing 78% of nursing homes in this country are depriving their residents of the minimal 2.6 hours of CNA time required.

Why is this happening? Quite simply, nursing homes are understaffed. Unfortunately, there are fewer college graduates that are becoming nurses. Of those who go into the profession, most are choosing acute care facilities (hospitals) over nursing homes. This is largely because corporate operators of nursing homes offer lower pay than hospitals.

Also, as this study found, the enormous amount of funding provided to the homes from federal and state assistance programs is not being allocated mainly for staffing. This money is going to the corporate home office, management salaries, administration fees, and property rental. Only a small portion is used for hiring more nurses to treat the patients.

How does this affect the quality of care that our elderly relatives are receiving? Sadly, lower staff-to-patient ratios significantly harm each resident. On a day-to-day basis, the more time a resident has with a nurse or nursing assistant for basic custodial care (dressing, turning, toileting, bathing, eating) the fewer incidences of serious conditions like infectious pressure sores and malnutrition will result. Also, the more time that a nurse spends with a resident increases the probability that a serious condition will be quickly recognized and an injury can be prevented.

To fix this problem, Congress and the state legislatures must specifically earmark funding for nursing homes to only be used for nursing education, training, and recruitment of health care professionals caring for the residents.