I agree with Monster in regards to blaming the system. That doesn't mean I don't condemn the nurses for doing what they have done, but a lot of times it is not as easy as saying 'they are evil people'.
I am a nurse. Worked in hospitals, ER etc. Later on, I studied to be a geriatric nurse. I didn't HAVE to, a lot of nurses go from hospital to geriatric homes with no additional training. That is where the trouble starts.
Geriatric care is entirely different from working in a hospital. People in geriatric care homes very often not only have physical, but mental problems. Without the geriatric training, you have no idea how to handle that. You don't know how to treat the old lady who thinks you are her daughter, and bursts into tears if you try to tell her you aren't. You don't know what to do with the old lady that refuses to let you wash her, and that all of a sudden slaps you if you try to help her out of bed. You have no clue how to deal with the old man who spits at you and shouts obsceneties at you.
When I worked in geriatric care, there was one elderly woman who was incontinent. She would create a horrible mess at night, pulling diapers off, smearing on the walls...you get the picture. The same woman would fight with every bit of strength she had if I tried to clean her up. No matter how gentle I tried to be, no matter how much I tried to explain to her, she would scream, spit, scratch, throw feces at me. She bit me once, so hard that I needed to get shots afterwards. She ripped some of my hair out. She even slapped me in the face, so hard that it bruised. The next morning, she would be the nicest person in the world, and wouldn't remember anything.
It got to the point where I dreaded going into her room. I hate to admit it, but there was a point at which I just wanted to slap her back. I never did though because I understood that despite everything, it wasn't her fault. She didn't know what she was doing.
Somebody who doesn't have the training would have cracked at some point, and either quit the job, refused to go into the room (which happened with some of my colleagues), or....hit her back.
I've seen it happen. I had to report one of my own colleagues. I saw one elderly woman flinch when my colleague came near her, and I took her to one side and asked her why that woman would react to her like that. She broke into tears and told me that that particular woman, who always seemed nice and friendly, was for some reason targeting my colleague, calling her names, urinating on the floor when she was in the room just to spite her, throwing wet diapers at her, and at some point, she simply couldn't take it anymore. She went to the manager, who - a nurse herself, but with no geriatric training - told her to just stick it out. No help, nothing, because the manager didn't have the required training to deal properly with the situation. So in the end, my colleague hit back - literally. She was deeply ashamed of herself - she wasn't a bad person, she was just a person who was at absolute breaking point and who made a very, very wrong decision.
I'm not saying that is always the case. Some nurses, especially in geriatric care, go on power trips - most elderly people can't defend themselves, so they are easy targets. But in just as many cases, the nurses are, in a way, victims themselves. Victims of a system that just doesn't work.
And on a side note - some of the old people are horrible, despiccable human beings. Which does NOT justify treating them like this, all I'm saying is that they aren't always little angels.
