nurse

Published on: November 14, 2022

Who’s Watching Your Elderly Relative In The Nursing Home?

A recent news article tells the story of a tragic nursing home death. An elderly resident was found dead in a wooded area near the facility. How did it happen? How could a nursing home lose a resident?

The elderly assisted living resident had been absent from the facility for several days. You would think one of the nurses would have noticed? The facility now claims it thought the resident was on an outing with family. Instead, the elderly resident had wandered from the home. Nobody saw her leave. Nobody signed her out. You would think the nursing home followed a sign-out procedure for residents leaving with family???

The nursing home failed to monitor its elderly residents. A simple check-in / check-out procedure (if followed) would have prevented this death. How can a nursing home fail to follow such a basic procedure? While that nursing home was not in Alabama, we have plenty of facilities in our state that also fail to monitor their elderly residents.

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Published on: May 17, 2021

Nursing — A Dangerous Job Before A Pandemic Made It Worse

By Jeff Blackwell

Several years ago I wrote about one of the most dangerous jobs when it comes to work-related injuries — Nursing. You can read my prior article at, Health Care Workers Have High Rates Of Injury. At one time, a National Public Radio (NPR) study even called nursing “one of the most dangerous jobs in America.”

What about jobs like construction or law enforcement? Those professions have pretty high risks of injury. According to research, back and other injuries occur at much higher rates in nursing than in the construction industry.

Think about it. Nurses are on their feet for pretty long shifts. And, they regularly lift or move heavy patients. How many professions require a worker to routinely lift or move objects weighing over 100 pounds? Not many. Keep in mind — Some patients don’t cooperate which makes the lifting much more difficult. Ask a hospital nurse about moving an uncooperative patient!

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Published on: January 20, 2020

A Shameful History Of Workplace Injuries

By Jeff Blackwell

Workers at meat and poultry plants suffer some of the highest rates of occupational injury. In his 1906 book, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair wrote of the occupational dangers within Chicago’s meat processing plants. A hundred years later, food processing plants still function as if human labor and lives are expendable.

Chicago is famous for the meat-packing industry. In Alabama, these plants are typically chicken processing plants. They are places that employ people at low wages and expose them to non-stop processes. You don’t need me to tell you that many of these plants have a shameful history of workplace injuries and deaths. The numerous news stories already tell that history. Too many of these plants view people as cheap and expendable labor. But, that’s NOT how we should value human lives.

Over the last twenty years, I’ve represented numerous workers injured in Alabama poultry plants. Shoulder, arm and hand injuries are rampant. The assembly line moves too fast for any human to work long-term without injury. Yet, it’s more than just rapid assembly line injuries. The lack of safety concern also produces many injuries from falls, forklifts, and heavy lifting without proper equipment.

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