We've seen reality shows featuring dirty jobs, cops and coal miners. I wonder if it's time for one showing a day-in-the-life of nursing home workers. Most of us don't give much thought to what goes on inside of nursing homes, that is until a friend or family member needs to reside in one. What might appear as a quiet, slow-paced, restful setting is usually a stress-filled, physically-demanding environment for the people who work in them. Lifting and moving patients from beds, toilets, recliners, showers, and wheelchairs can cause all sorts of injuries, but then throw on top of that, the body fluids and infectious agents, staffing shortages, and violent patients and family members. On second thought, it's probably not a tv show that would attract many viewers.
More than 3 million people are employed in US nursing and residential care facilities, where the average wage for non-supervisory employees is about $14 per hour. According to the latest survey by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of work-related injuries and illnesses, the injury-incident rate in 2010 for workers employed in nursing homes was 8.6 per 100 full-time employees (FTEs), more than twice the rate for all private sector workers. When people think of dangerous jobs, I'm sure many think of coal miners or construction workers---not nursing aides at nursing homes.
