Bless you dear Doug for doing the right thing. I am so sorry that you have been treated unfairly.

Mary is right - there are few resources to help the NA who is targeted in this way. However, we are in touch with your local ombudsman, the National Ombudsman Center, the Senior Law Center and your Client Advocacy organization in Alaska and hope to mobilize some support for you. I will send copies of these memos directly to you.

In the meantime, I would like to ask you to write me a note about what happened, who you talked to and the type of retaliation you have received. I want to do an article about this - dont worry I would not mention your name nor State - I have a ton of these and we need to make this an issue. I plan to submit to Nursing Homes Magazine and maybe NA Monthly.

Now on the other side - and to other NAs who are in a similar position, we would really encourage you to
1. Try to go through your chain of command - dont accuse, just use ambiguous terms like "it seems to me that he is getting billed for items he did not receive. Who do you think would be best to look into this?" Then log the date,time, words and response you geet. It is very important to keep this non threatening.

If you have gone to the legitimate channels and the problem has not been resolved, then contact your ombudsman and also contact us. We can issue a request for investigation without ever involving you. In this way you are protected. and these agencies are required to report back to us their findings. If they renig, then we go to the newspapers - but again we keep you out of it.

If someone is accusing you of stealing over this, then you need to go to Ombudsman, talk with your State NATP officer and go to legal aide. It is against the law to file unjust claims against you and to damage your professional reputation.

Lets keep in touch. I know I have one email from you in the hopper and will watch for your next email.

Hang in there.
Genevieve Gipson RN MEd RNC, Director
National Network of Career Nursing Assistants
[email protected] - email
www.cna-network.org - web site

~ 2004~
Nursing Assistants: Specialist in the Art of Caring
A professional organization for nursing assistants since 1977