It is true that a patient's request for attention is not always immediately answered. There may be an emergency elsewhere in the building that requires the staff's attention. Other residents may be receiving care at the same time so that assigned staff has to delay responding to the request. Repeated incidents should be brought to the attention of the nurse in charge or the administrator. It also means that one of every five residents is a man.
Some married couples enter nursing homes together and share a room.
The patient's bill of rights mandates that this be permitted in Medicaid and Medicare institutions. However, the continued social and psychological support of family and friends is essential to the patient's well-being. Many families visit daily. Most nursing homes have liberal visiting hours and are willing to extend those hours in special circumstances. Nursing home staff members are encouraged to make visitors feel welcome and, ideally, relationships between residents and their family and friends continue as they were before the nursing home placement.