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you millions.
Remember, being the caregiver is all about having control and wield-
ing power, while being a patient is all about loss of control and feeling
vulnerable. Patients trust you to take care of them. But what if one of
your caregivers breaks that trust? Caregiver abuse happens more
often than you might think.
Take the case in Texas, where a medical technician was recently
sentenced to 2½ years in prison after he was found guilty of sexually
assaulting a patient as she was coming out of anesthesia (see
"Surgical Tech at Military Center Faces Allegations of Fondling 3
Women" at tinyurl.com/
pxkwxw9). According to reports, 3 women accused the tech of molest-
ing them, although the court only found him guilty of touching 1 of
the women inappropriately. Court documents reveal the man fondled
her breasts and penetrated her with his fingers as she was being
aroused from anesthesia after an outpatient procedure. The woman
told the court she feared she had been raped when she returned home
after the surgery and found blood in her underwear.
Time and opportunity
So what do these cases have in common? Besides the obvious
abuse, there was opportunity for abuse. What creates this opportu-
nity? Usually it's a lack of supervision that can give predators a
chance to commit these crimes against vulnerable patients. These
victims tend to be those who cannot physically defend themselves,
lack the verbal abilities or mental capacity to understand abuse,
and/or are sedated and unaware of what is happening.
For a predator, the unfiltered access to patients and medications
can be attractive. But there are ways to help deter this from happen-
ing at your facility. Even if you're short-staffed or the job opening is
