I go to my father's assisted living place and as I get to his apartment an aide passed by who I only have seen occasionally in the last several months. I say hello and they say hello. I go into my father's apartment My father looks good, much better than last week. On his dresser is a magnificent bouquet of flowers that my brother and sister-in-law brought over earlier. I marvel at that and sit down and we start talking, like usual
About 5 minutes later there is a knock on the door. It's the same aide I said hello to. They come in and say "I want to see the flowers!". And so they marvel at them, just like most people would and then we engage in pleasant small talk. This goes on for a few minutes then they leave.
I didn't think anything about this incident until I left when it crossed my mind that the aide knew I had just got there. Why did they interrupt minutes later with something that wasn't at all health related? Typically they only come in to dispense medication, do a treatment or to clean the room. They also do engage in conversation when they do those things.
Could this have been a pretext to see how I was interacting with my father? Do aides watch for this kind of thing?
Its not the staffs responsibility to oversee the lives of residents. The only time they may get involved is if a visitor tends to upset a resident. The resident can ask that the person not be allowed in. Or, make the family aware of it so they have the ability to ban the person. But, I don't really think if a family member asked for a staff member to spy on a resident they are obligated to do that or should. I just think its Lisa making a mountain out of a molehill.
It is - in a good way. I just want to know if it's not unusual for aides to check in with residents if residents are having visitor(s) who the aides do not know.
Understanding why things really happened and people's motivations are something I believe everyone should strive to know. The world would be a far better place if that was the case.
My in laws aide, for example, used to go into her room by herself when any of us came over. Now she doesn’t remove herself or her niece from the sitting room meaning conversations within the family have to be arranged around her.