Role of the Nurse Aide - Client Rights
Core concepts
Residents retain rights while receiving care. Know these: dignity and respect, privacy, confidentiality, choice, freedom from abuse and unnecessary restraint, personal possessions, visitors, mail, telephone, participation in care planning, refusal of treatment, grievance without retaliation, and access to records. Your job is to protect and honor these rights in daily practice: knock and wait before entering, close curtains and doors, cover the resident during care, let them make choices when safe, and keep information private from roommates, other families, and callers. Report any violation you witness, including a coworker who is rough, threatens, or humiliates a resident. If a resident refuses care, accept the refusal, tell the nurse, and document it.
Traps to watch for
- Sharing a resident's condition with a curious family member or friend on the phone.
- Using a restraint for convenience or without an order and required monitoring.
- Withholding a call or visit as punishment.
- Giving information to a resident's neighbor that the resident did not authorize.
- Discussing one resident's care in front of a roommate.
- Ignoring a complaint or treating a resident differently after they filed a grievance.
Rule of thumb
If the resident would be embarrassed to hear it, do not say it, and if the resident says no, stop and report.