Alberta care home unjustly dismisses nursing attendant over complaint

An Alberta long-term care home overreacted to the complaints of abuse from a resident’s family when it dismissed a nursing attendant, an arbitrator has ruled.

Jannet Smykalski worked at St. Michael’s Long Term Care Centre in Edmonton and was hired in October 2004..

Smykalski worked on the first floor, where many residents required total personal care due to various medical conditions. Some patients with dementia could be prone to aggressive behaviour, for which staff underwent training on how to manage while protecting themselves and the residents from harm.

In 2018, the daughter of a resident with dementia noticed bruising on the resident’s arms and legs so she placed a hidden camera in the resident’s room.

In September, they found several clips — with poor quality audio and video — showing Smykalski and another attendant treating the resident in a way that they felt was inappropriate. The resident hit the other attendant while they were washing her and the other attendant raised her hand and brought it down in what appeared to be a slap. After the incident, Smykalski turned off the lights and TV, leaving the resident in darkness.

The footage also showed another occasion where Smykalski got shampoo in the resident’s eye while washing her hair roughly, but not apologizing.

The resident’s daughter notified the nurse in charge and St. Michael’s launched an investigation.

The director of resident care spoke to the resident, who didn’t appear to be in distress but had faint bruises on her arms. She met with the resident’s daughter and granddaughter, who showed her the video clips. Then she met with Smykalski, who was shocked when she was told about the video footage and that she was under investigation.

Smykalski said that she didn’t do anything wrong: she had done her job and the resident was safe. She apologized for allowing the shampoo to get into the resident’s eye but denied seeing any resident abuse that should be reported. She also said she had left the door to the lit hallway open after turning off the TV and lights, which was standard practice.

Smykalski and a union representative met with the HR director and the care manager the next day, Oct. 5, and they terminated her employment for cause. The termination letter cited “serious abusive behaviour, serious physical harm, rough handling and serious emotional harm.” It also said that her failure to intervene with or report the other attendant’s abuse of the resident was a violation of St. Michael’s zero-tolerance abuse policy. The other attendant was also dismissed.

The arbitration board noted that the other attendant’s alleged slap of the resident “occurred in a fraction of a second” while Smykalski  was involved in cleaning and changing the resident, and even the video didn’t show an actual slap. Her claim that she didn’t see a slap was credible, said the board.

The board also found that the evidence supported Smykalski assertion that she turned off the TV and lights in the resident’s room, because she thought she needed rest — it was evening and the resident had just been through a physically difficult procedure. The resident had dementia, was a falls risk and Smykalski made a reasonable assessment that she needed peace and quiet, said the board, adding that the poor quality of the video wouldn’t show if the door was left open.

The board determined that Smykalski didn’t abuse the resident and didn’t witness any abusive conduct by her colleague. The shampoo in the eye was accidental, and while the resident’s daughter may have felt Smykalski treated her in an uncaring way, that was not the same as abuse, said the board.

The board found there was no cause for discipline and left it to the parties to determine the details of reinstatement and compensation.