South Florida nursing assistant suspended. Did she bruise an elderly couple?
A confrontation with Boca Raton retirement community residents diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and involving coffee ended with a certified nursing assistant suspended.
The emergency suspension of Joceylyne Jacques’ certificate by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is the first disciplinary action in her 23 years, seven months as a CNA. An administrative complaint will start the discipline process that can lead to punitive action or exoneration.
Reached by phone, Jacques refused comment to the Miami Herald.
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According to the disciplinary paperwork, Jacques was working at St. Andrews Estates, 6045 Verde Tr. S., where a married couple resided on a memory care floor. Patient Wife, 84, had Alzheimer’s. Patient Husband, 89, had dementia.
On Mar. 11, Wife and Husband sat next to each other as they watched TV and drank coffee in a lounge. Jacques used her cell phone as she sat behind Wife.
“Patient [Wife] complained to Jacques that her phone was too loud, preventing her from being able to hear the television,” the suspension order said. “A verbal argument ensued, and coffee was thrown or spilled on Patient [Wife] and Jacques.”
The noise of the argument brought a facility nurse over.
“When the nurse on duty arrived, she witnessed Jacques forcefully grabbing Patient [Wife] and Patient [Husband] by the hands and/or arms and yelling at the patients,” the suspension order said. “The nurse also observed that Patient [Wife] and Jacques had coffee on their clothes.”
After telling Jacques to leave the area, the nurse checked out the octogenarian couple and spotted “bruises on their hands and/or wrists that they did not have prior to the altercation.”
Jacques said Patient Wife threw coffee on her. But, a Department of Children and Families investigation “concluded that Jacques pushed Patient [Wife’s] hand, causing her to spill coffee on herself, after which she quickly pulled her hand back, spilling coffee on Jacques.”
Also, the suspension order says St. Andrews’ policies state a staffer should step away if a patient “demonstrates aggressive behavior” and call the Director of Nursing.
“Even if Patient [Wife] intentionally threw coffee on Jacques,” the suspension order said. “Jacques’ conduct of yelling at and grabbing the hands and/or wrists of patients under her care indicates that Jacques does not possess the patience, good judgment, good moral character, or compassion to practice as a certified nursing assistant in a manner that is correct and safe for patients.”
