Nursing Home Workers Get Jail For Patient Prank

UKIAH, Calif. (AP) -- Two former nursing assistants at an Ukiah nursing home have been sentenced to 20 days in jail for allegedly orchestrating a prank that involved coating dementia patients with ointment so they would be slippery for workers on the next shift.

   The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa says that Monica Rose Smith and Jennifer Louise Burton also were sentenced Tuesday to two years' probation for misdemeanor elder abuse.

   Three other defendants had previously received community service for their roles in the November 2009 incident at Valley View Skilled Nursing Home.

   Smith, 52, Burton, 34, and three others involved in the incident also had their state nursing assistant licenses revoked, according to the District Attorney's Office.

   The Mendocino County district attorney says none of the seven patients who were layered head to foot in the ointment was injured.
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