A demented sense of humor amongst nursing home workers at Valley View Skilled Nursing Facility seems to have backfired-- and has landed a group of them jobless and facing criminal charges. 

The fallout stems from an incident in which four employees at the California nursing home, covered dementia patients at the facility with lubricant from head to toe, making the patients slippery for staff on the next shift to handle. 

In the wake of the incident and following investigations from the nursing homes parent company, Horizon West Healthcare and the California Attorney General's Bureau of Elder Abuse, it was determined that four nursing home employees were directly responsible for the prank and two other employees sat by idly and did nothing when they saw their co-workers acting inappropriately.

Regardless of their role in the incident, all face misdemeanor charges of injury to an elder or dependent adult, battery committed on an elder or dependent adult and battery committed on hospital property. Read more about this case of nursing home abuse here.

Certainly, there will be those who think these criminal charges are an over-reaction for an incident in which there was no physical harm to these patients. Despite such claims, these obviously disrespectful acts indeed are a form of abuse and are frequently the beginning of progressively more daring stunts.  What do you think?

Related Nursing Homes Abuse Blog Entries:

Nursing Home Abuse: Hidden Camera Catches Nurse Yanking The Wheelchair Of A Disabled Patient

Criminal Charges Filed Against Assisted Living Employee In Relation To Resident Suffering Burns While Eating

Criminal Charges May Be Brought Against Chicago-Area Nursing Home In Connection To Resident's Death

Three New York Nursing Home Employees Charged With Abusing Elderly