do you make sure your pts

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello fellow nurses;-)

my DH and I went to visit his mother in the hosp today...this was her 2nd day, dx dehydration. she is pleasant late 80s with pretty severe dementia. Very nice hospital, quiet,,,no one rushing around...(not like the hospital I use to work at;-) staff at desk talking amongst each other.. anyway, MIL with crust all around her lips, mouth very dry, hence the crust(no swabs around) eyes crusty, hair not brushed and has matted(she has never looked like that.EVER.)it was a somewhat of a shock for my DH to see her like that.. her heels right on the bed(not propped on a pillow)so the heels do not break down....this was at about 5pm. My husband was so angry..he said if they all have time to stand around and talk why hasn't someone cleaned her up?

Anyway..I do not want to bash any other HCP, but i do see his point..we were both just so exhausted, when her nurse strolled over to the room from the front desk we didnt even ask why she wasnt cleaned up..I just did it and was happy to do it for my dear MIL. I know when i was tons busy, running my butt off I still made sure either myself or the aide did the care...hair brushed, face washed off, mouth care(esp. with dementia pt who didnt drink much, would go in and swab their mouths...constant rounds on the floor, esp. when things were quiet..time to catch up and whoever needed some things..got them.

So fellow nurses, my question..do you make sure your aides(if you have them)or you, yourself, make sure your pts are getting at least some minimal grooming done? Thanks.

You are in for a big surprise when you actually become a nurse :coollook:. Techs/aides are becoming a luxury and total patient care is more prevalent than you apparently have a clue about. Not in ICU, but on many other acute care floors.

And when you actually have a tech, it doesn't mean that they'll actually DO anything. :icon_roll

I was in the ICU for my final clinical preceptorship thing this fall. We had a float secretary one day. I thought that dietary had forgotten my patient's tray because it wasn't in the cart. Turned out that the secretary had passed them out and was confused when all the nurses were thanking her. "Don't they usually do that up here? They're supposed to!"

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
IT SICKENS ME that i should be expected to not get a break in 13 hours just so patients can get a bath. yes i have done that MANY MANY times. and will continue to do it but it sickens me to no end. it make the cycle worse in the long term.

I agree! It is a never ending cycle. I wish I had an answer. I am beginning to believe more and more that collective bargaining may be the only answer. I was never a strong proponent of unions, I thought we could work it out, but the opinion has slowly changed to now I feel that the only choice is to collective bargain like police, firefighters, and airline pilots.

I used to have faith that the hospital administrators recognized who made the bottom line......the patients and those who cared for them. It is with a heavy heart that I have to recognize that they don't care for anything other than money.:crying2:

But I don't feel the patients should suffer because administrations have the morals of alley cats. For braking the federal labor laws one could always file a class action suit...but there are more nurses afraid of retaliation and the loss of their jobs, than would sign on for the task. I choose my protest to be that they will not make the patients suffer......:devil:

I think we need people to have RN or LPN to their name before they can post on actual working conditions of real life nurses. We are not talking of NCLEX hospital here. I am sure when most student nurses graduated they were aiming to do the best for their patients but when you start working as a nurse and are responsible to a million things, you learn to make sure your patient is breathing at the end of the shift.

I just worked 3 days in a row and I dont want a student graduating in 5 minutes telling me about how they could have done my job better.

That is why I have "caregiver" in my name and try to be careful of what I give my opinions on, even if I have an opinion. There are some things I have no business commenting on.

But how could you actually PROVE who has RN or LPN at the end of their name (and what about the CNAs?) People can become anyone on the Internet. How would you prove who is who?:confused:

But how could you actually PROVE who has RN or LPN at the end of their name (and what about the CNAs?) People can become anyone on the Internet. How would you prove who is who?:confused:

you really can't prove anything.

but you can get a sense if the poster knows what they're talking about...or not.

cargiver, i enjoy your posts.

leslie

Specializes in ICU, Tele, ER.

4.0? REALLY? Spelling must not be emphasized at your college. Don't assume what the staff is doing at the nurses' station. You don't know what the rest of their shift has involved. I'm not staying over playing catchup because I was combing hair, etc. And I'm not doing it when I haven't been to the restroom all night.

People are surviving illnesses and injuries that were fatal 10 or 20 years ago. As a result, our patients are much sicker, requiring more nursing care. CNA's are valuable, if only we have them. Often, they are 1:1 with confused patients, leaving the nurses with total care.

+ Add a Comment