Vanderbilt Medical Center to have nurses cleaning up

Nurses General Nursing

Published

"Cleaning the room after the case, including pulling your trash and mopping the floor, are all infection-prevention strategies. And it's all nursing, and it's all surgical tech. You may not believe that, but even Florence Nightingale knew that was true," said a hospital administrator to staff in a video obtained by the Channel 4 I-Team."

http://www.wsmv.com/story/23364976/vanderbilt-medical-center-to-have-nurses-cleaning-up

Do you think chemical engineers or lawyers have to mop up floors and clean bathrooms? No.

They wouldn't do it because they wouldn't fall for the "Be a team player!" or the:

...I'm not too proud to do any job ... I'm not an almighty entitled RN...

Yep, "entitled." Why is it entitlement to say, "That's not my job"? When the mailman delivers my mail, he doesn't mow my lawn while he's there. It wouldn't take long, my yard is small. Would you call him, "entitled"?

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Let me get this straight. I do not think I am any better than janitors and housekeepers. Not one bit. By having nursing do their job, we are not only having more work to do that is not "taught" to us in school, but in fact, it is taking pay away from the folks who need these jobs for their own paychecks. Has anyone thought of that?

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Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

Wow. At my current job, we empty trash and strip rooms clean but we have the downtime to do it generally.

I can't imagine doing such on a busy acute care floor. Not wanting to do a task doesn't mean you think you are too good or better than anyone. Heck I would be a housekeeper for my current rate and just stay away from patient care since it has changed so much.

Nurses are already responsible for everything else...meal not right, room too cold, need more linen, meds not strong enough and now...floor is sticky, bathroom not spotless.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

The mailman job is a cute apples to oranges comparison. I do see my mailman go to the sorters desk and sort mail when the sorters are behind. I have also seen cops change tires on the side of the road.

We have surgeons that will come clean rooms with us between cases. Sorry you don't appreciate team work but I do and the team I work with does too. Part of my team is housekeeping, scrub techs, anesthesia techs and other ancillary staff....I'll happily do any of their jobs. I'm happy to do my nursing job and then rather than sit on my rear between cases, help out the other members on my team. I'm happy to take Home my six figure nursing wage on an associate degree and I'm also happy to mop a floor to do it and have a cohesive team effort at work.

I'm just sorry so many of you don't feel the same.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

Some of the stuff is extreme in the Vanderbilt article but a section of it was dedicated to OR staff. My comments specifically relate to that area....

If I was a nurse working on the floor I would quit after my shift. Then again, I wouldn't wanna work on hospital general patient care floors either..... Kudos to those that do and cleaning toilets would not be something I would do.

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New crap...

-"Code team to room 213 STAT!", is now, "Clean team to room 213 STAT"! CFO, where are your priorities?

-"Rapid Response to room 213 STAT!", is now,"Brooms n Mops to room 213 STAT"! CFO, where are your priorities?

-"Nurse manager, my patient in 213 has ST elevation in his EKG. Can you come to the unit and mop the floor after my c-diff patient has been discharged in room 214? Bed board needs this room STAT"! CFO, where are your priorities?

We need to organize fellow educated professionals. Why can't administration mop up the unsightly blood? It's not like we don't have anything to do? CFO, get a mop!

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Does anyone here realize that by having nurses do this housecleaning, jobs are taken away from people who do this for a living?

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Specializes in Acute Mental Health.
The mailman job is a cute apples to oranges comparison. I do see my mailman go to the sorters desk and sort mail when the sorters are behind. I have also seen cops change tires on the side of the road.

We have surgeons that will come clean rooms with us between cases. Sorry you don't appreciate team work but I do and the team I work with does too..

You have surgeons that clean rooms between cases!?! You mean they grab a bucket and mop? I just can't imagine a surgeon helping to clean a room. I've never seen it and would certainly like to.

I think a police officer will help change a tire due to the safety of the person stuck on the side of the road.

I have never seen management grab a mop or clean dirty linen out of a room. Now, I have grabbed a mop and cleaned a mess or two because I had the time. Now, that is a bit different then doing what housekeeping does upon discharge. Do you clean the bathroom down the hall that family uses? I don't clean the kitchen at work, housekeeping does. I simply don't have the time to do it all. I'm not one bit sorry I don't feel the same. Nurses are their biggest budget and so we get dumped on to do so much. I would love for them to try that with the docs! This is just plain wrong.

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I wonder if we're all thinking of the same thing when we say "mopping the floor". Of course we all clean up sudden messy situations that pop up. And, yes, we keep our work areas tidy. This is something all adult human beings do at their job.

If I spill something or a patient urinates on the floor, I don't feel it "below me" to grab some towels and some bleach and clean it up myself. If I have higher priorities at the moment, I might delegate it out to a CNA. But, no, I dont consider it an insult to my status as a nurse or something to clean up a mess.

With that said, it will be a cold day in Hell before I grab a mop just to do the daily washing, or dust furniture or vacuum the rug or stuff like that. I'm not a housekeeper and I don't do busy work. I am a nurse. If I have downtime I will do nursing tasks.

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cleaning toilets would not be something I would do.

Why not? Sounds awful "almighty entitled" to me. I thought you were a team player? At least you were a team player and sorry I didn't feel the same until you found a task even YOU were too good to do.

I used to be a housekeeper. Not in a hospital. That would have probably been cleaner. Didn't mind scrubbing toilets. Liked it a whole lot better than mopping. Thankfully where I worked we had mostly carpets so it was more vacuuming than mopping. Although gum in carpet is a lot harder to clean than gum on tile...

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Specializes in CICU.

I always pick up in my room, pull trash, etc. Especially when we don't have an aide (often on nights). Of course I take care of linens when I bathe patients or change the bed. In cases of spills, I clean it up the best I can and then ask the housekeeper to disinfect or whatever.

I will not be turning over rooms. Its not because I am above that work (helllloooo, code browns are arguable worse the janitorial work, no?) its because I have a hundred other things to take care of on any given shift. Who thinks this stuff up, anyway?

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I am mopping floors at least a couple times a day. I have staff that follow suit too. I lead by example as a charge/management person. We also have housekeeping staff but they are grossly understaffed and underpaid. I have no issue ever mopping up ponds of blood, pee and irrigation that is on our OR floors. I'm not too proud to do any job of any of my subordinate and support staff. If they had 4 more nurses a shift and no housekeepers, so be it.... More RN staff to work with.... I'm not an almighty entitled RN. I'm another employee getting the job done with a license to practice as an RN.

While I know where you are coming from on this Argo (never ask your staff to do what you are unwilling to do), at our facility I don't even know where the mop buckets would be. Our environmental staff each have their own cart that they bring stocked to the floor daily. I wouldn't know where to start getting supplies! I don't feel that I am better than anyone else, however (as this has been pounded into my brain) while I can do environmental services job, they cannot do mine. Just my .02

RenSoul

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