Giving Baths At Night. Agree Or Disagree?

Specialties Geriatric

Published

we have recently started giving baths on night shift at the ltc facility i work at....many of the cna's are upset over this because they feel that it is wrong to drag residents up out of bed in the middle of the night to give a bath to them....we are not really short handed so that is not the reason for giving baths....and the residents we give baths to on 3rd shift are disoriented, but still....so question is do you or do you not agree with giving baths on 3rd shift?

i want to clarify a few details to see if the response is any different....but thank you for all your input thus far....

this is a long-term care facility,,,,and the residents, in which baths are given are unaware of the time of day, due to cognitive status......and some are frequently awake at night anyways, but not always........these factors may not change your views...but i wanted to make sure you had all the information........thank you for your response.....

Specializes in Nursing Home/Subacute/LTC.

I currently work in LTC as a CNA and, we have to get residents showers at 4:30-5:00 AM. The residents are sleeping so well and I feel so terrible to wake them up and give them a shower. It's just for covience for the other shifts. Most of the time we are way too busy to give them a shower because of last rounds. So to answer your question I don't agree with giving them showers a night.

Bedbathgate

I recently had an issue over not waking up a comfortably serttled terminally ill patient and giving her a bedbath!

greensister

Specializes in Critical Care.

Disturbing their sleep cycle will only make people more disoriented. OK to give baths up to about 10-11pm but then quiet time from 11pm-6am.

what about waking people up, especilly the terminally ill, to do a bedbath. This silly manager who had obviously been watching more episodes of Where the Heart Is than was good for her , seemed to imagine that as soon as a district nurse stepped through a patients door she gave a bedbath!!!!!!!!!! What an image--and a wrong one, but I had my whole career trashed on this nonsence!

Maybe this is a bit off the main point of the discussion, but thought it worth mentioning!

greensister

Back in the late 1980's I was a CNA in a LTC facility and we had the same stupid rule for night shift. We started getting our people up at 0400. The whole idea of waking people who are sleeping for a bath is just not right. What upset me even more is that the people they were waking were people who were alert, but thanks to a CVA, couldn't move. After their bath, they were plopped in a geri chair or wheel chair and that is where they stayed until they got put back into bed between 2000-2200. They had no choice and couldn't go lay back down if they wanted to. I told the DON what I thought of the whole thing and was told that while she agreed with me, staffing was such that every shift had to do baths to get them all done.

I worked at another LTC facility in the early 1990's that only did baths on day shift and they staffed day shift with enough people to make it possible.

I really like the idea of a bath team.

Specializes in Cardiac/Thoracic Surgery ICU.

I disagree with giving baths at night unless its an ICU setting as well. Have we gotten so task oriented that we have forgotten basic human need ie sleep?

When I worked at the local LTC facility we did not give baths during the night shift. However, we were assigned to do a lot of skin checks during the night shift. We also had a few patients who received their eye drop meds at 2am.:bluecry1:

Specializes in LTC, Agency, HHC.
we have recently started giving baths on night shift at the ltc facility i work at....many of the cna's are upset over this because they feel that it is wrong to drag residents up out of bed in the middle of the night to give a bath to them....we are not really short handed so that is not the reason for giving baths....and the residents we give baths to on 3rd shift are disoriented, but still....so question is do you or do you not agree with giving baths on 3rd shift?

i want to clarify a few details to see if the response is any different....but thank you for all your input thus far....

this is a long-term care facility,,,,and the residents, in which baths are given are unaware of the time of day, due to cognitive status......and some are frequently awake at night anyways, but not always........these factors may not change your views...but i wanted to make sure you had all the information........thank you for your response.....

if they are awake on 3rd shift, i'd say give them a bath. same thing with early morning. i have worked in ltc for almost 2 years and i'd like to know why everything is expected to get done from 6am until 10pm. we can rarely get things done as it is. maybe the state needs to rethink the ratios if they expect residents to get good care. they complain and complain about how bad nursing homes are but don't stop to look at the big picture. and baths twice a week? yuck! i have worked all 3 shifts, and personally think the night shift should do more. yes, for some residents this is their home, but the kitchen closes at 8 or when ever the staff is done, so if they want coffee and snacks it is dietary's responsibility to provide it. andrarely are here good snacks for the resident to have when they request them. please. just sounds like nights expect to sit around and twiddle their thumbs. i have 2 nurses i work with that get pised off if i have to pass something on to them that i couldn't get done from 2-10. that's just laziness to me.

Specializes in ER, OR, ICU, PACU, POCU, QA, DC Planning.

I don't see a problem if they are already awake. But, are they on a schedule, and then awakened if they are asleep? That would be wrong.

We do baths at night at the LTAC (long term acute care) I work at occasionally. Most of the patients are unaware of the time, anyway. I wait until closer to 5 a.m., though, since the lab people are going to come in and wake them up anyway.

Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.
When I worked at the local LTC facility we did not give baths during the night shift. However, we were assigned to do a lot of skin checks during the night shift. We also had a few patients who received their eye drop meds at 2am.:bluecry1:

The one LTC I worked for also did skin checks on night shift. That was very unfair. Wake up so I can roll you over and look at you. Real nice. Thats just cruel waking up patients for eye drops if they can be scheduled at any time. Who can go back to sleep after that? :uhoh21:

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Bathe them at any time is alright. Nothing worse than a smelly pt. Or a coworker who has eaten at Taco Bell and sits next to you.

I think that giving baths at night should be the choice of the resident. If the resident is confused then no way! Unless they are nightowls and sleep mostly in the daytime. Some people were graveyard shift workers before nursing home residents. I work in a facility that treats the residents like family. We are a small hospital in the mountains and cater to the community and the families are mostly involved daily. Our residents want a night bath we make sure it gets care planned or charted or just make sure its done. I have been in LTC for 30 years and most elderly folks have set routines, such as time to get up , time to eat, where they sit , etc. so why would anyone want to schedule baths to residents that are confused at night. Sounds cruel and unfeeling. thanks for listening

pumpkin92356:uhoh3:

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