The Dreaded Death Bath and a Moral/Ethical Dilemma?

Great post. I am a new grad. I will be starting in the SICU on monday. I did my capstone in the MICU. My preceptor ALWAYS bathed and turned the patient....even when there were 9 drugs going in, vent, CRRT, multiple organ failure. Was she wrong?

She wasn't necessarily wrong, I hope she just used good judgement. I mean when an oscillator patient starts dropping sats simply when you're screwing with their ted hose to check pulses then she needs to have sense enough to say hey let me stop and no this patient isn't gonna be bathed or turned until they can tolerate some stimulation.

Just because someone is on every drip and has crappy lungs doesn't mean they can't be turned. You get a feel for what people can and what they can't tolerate. And honestly sometimes you turn them, they tank and you know not to do it again until they stabilize.

Interesting thing though, I was in a skin meeting a few months ago and the WOC nurse was leading it for a new skin initiative on our unit. She was admit that ALL patients can and WILL be turned. Right. I say come on up and you can join in on a round of compressions when we follow the initiative on that patient. We turn unless we have an order not too. Our physicians are more than willing to write an order and physicians note stating that the patient is currently too unstable to turn and to list the reasons why.

Great post. I am a new grad. I will be starting in the SICU on monday. I did my capstone in the MICU. My preceptor ALWAYS bathed and turned the patient....even when there were 9 drugs going in, vent, CRRT, multiple organ failure. Was she wrong?