Patients who are too unstable to turn

[TemperStripe]

Does anyone have any suggestions for preventing skin breakdown on a patient that is too unstable to turn? I was moving his arms and legs and tilting the bed hourly at least. And of course, he pooped 3x...of all the patients that you don't want pooping...so he did get turned two times on my shift. When we turned him for his chest xray I was amazed that there wasn't any breakdown yet (after 2 days of laying totally flat) but I'm wondering if you guys have any other suggestions. Logistically, we were not able to get him on a specialized mattress either.

Caroline

[MomRN0913]

we hope that patient is on a specialty rotation bed, if not, I am the nurse who choses life over bedsores. Other nurses chose turning their patients because they don't want to look like they didn't do anything on their shift. Screw that. You know how many patients code and die during am or pm care? Or during turning. if they are too unstable at the time, I don't turn them. And when i do, I get a bunch of people to do it fast.

We had a patient who would go asystole anytime we turned him. he had ALS. He was having a particularly bad day with that on the previous shift. So when he was more on the unstable side, I just didn't turn him.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

We've got one on the unit right now. Downright scary, I'll tell you! We can't let this one even cough or we've got no BP.