Housekeeping

[studentnursemon86]

So, I was wondering what the housekeeping staff does at other hospitals.

At mine, they are usually given a floor or two. They do the usual mopping and dusting along with emptying trash cans.

In the ER they are also supposed to clean the rooms and stretchers in between patients.

During the day the techs and nurses often do this because of the high turnover in patients; however at night the nurses and techs are still doing it.

I ask because tonight was not the busiest of nights, but far from slow. I had to take a patient to ultrasound and chaperone the ultrasound because the tech was a male. As we approached the ultrasound the one housekeeper was outside on his phone. I figured he was on a break and moved on. An hour later while leaving ultrasound he was STILL THERE; in the same spot; on his phone.

All I could do was shake my head :-/

[funtimes]

I think its universal that housekeeping tends to have lots of free time compared to people involved in patient care.

Still, if you think housekeeping has it so good you are free to apply for a housekeeping position. Hopefully you wont mind breathing in bleach and chemicals all shift every shift, along with doing a job that probably doesn't pay very well and has little to no room for advancement.

[studentnursemon86]

I'm not saying that it is an easy job; but there should be some level of accountability.

This employee was on his work phone and people were trying to get ahold of him.

I never tried to insinuate that it was a great job, however I have found multiple people in that department do not take their job seriously. They disappear for hours (some to go sleep).

[funtimes]

When I worked night shift at another hospital, the techs would sometimes have to clean rooms, especially if we were short on beds. We had to do this in between doing patient care.

I didn't mind doing it really. It was sort of a stress free zen like job where you could zone out and relax a little while going about your work, or turn on the TV.

Having said that Id never want to do it all the time.

[studentnursemon86]

I don't mind doing it. My issue was that the guy was on his work phone for about an hour on what sounded like a personal call from what I overheard in passing. People were trying to reach him to clean a room from a patient who had C.diff which only housekeeping staff can clean; not nurses or techs.

[Paws2people]

Housekeeping and the Maintainence Dept get away with murder where I work. They sleep (I work nights) in the lounge for hours, hang out in groups talking and fooling around, smoke ciggs and pot in the parking lot. Our floors, bathrooms, pt rooms, equipment etc are filthy. Often pts and their visitors complain the pt bathrooms are gross. We voice our concerns to their manager, but it falls on deaf ears.

The dept has weird rules too. They won't clean anything with a plug. (Huh? What about the beds?? Call lights/TV remote? Lol) Bedpans, urinals, basins, etc must be spic and span before they go in the garbage. We can't have too much weight in the garbage cans. Yet there are no extra trash bags or staff around to change the bag when it gets full. We take out our own linens. Housekeeping has a lot of rules for us to follow... It's insane.

[amoLucia]

To Paws2people - I bet your housekeeping & maint staff are union, which wrote what they could and could not do.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

Ours are protected by unions. It amazes me on how little they do and get away with it! They argued that the CNAs shouldn't clean our isolettes and now that they have the job it is like pulling teeth to get them to do it and do it right! Also we go 2 shifts sometimes without our garbage getting pulled and calling on an off shift to get a bed spot cleaned...forget it! We have complained, etc but they always have an excuse and the union backs them up. It is so frustrating!

[Paws2people]

To Paws2people - I bet your housekeeping & maint staff are union, which wrote what they could and could not do.

Yup! You are correct!!

[studentnursemon86]

Just tonight. An area of the the ER that has been closed for 4 hours. Garbage and gowns on the floor and Burger King cups laying around...

I guess I know what I'll be doing later before day shift arrives