Are nurses able to shower after shift?

[Humaneclowninscrubs]

Hi I was wondering if most employers have locker rooms with showers so staff can shower after shift and then go home. Well clock out, shower then go home.

[JKL33]

16 hours ago, amoLucia said:

Just an after-thought - all across the country, facilities are surveyed & held to standards by Dept of Health and JCAHO. Standards established by CDC and public health officials.

THEY'VE NEVER QUESTIONED YOUR SHOWERING ISSUES AND INFECTION CONTROL! To my knowledge, I doubt any deficiency has ever been cited for lack of showers for staff.

If that's good enough for them,  ......

Well, how can you expect anyone to have time to worry about stuff like this when people are drinking water at the nurse's station??? ?☠️?

[FlameHeart, CNA]

I personally going into Health Care as a CNA soon am prepared to deal with the more as some people would call it "gross" part of patient care. However personally I have had to care for 2 patients who bowel movements: 1 I had to change and clean every day I worked for him and the other I showered him a few times a week.

 

Both times I did not get any excerment (not sure how to spell that) on my scrubs, or shoes, or face (thank God), nor in my car to drive home.

 

I suppose if I had enough time to take care of each patient properly with the proper equipment and hygiene practices in place I would most likely not have any issues.

 

Except in the (hopefully) rare case where somehow I do get body fluids on my scrubs or shoes or face area then I would immediately do what I can for my head and arms cleansing, then go to the shower area, wash off everything with my clothes on, strip, put clothes in bag for at home washing machine and drier, shower with no clothes, put on fresh clean scrubs (I must remember to always bring extras), then go back to work.

 

Somehow I just don't see wearing scrubs with excerment, vomit, blood, etc. on them running from patient to patient all day would be allowed as that is a good way to spread bacteria that kills people.

 

So unlikely to get my scrubs dirty, but if I do then I need the option of a shower and change of scrubs for mine and the patients safety, health, and well-being.

[FlameHeart, CNA]

On 4/16/2021 at 7:25 AM, JKL33 said:

Well, how can you expect anyone to have time to worry about stuff like this when people are drinking water at the nurse's station??? ?☠️?

Aren't you supposed to stay hydrated to avoid headaches, fatigue, cramps, etc.?

If anything, this should be a requirement by law.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Just now, ChristopherGllardoJr. said:

Aren't you supposed to stay hydrated to avoid headaches, fatigue, cramps, etc.?

If anything, this should be a requirement by law.

Ha ha good luck with that.

[FlameHeart, CNA]

Just now, SmilingBluEyes said:

Ha ha good luck with that.

I know from experience in my short time in Navy Basic Training that if you drink enough of it water is just like coffee.

Whenever I couldn't do the exercises they used to punish me with, they made me take a water break where I drank about 1 liter of water really fast (in hindsight, not smart, I hear drinking water too fast is bad for you) then it was like got an expresso injection!

I learned from the charts in the bathroom in the military that if you're urinating clear liquid then you are hydrated properly! 

[TriciaJ, RN]

On 4/14/2021 at 1:59 PM, ChristopherGllardoJr. said:

Question: Do any of you who choose to shower at Home after a shift at work ever think about how contaminated and dangerous a breeding ground for bacteria your cars are becoming?

Wouldn't this put those whom you allow to ride in these cars at risk of bacterial infections in addition to yourself especially if you have vulnerable children or elderly to take care of?

You are aware of the reality of transference of bacteria from one surface to the next?

This is how people catch colds, they touch their face, then touch a doorknob and then someone else touches that doorknob and the still living virus on that doorknob gets on their hand and they rub their eye and that gives the virus access into their body to grow and replicate.

Do you take any appropriate actions in regard to this like spraying and wiping down everything on the inside and outside of your cars every day or regularly?

Also taking all this into consideration, your shoes really should be cleaned every day as well.

I am really surprised by all these replies by Professional Health Care Workers.

I have only worked as a Home Health Aide and am going into my CNA Schooling soon, but even I know these basic health rules.

Thank you for sharing your responses as I now know to never get into someone else's vehicle or get any where near them without first asking: 

1. Are they a Health Care worker?

2. Regardless of their job, what disinfection protocals do they use for themselves and their vehicles?

This will help tremendously as I start my CNA Schooling and be extra cautious around people even with COVID19 Protocals in place.

As for myself: 

I will as a future CNA refuse to work anywhere without a working and appropiately regularly cleaned and maintained shower at work.

I will first take off all my clothes in the lockerroom, place them in the facility laundry or in a disposable hazardous waste bag to take home and wash at home.

Walk into the shower with my shoes and wash myself along with my shoes scrubbed throughly or place them in the bag with the rest of my contaminated clothing to wash later.

Then after showering, drying off and change into a new set of clothing with my off-work shoes.

Then get into my car and go home.

Unless a co-worker has done all of these things as well, and I have witnessed it myself, they will not be allowed to come near me or my vehicle, assuming the COVID19 danger decreases enough to allow such things.

I'm trying to picture Adrian Monk as a CNA.

[TriciaJ, RN]

On 4/16/2021 at 7:25 AM, JKL33 said:

Well, how can you expect anyone to have time to worry about stuff like this when people are drinking water at the nurse's station??? ?☠️?

That's right.  You're supposed to get your hydration on your BREAKS.  Don't you know what those are? ?

[FlameHeart, CNA]

14 hours ago, TriciaJ said:

I'm trying to picture Adrian Monk as a CNA.

I am very familiar with this character as I did watch Monk years ago growing up.

And yes I was very much like him as a teenager into my mid 20's and while I was never officially disgnosed I determined I had Obessessive Compulsive Disorder.

 

However, while an obessesion with hygiene can be a major sign of someone having OCD, that is not the primary symptom of the disorder, but rather a Compulsion to do repetitive tasks because somehow these actions have been linked within the person's mind with negative outcomes in reality, but in actuality are not logical connections.

Someone with OCD may not actually be clean-obessed at all, but you will notice if you watch them 24/7 (because hiding this behaviour is a skill one develops at some point) that they do repetitive tasks for example: they may lock and unlock the door to their house 3 times, or open and close the mustard lid 4 times, etc.

Of course it understandable that you would not know any of this if you had based your understanding of my behaviour with what you see on TV, much like people who base their understanding of Autistic Men on the movie Rainman, etc.

For me the root cause was because I did not know what was real and therefore believed whatever I wanted reality to be was what it was, which is actually a horrible reality as fear was the strongest emotion it determined what I believed was real.

Thankfully around 25 years old I had a conversation with God and now I am a Christian and my reality is based on the knowledge that God is real whether I believe in him or not therefore whatever he tells me I believe is real and the same God I came to know personally is the same one I see in The Holy Bible and no where else.

But I now know that germs are real and out concern for the people I know at home and the people I care for as a Health Care Worker I want to do the most I possibly can prevent illness and death and promote wellness and life.

Instead of quoting my earlier responses, please do you research and read my later replies before posting in this topic.

I already stated I have taken care of patients before: 1 had to change and clean after his bowel movement everyday I worked for him as he was bedridden and the other patient I showered a few times a week.

I did not get anything but my hands and arms dirty and I cleaned them and went into my car to drive home every day I worked.

So I now this is possible, but I do not think at all strange that if a worker at Hospital gets blood, feces, or vomit on their clothing that they should be allowed to take a shower and change clothing before interacting with a different patient.

I learned that apparently it was not a custom to clean the materials or use new ones or wash your hands before going to the next patient when taking care of patients in hospitals and when it did become a practice the death rate decreased.

Surely this has to be in Nursing education and all medical education at some point and in Hospitals as a rule that you must not go from patient to patient with dirty hands and infected clothing or you could kill someone?

[TriciaJ, RN]

4 hours ago, ChristopherGllardoJr. said:

I am very familiar with this character as I did watch Monk years ago growing up.

And yes I was very much like him as a teenager into my mid 20's and while I was never officially disgnosed I determined I had Obessessive Compulsive Disorder.

 

 

 

 

Instead of quoting my earlier responses, please do you research and read my later replies before posting in this topic.

 

Sweetie, no one has diagnosed Monk with anything.  He IS obsessed with cleanliness.  You said yourself you will not get into anyone's car unless you know it has been properly disinfected.  This, and some of the other things you said are a bit over the top.

I think working as a CNA will be incredibly stressful for you, as it would be for Mr. Monk if he were to choose that line of work.  I can see you working in a field that requires very meticulous attention to detail, which is a highly sought-after trait in many industries.  I do wish you the best in whatever career you embark on.

[londonflo]

On 4/28/2021 at 10:24 PM, ChristopherGllardoJr. said:

I would immediately do what I can for my head and arms cleansing, then go to the shower area, wash off everything with my clothes on,

Why wash with you soiled clothes on? , washing those same clothes in your washing machine at home at a  hot temperature would be sufficient to kill or wash away anything.....it all goes into the sewer whether in the hospital or home. 

By the way, while you are doing all this washing, with clothes on, then off, then redressing,  who is caring for your patients? When health care providers get urine/stool on their clothing, they can borrow scrubs from the hospital..but this should not be a frequent happening. 

[Tacocat, ADN, RN]

On 4/29/2021 at 4:50 PM, ChristopherGllardoJr. said:

So I now this is possible, but I do not think at all strange that if a worker at Hospital gets blood, feces, or vomit on their clothing that they should be allowed to take a shower and change clothing before interacting with a different patient.

If you get blood, poo, or emesis on your scrubs, usually the hospital has scrubs you can change into. That is usually correct. Some nurses opt to keep an extra set of scrubs at work, or in their car or backpacks. That is also fine. 

I learned that apparently it was not a custom to clean the materials or use new ones or wash your hands before going to the next patient when taking care of patients in hospitals and when it did become a practice the death rate decreased.

Yes. Ever hear of Florence Nightingale? 

Surely this has to be in Nursing education and all medical education at some point and in Hospitals as a rule that you must not go from patient to patient with dirty hands and infected clothing or you could kill someone?

You should wash your hands constantly, yes. Hospitals often require frequent handwashing, including before AND after patient contact. 

Holy potatoes there's a lot to unpack here. 

But you don't seem to understand how disease transmission works or what standard precautions are. 

Some of the nurses on this board have been nurses for 30+ years. Bold of you to come here and assume licensed nurses don't know anything about infection control and spread germs to all their patients willy-nilly, considering you have not yet been formally educated. 

 

[Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN]

This is from my post seven years ago. It may look familiar to some of the other COBs here.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

These quotes are from another list I'm on, but they speak to the greater scope of the OP's question.

  Quote

>>>>>

I wrote about a CNA who carefully gloved at the beginning of the shift to do her VS. One evening I noticed that she was going from one room to the next with her gloved hands up in the air similar to a surgeon going to the operating table. I spoke to her about the need to change gloves for each patient and to wash her hands before donning new gloves. She said...(are you ready for this?) I wear gloves to protect myself from their nasty diseases....and I don't need to change gloves all the time, it makes my hands sore. My manager did nothing about it....despite this CNA having been written up many times.

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Every time I go to the supermarket deli counter, I have this sudden urge to bite my poor cuticles because of what I witness ! Yup, they all wear gloves alright ! And w/ them on, they scratch their heads, noses, answer the phone, open the frig door, touch the counter top etc etc...and then, receive each slice of whatever DIRECTLY into their dirty hands ! This gets me crazy, so I inevitably call them over and very quietly, so not to embarrass them, I inform them that: #1 I am connected w/ the Dep't of Health (true) and #2 They have just violated sanitary protocol re: food safety guidelines. Then I politely request a change of gloves while they give me dirty looks. After this I find the manager and inform him that I am an RN affiliated w/ the Dep't of Health and his staff is in violation of the health code for food safety and ask who has instructed them in proper glove technique.

This is when they tell me that none of them have had formal instruction. I ask why, and they proceed to shrug.

Do you know that I actually volunteered to instruct them because I can't take it anymore ?

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How about the night in the ER when an RN almost bolused 10 cc of air into my cousin,s body because she was ready to connect the IV tubing w/o flushing it first, and another RN who mistakenly discarded a part to an IV set up into the trash can, and reached into it w/ her gloved hand to retrieve it so she could start the IV. When confronted , she said "oh, it's OK...it's still wrapped ! So, with gloved hands, she was about to touch and use equipment which was touching garbage simply because the OUTSIDE was the only part that was no longer clean. Is she kidding me ??

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Years ago, I was out to dinner with 3 friends at their favorite "Olive Garden" restaurant. While we were waiting for our dinner, the table next to us was vacated.

The busboy (man) began to clear off the table of the dinnerware, silverware, glasses, etc. He then reached into his back pocket...NO GLOVES...and hauled out his rag to wipe off the table. Since it was a table for 4, he had to go around it. I was absent-mindedly observing him when I saw him wipe half of the table....then BLOW HIS NOSE INTO THE RAG...and then continued wiping down the rest of the table! I have not been able to set silverware onto a table in ANY restaurant since then. I ALWAYS ask for more napkins and lay my silverware on that. If no napkin appears, I simply wait until my meal arrives and then I place the extra silverware on the rim of the plate!

I also told the maitre' d of the incident and he was horrified! He told us that he was going to report it to management, etc. Several weeks/months later, we were in again and he made it a point to tell us that management "had taken care of the situation and I assure you it won't happen again." My take?....I think they just fired the guy.

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'I have seen so many of these things go on, I can't even begin to recall them, but reading about the shops, deli, etc...reminds me of the time a friend and I went to lunch at "Old Country Buffet." As we sat there eating we watched a clean-up person go around to wash off the tables that people had used. I was incredulous as I watched her wipe the table with her damp towel, then the vinyl seat cushions of the booth , and THEN....still with the same cloth, not even reversing it, not that it would help....she wiped off the tops of the salt and pepper shakers. Then she proceeded to the next booth to do the same with the same towel all the time. So now we are shaking salt and pepper thru the shaker holes that have people's (butt) germs on them . I did tell the manager how disgusting and unsanitary this was and either stop it immediately and permanently or get reported to the health dept..

One of my pet peeves in hospitals are pillows that fall on the floor, get kicked around a bit and then get placed back under the patient's head. "Could we please change the pillow case first????????" How dirty is a hospital floor??

.................................

You know, I hear you about the hospital vignettes, and we should always continue to do all we can to protect people who have indwelling lines, immune weakness, and other well-known risks for iatrogenic infection with the nasty bugs we warehouse in our hospitals. And of course, nobody's in favor of air boluses, although unless you have a right-to-left shunt from a septal defect the contents of an IV tube (which is a lot less than 10 cc, you can measure it) which enters your venous system is HARMLESS. (think about it-- where does it go? Right atrium, right ventricle, pulmonary artery, pulmonary capillary bed, breaking up into smaller and smaller bubbles all the while....and is lost out the alveoli. It takes a HUGE volume of air, like 50cc, to make a big enough airlock to hurt an adult.) And because left heart pressures are higher than right (both atrial and ventricular), the chances of air going from right to left and thence to the arterial circulation are minuscule to none. This is also why DVT or clots dislodged when irrigating peripheral IVs don't cause stroke, though I have heard many nurses tell me that's why they don't irrigate IVs. I digress.

However, the other vignettes give me pause. Assume for the most part that the writers have been buying food at those counters or restaurants for most of their adult lives, perhaps feeding children with those foodstuffs, and so on. Now, how many deadly illnesses did they contract in these seething slurries of germiness?

There are plenty of studies to show that children who grow up with pets have fewer illnesses and fewer allergies. In the developing world, the incidence of pediatric atopy and asthma skyrockets in one generation after worms are eradicated from schoolchildren-- but not in untreated adults or neighboring populations who still carry their normal commensals. Every first grade teacher can tell you which kids didn't go to preschool-- not because they don't know their numbers or letters, but because they spend their first year in a mixed population getting sick. In a recent cholera outbreak in a resort area in Indonesia, about 200 people were affected, and the only ones that died, that did not respond to ordinary IV fluids and support, were the Japanese, that notoriously germ-phobic culture, where every piece of clothing you can buy comes with embedded antimicrobials, where people wear masks on the subway, and doctors don't tell you what your diagnosis is. Many, many studies show that the majority of people, men and women, do not wash their hands after handling or wiping their genitals in the toilet. If so, since we are in constant contact with humans, how come we aren't all down for the count with GI disease ALL THE TIME? Don't even get me started on our favorite germ-swapping practices, all related to reproduction and all pleasurable. There's probably a reason for that.

More studies are indicating that the immense numbers of chemicals, including antimicrobials, we are exposed to are --gee, I know this will come as a shock-- BAD for us. The tremendous growth of resistant organisms-- heard of that? "Kills 99.5% of household germs!" What are those other ones doing? Multiplying, that's what.

So you ask for an extra napkin for your silverware? Who handled that napkin between the dryer and your table, and how? So you put your silverware on the edge of your plate instead of your table? Who handled the edge of that plate? Or the silverware, for that matter? So you think there are "butt germs" on the vinyl banquettes at the Country Buffet? Does your butt slide onto them, and then do you touch your pants, or your purse, or the car seat that your pants just sat on after your meal? Does your hand that helped you slide into your booth then touch the salt and pepper? Did the hands of the people who sat there before you arrived? Do you touch the rails on stairs, the buttons on elevators, try on clothes in department stores? Do you just get the sterile ones, or maybe did someone else touch them too? What did they do with their hands before that?

You can see where I'm going with this. Actual pathogens are bad. I'm not advocating that we should go back to wells on the street corners that dispense hepatitis and typhoid with every bucket. I'm not saying we take Semmelweiss and Pasteur out of the medical and nursing curricula. I'm not saying we shouldn't change enteral feeding bags really often, give up scrubbing before surgery, forget glutaraldehyde in the endoscopy suite, use linens from off a hospital floor, or save money in Surgicenters by making single-use vials and lancets multi-use.

But honest to god, this phobia about germs, all germs, is ridiculous. There's increasing evidence that your gut and skin bacteria (and BTW, how did they get there and from where, huh?) have beneficial effects. People evolved to live with commensals like worms; our immune systems are built and maintained to work with that. If you don't let them do what they are on guard to do, they are weakened when we need them, or they go looking for something else to do, and that's when the trouble starts.

Maybe we should start a campaign to have people STOP washing their hands so much, in the interest of the overall public health. Boost the collective immune system, and the whole population benefits. It's what immunization was before Jenner-- exposure to germs makes your immune system make antibodies. So get out there-- pick your nose, scratch before you make dinner for your family, stick your fingers in the batter to taste it, then do it again. Pat the dog, then form the meatballs and roll out the pie crust. Don't panic if your kid has a permanent snot-nose the first three years of her life-- she'll probably never be sick much again. Let your grandchild gnaw on your fingers even if you haven't just slathered them with alco-gel first (come to think about it, how good is alco-gel for a baby, anyway?) Go play in the dirt, swim in a pond. (ETA: Ride in a health care worker's car.) It's a big bacterial-laden world out there. If you want a decent immune system, don't live in a bubble...or delude yourself that you can.