Chores

Oh my! I can't even imagine.

I can't imagine you'd be meeting any of the recommendations or guidelines the Center for Disease Control has for Environmental Infection Control in the Health Care Facility?

This sounds like something from a improverished poorly developed county!

So I am working on a floor that for 65+ patients. We have 34 beds are almost always full and have 5-7 nurses and 3-4 techs a night. We get assigned "chores" like stocking med room, kitchen, emptying trash etc. However, we are a huge hospital, and have 24 hout housekeeping staff. Our unit manager also expects us the sweep and mop the floors. Tell me this isn't the norm. How infuritating it is to me when housekeeping is up by our elevators snacking, napping, amd socializing while we are doing their job! Please enlighten me on this. This is my first nursing job so I have no comparison.

We stock the med room, check the crash carts, etc. I would NOT mop the floors. That's ridiculous.

If I was told to mop the floor, sweep, or empty the trash, I would call housekeeping to do so and document it in the medical record. Then I would not mop the floor, sweep, or empty the trash. If noone showed up to complete the task in an hour I would contact the supervisor of the cleaning department and document that in the medical record.I would not do any of the above tasks. When I was asked why it wasn't done, I would the show the higher up the documentation and say that I passed the message along to the appropriate staff and the supervisor of the appropriate staff and I am not sure what happened.

If this happened a couple times and it was consistent among staff members, the problem would go away.

Band together. Strength in numbers!

You can document it in the specific patient's chart. "Housekeeping called to empty the trash in patient's room (room 354)."

"Housekeeping supervisor aware that staff has not showed up the clean the shower in patient's room (room 327), although they were notified 1 hour ago by this writer that it needed attention."

Paper trails.

And then write ups.

Let me make an experience-based guess: EVS is unionized and Nursing isn't.

Stocking the med room is a normal expectation for nurses. I even emptied garbages in patients' rooms on nightshift, or the aids did, but we didn't have 24/7 housekeeping. Emptying the garbage prevented patients from being disturbed by an extra person at night.

But mopping and sweeping? That's insanity. I never even had access to that equipment. OSHA says you need to be trained on the safety of any chemicals you're using. I'm guessing you haven't been trained on whatever you're mopping with. And I wouldn't want you dealing with dirty floors and then doing a dressing change on an immunocompromised patient. That's just insanity.

Stocking a med room or replacing a garbage liner takes minutes. To focus on actually doing a good job sweeping and mopping from start to finish is a solid period of time you're taken away from patient care.

You need to have a good heart to heart with your manager about thIs. If that gets you no where, go above his or her head. If that gets you no where, find a new job.

Yes that's crazy, I really want to know why your upper management thought it made sense to have the nurses mop the floors.

They cannot pay me enough to mop floors, clean the kitchen, or empty trash....NOT MY JOB! I didn't go to nursing school to be a housekeeper! (I am not talking about if a patient spills their water on the floor, I would wipe that up).

I can see stocking med room, and checking crash cart. but otherwise, HELL NO!

If this is the norm in your facility, then they have huge issues. I can't believe your manager allows this to happen. I would go to the DON and ask what the policy is, this cannot be right. And if it is, I would be leaving.