CNA leaving rooms a mess

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · Jul 9, 2016

Are the nurses doing bedside report as well, and are seeing all the mess? The trash overflowing and the sharps containers are an occupational health/infection control issue, and need to be incident reported.

The stocking is on everyone. So it just so happens you are left to do it most of the time, but sometimes that just happens. (I know, sounds dumb, but it CAN happen).

If most of your patients are in bed, then you do need to strip and remake the bed when you get them up for breakfast. Or perhaps a suggestion that 2 CNA's remake beds as they bed bathe patients in the morning--if you have bedbound patients. The night CNA is not going to strip and remake beds with patients in them if the day shift is going to bed bathe and then remake bed again. BUT if you are seeing that patients are left in urine soaked beds THAT is a patient care issue that needs to be brought to the nurse's attention, the charge nurse even, and again incident reported.

I would not name call. By saying that the CNA's before you are "dirty" is putting emotion into something that could reflect poorly on you. And yes, if you are also a CNA, part of your job is to be sure that the rooms are tidy and the patient clean. If you are a nurse, then you need to have conversation with the charge nurse regarding the state of the patient and the room.

Yes, nurses are very busy as well. However, to grab the trash or delegate the CNA to empty the needle box or stock gloves is also part of a nurse's responsibility to the patient as well.

ar2d2 · Jul 9, 2016

The way it works at my job is that night shift gets everyone up , they have showers on nights (Bed B) and day shift showers bed A, anytime in our day. I go in to work at 645,breakfast starts at 715 , so all patients should be up by time I get there. My problem is that they are leaving all beds undone, trashes a mess.

The nurses can see the trash cans and sharps full but never change them. A nurse taking out the trash in patients room? HHAHAHAA please! As for the sharps, they continue to use them past the fill line,

Cardiacluv · Jul 9, 2016

The way it works at my job is that night shift gets everyone up , they have showers on nights (Bed B) and day shift showers bed A, anytime in our day. I go in to work at 645,breakfast starts at 715 , so all patients should be up by time I get there. My problem is that they are leaving all beds undone, trashes a mess.
The nurses can see the trash cans and sharps full but never change them. A nurse taking out the trash in patients room? HHAHAHAA please! As for the sharps, they continue to use them past the fill line,

It sounds like you all may need to get together with your bosses and ask them to gire someone that comes in at 5am to 1p to help the night shift get patients up/tidy the rooms.

I have worked nights and days, its not as easy as you think to get everybody up and clean their room in an hour and 45 min. I'm guessing they probably start getting people up at 5 or 0430 at the earliest. Nightshift is also usually has less staff because the patients are sleep for a good portion of the shift but in order for someone to get people up and have time to clean/straighten the room properly, they would probably have to start getting patients up at 3am and thats just not right.

Now obviously I dont know exactly how your facility runs but if it is like I figure then, you need to have some understanding. Yes it makes things a little harder on your shift but it really sounds like they need just one more person to come in to help with those types of tasks.

verene, MSN · Jul 9, 2016

Have the issues of mess and unsafe and unsanitary conditions been brought up with the prior shift? That is where I would start. Perhaps they don't realize how long it is taking the next shift to deal with their mess.

Make sure the charge on your shift knows, and the charge on the prior shift so they can keep an eye out. Can also bring in management on this.

It may be a systems issue of insufficient staff, insufficient training, or something else that needs to be addressed on a unit or facility wide basis. Maybe when when tasks get done during the shift needs to be changed around - if night shift is having to get everyone up and ready for breakfast they may not be able to take out trash and clean at all during the latter half of the shift. Maybe the shift times need to change around? Or the times that residents are woken and fed? Maybe the shift needs to split up tasks better with one person taking out all the trash and focusing on cleaning while others focus on residents? Teamwork can sometimes make all the difference.

There are a lot of different things that could be going on, but it is going to take a discussion with other team members to address the issues and start creating solutions.

dishes, BSN, RN · Jul 9, 2016

Sounds like the night shift have their busiest time at the end of the shift, is it possible they are too busy getting all of the patients up to make the beds and tidy up? How early are they currently getting the patients up?

ar2d2 · Jul 11, 2016

Ive heard they start gettint patients up at 5

Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN · Jul 11, 2016

It might also be worth mentioning that a lot of patients have 6AM medication due that's passed between 5AM and 7AM. This tends to be a "crunch time" for me, as a nurse, and I'm less available to assist with delegateable tasks.

dishes, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2016

It seems like it is very busy at the end of the night shift and at the start of the day shift. Has anyone ever proposed that the bedmaking and trash emptying be delegated to the housekeeping staff? It's an idea that will be met with resistence by housekeeping at first, but the places that have housekeepers make the beds and empty trash are consistently tidier and cleaner than the ones that rely on the healthcare workers to do housekeeping tasks.