Is this common?

[chickapea]

I was just wondering if it is common practice in LTC to only have wash cloths, soap and water for all brief changes, peri care and disinfecting things like shower chairs? Oh yeah, and ONE thermometer for about 90 residents? Really??

[asun21ta]

I worked for an LTC where they would constantly run out of supplies. Towels, wash cloths. One week they didn't even have breifs! All we had were small breifs. I was on vacation that week, but I was told that people were taping two breifs together! The residents were still complaining about it when I returned a week later. Now thats bad!

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

Try working for a LTC facility that has a limit on how many washcloths and towels you can use on each resident (in this case it was two washcloths and one towel per person per shift.) This means that once you use your two washcloths and one towel to clean a resident in the morning if they are incontinent before the second shift you will have nothing to clean them up with unless you borrow them from the next resident because the towels and washcloths are closely counted and the linen closets are locked up so that you cannot get any extras if necessary. This was my experience as a nursing student during my gerontology clinical and I know as a CNA I would never work at a place like that but unfortunately I don't think its as uncommon as people may think. LTC in this country really needs an overhaul, badly.

!Chris

[asun21ta]

It was that bad where I worked! Conditions for the residents were terrible. It was so bad some days residents could not get showers because there were no wash cloths or towels. I am happy to say I no longer work there. I still think about the patients from time to time though. I wonder if the quality of care is still as poor as it was when I left last year.

[rachelgeorgina]

In the nursing home I work in we use high care pads (fancy wipes, basically) but in all the hospitals I've done clinical on it's a tub of warm soapy water and wash cloths