I had to go into work for an hour, and was reminded of a problem at work.
In our lockeroom, everyone's got a pair of shoes. One particular pair is beyond rank. So are the feet they belong to, learned this a few weeks ago when she took her non-socked (never wears socks, i think that might be part of the problem) feet out of the shoes, and this dead-animal-on-a-95-degree-day smell permeated the room. Smells don't normally get to me, but, whew, i had to open the bottle of peppermint foot gel in my locker to combat that funk.
Tempting as it is, we can't toss the shoes in the garbage, and a temporary solution has been to 'accidently' drop a scrub top over them and spray the shirt with air freshner, which isn't working well. This room constantly stinks, i mean it's not going to smell like roses with 250 (literally) pairs of shoes in it, but ONE pair is making it worse.
Is she aware her feet reek that bad? Don't know, but you know this smell is bad when a bunch of nurses are gagging from it.
Uhmmm, i think i would pick a long weekend she is off and send those putrid things to the hospital laundry. They will be dry by the time she comes back and you may get a few days of relief from the stank!!
She may wonder and even ask about them, as far as them being cleaner,but im sure once she puts them back on it will revive itself like a bad horror movie.
If she does,,id just tell her someone must of decided they needed laundered and leave it at that. Or maybe you could just tell her they grew legs and walked to the laundry on their own.
We have a sign in our lounge that all food will be tossed on Friday's and fridge cleaned out (unless of course it's stuff dated for that day). You should have a locker room "cleaning" day- and post that any shoes that reak of obvious bacteria and fungus will be tossed on that day- along with posting the dress code. There is no way bare feet are allowed anywhere in the hospital. :uhoh21:
We use cavi-wipes on my unit for disinfecting ... things. I use 'em once a week or so for cleaning my shoes. Leather can stink, and yeah, my shoes look like someone keeps wiping the shine off with toxic cleaner stuff, but they are clean! A co-worker reports her crocs had a stanky smell that she couldn't get rid of after a while... and she washed 'em a few different ways.
Smells don't normally get to me, but, whew, i had to open the bottle of peppermint foot gel in my locker to combat that funk.
babynurselsa, RN
1,129 Posts
I had that some coworker once. I finally brought in my own can of Lysol and soaked them buggers down.