I will always empty and rinse out bedpans that contain straight urine, but if somebody has a BM in a bedpan, I often don't empty it at all. I just throw the bedpan, stool and all, straight into the trash can and get another one for later use. I think it is so gross to rinse out stool over the sink as it drips and splashes all over the place. It can also be difficult and time consuming to wash out large, sticky pieces of stool from the plastic.
However, recently another nurse told me that it was against policy to throw out bedpans that contain stool and that the housekeepers get mad about it. I haven't been able to find documentation of that but just to be safe, I sometimes will cover the bedpan with paper towels after tossing it.
How do you handle bedpans? Do you wash them out or throw them out?
I signed out a peri-skin product to a patient once, only to find out there was a 300% mark-up in the price of it if it was purchased through the hospital instead of at a drugstore. Something may be cheap on the market, but in a hospital the price can be exorbitant.
This is a good point. I doubt most of us know how much our patients are charged for the items we charge them for. I do know most of our prices and they are ridiculous!
If it's just urine I'll rinse out the pan and re-use. I throw them out if it's a BM. I avoid housekeeping complaints by emptying the pan as best as I can (beating it against the toilet a few times) and then putting it in a red biohazard bag and into the biohazard receptacle. Poo just sticks like glue to our bed pans. Worse is if it's mushy/gooey...I end up making more of a mess trying to clean the pan than just throwing it away and getting a new one. Management fusses if they get wind of us throwing out pans routinely. They say we should use the water sprayer/wand things over the toilets. But the water pressure is enough to take out an eye when just starting to turn the tap on. I'm NOT having poop and pee spray all over my face, uniform, shoes, bathroom. If management wants the pans washed out after each BM then they can do it themselves.
Where I work, bodily fluids (including stool). Can not be thrown in the regular trash. The stool needs to be placed in the toilet or if it is watery, in a biohazard bag.
Where I work, bodily fluids (including stool). Can not be thrown in the regular trash. The stool needs to be placed in the toilet or if it is watery, in a biohazard bag.
I just chunk the whole thing minus urine in the biohazard trash.
I always toss the dirty bed pan. Then I take the trash bag to the utility room so it doesn't stink up the room. I'm not about to have poopy water spray up in my face or on my uniform. I'm sure the bedpans cost like 75 cents each. Chux cost more.
If you only knew! *LOL*
Many Medicare/Medicaid/insurance home cases are full of boxes or even cases of Chux all paid for by the above. Should the patient expire families either do one of two things; throw the things away or sell them on (Craigslist, eBay, etc...).
Either way you can be sure there was a nice mark-up on those Chux that we all pay for via taxes and insurance rates, and now someone has made a bit of money off it as well.
Really is amazing some times how backwards supposedly the best healthcare system in the world seems.
All over Europe state of the art automatic bedpan cleaning/disinfection machines are either in/near patient rooms or centrally located to serve a series.
Much like the old steam machines of old many may recall these machines use powerful sprays of near boiling water and chemicals to flush, clean and so forth bedpans. Things then cooled, dried and ready to be fetched out all in a matter of a few minutes or less. No muss, no fuss. No touching anything (kick plate or hand sensor operated), no looking at anything, life goes on.
We use hygie-bags that contain an absorbant strip of material in them to line the bed pan. The pan and bag are then taken to the dirty utility. The bag is disposed of and the pan is put in the automatic washer where when it is full you just hit a button and it is disinfected.
I have to admit, I am in absolute shock that the in the USA there arent more sanitary and convenient ways for nurses to deal with a most basic body function without wasting bed pans of all things.
We use hygie-bags that contain an absorbant strip of material in them to line the bed pan. The pan and bag are then taken to the dirty utility. The bag is disposed of and the pan is put in the automatic washer where when it is full you just hit a button and it is disinfected.
I have to admit, I am in absolute shock that the in the USA there arent more sanitary and convenient ways for nurses to deal with a most basic body function without wasting bed pans of all things.
Depending upon how old (or young) you are and when you began your career yes, American hospitals and care homes did have a more sanitary and convenient way of dealing with bedpans.
Aside from carrying the (covered) bedpan to wherever the machine was located you never touched the thing. Until the 1980's you would have done this with bare hands (washed afterwards of course) but as HIV/AIDS epidemic took hold gloves were usually worn.
The problem started where most ills of the modern American healthcare system start; bean counters added up the cost of supplying and maintaining (cleaning, disinfecting, storing, etc...) all those bedpans versus using disposable. Like the rest of the bedside kit hospitals can charge for those plastic bedpans.
To be fair many patients were not fans of the old metal or enamel bedpans. They were often cold especially in winter months (we used to put them through the sanitizer first if possible, sort of like using your dishwasher's plate warmer setting to take the chill off. Metal bedpans also could create a racket if a bunch of them fell say in the utility/storage area or while being transported to and from CSS.
I also use chux to line a wash basin for patients with emesis (since we all know actual emesis basins are useless!). That way if they get sick again before the basin is emptied, washed, dried and back at bedside it doesn't take as long to deal with. You just empty and dispose of the chux and place a new chux inside. I learned that from a nurse who worked in acute rehab with SCI patients.
applewhitern, BSN, RN
1,871 Posts
We rinse them in the hopper in the dirty utility room.