Do the CNAs or RNs do personal care

[RNtobe23]

And bathe patients.

I always thought it was the RNs but someone else told me it was the CNAs who primarily did that?

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

Everyone gets a turn.

[Fiona59]

Said healthcare worker or family member who encounters said dirty butt is the one who cleans it.

I am yet to meet a family member who will clean up a dirty bottom.

[caliotter3]

Family members help all the time where I work. It is rare to find one that refuses to help.

[laKrugRN]

You never quit wiping rear and cleaning up after people. Just the way it is. I used to be a CNA in a nursing home and the nurses wouldn't lift a finger with the"gross things" and liked to sit at their station and shove doughnuts in their mouths. This really bothered me. I never forgot it. Now, as a nurse, I do whatever I can and APPRECIATE my CNAs. If I have to wipe, I gladly will!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Everything that the CNA does is fully within the RN's scope of practice. Therefore, if the CNA wipes butts, so does the RN.

Be mindful that not all healthcare settings utilize CNAs. Settings that do not utilize CNAs will require all personal care, including baths, butt-wiping and toileting, to be completed by the RN.

[SBJustBreathe, ASN, RN]

I wiped many bootys as a CNA. When I went to school to be an RN....I wiped many bootys. As a postpartum nurse probably won't need to wipe many unless mom needs help changing nappys. But it is my job as a nurse to be sure my patients are all clean, healthy, and happy. If that means wiping butts...I wipe butts.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

So, OP.....thoughts?

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Having CNAs who wipe butts must be nice.

Ours just watch monitors, answer phones, screen visitors, and sometimes if we are really lucky, they will get EKGs. Butt wiping is solely RN territory in my ICU.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Yes.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

(to the tune of "Another one bites the dust...")

And everybody wipes, everybody wipes, everybody wipes the butt!!!

[Dranger]

Yup, including the c-diff and GI bleed variety.....

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

(to the tune of "Another one bites the dust...")

And everybody wipes, everybody wipes, everybody wipes the butt!!!

^THIS...so eloquently written.