Domestic Washer and Dryer in the NICU

[BABY--RN]

Curious as to what other units are doing.........

We have a domestic washer and dryer in our NICU. We typically wash our snugglis, bendis and other positioning devices. We also wash the unit clothing ( we have a stockpile of clothing that we use for our patients when they havent got any of their own). And occasionally we will wash a whole load of one babies items. Our blankets, washclothes and t-shirts go to the hospital laundry to be washed.

Our rooming in rooms linen is also wahed in the unit.

If you have a wahser and dryer on your unit--What is it used for?

What are you washing the items with? Are yu using bleach to sanitize the loads and between loads?

Thanks for your help.

Kim

[danissa, LPN, LVN]

Hi kim, we did have a domestic set up in the NICU, where we washed & dried all the baby clothes, and snuggly covers etc. But infection control dept stopped us using it, (after YEARS of use!!). Now the wee clothes have to go to the main laundry with the sheets etc, and are boiled in red bags and RUINED! especially the wee cardigans, hats etc that people have knitted for the babes! Such a shame!

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

We have a washer and dryer. We use Dreft to wash. We wash the snuggli's, Isolette covers and any other positioning devices we have. Baby's personal laundry is done at the discretion of the nurse. Most of us think the parent should be responsible for laundry but obviously some parents just are not in a position due to living situation (many out-of-towners) or mental/emotional state.

I bet if infection control thought too hard about it, we would lose our washer and dryer. Also great for when you get spit up all over you. Go put on a set of hospital scrubs; wash your uniform and put it back on before you go home!

[Mags4711, RN]

We do not have a washer and dryer in our unit, but we use the ones on the floors in the attached peds hospital. We wash our snuggle-ups, Frederick T. Frogs, omnibed covers, corificeat covers, etc... in them. We also use Dreft. I know that infection control has said this is bad practice, but for whatever reason they are coming after us

9instead of stopping the washer use) nurses to stop wearing our wedding bands, to start wearing short sleeve shirts and to keep our personal bags out of the NICU room. They aren't making the parents gown and glove with their MRSA kids or the C-Diff kids. But we have to...

The parents are responsible for their baby's laundry, and if they are from a distance away, they use the same washers we do.

[Sweeper933]

We have w/d on our unit. We use it for bendy/isolette covers, hats, swing covers..., and unit clothing. If parents bring in clothing for their babies, then they wash those articles of clothing at their own homes. As far as I know, our unit aids wash everything in warm/hot water, and wipe down both the washer and dryer with sanitizer after all loads go through. When we have something that was w/ a baby who is MRSA+, then it gets washed in a sperate load, and the machine gets a good cleaning afterwards. I can't imagine having to send down our preemie outfits w/ the hospital wash... yuck.