Emptying linen and garbage bags. ..part of a Nurses jobs description?

[Giveheart]

So I think most nurses do help cleaning staff by emptying linen and garbage bags if they are full. Especially on the night shift where there is less cleaning staff. Some even dispose of them down a chute. But what if you injure yourself while lifting these?...are you covered? Are you concerned about your own safety and refuse to do it?

[Giveheart]

I was wondering about that, too. For patients not on isolation it appears that the common factor would be gloves, so how is it a safety risk for one person and not for the other?

Cleaning staff are hired to empty garbages. I don't know if it is under a nurses scope of practice. I know I wasn't taught to do it in nursing school. As mentioned, most facilities I know have a "no-lifting policy" for patients.

[RN-ing, BSN, MSN, NP]

I work night shift and I want my room to be as clean as possible for the morning rush of visitors and rounding MDs. Its just part of my routine outta respect for dayshift nurses and for my unit.

I feel like this is more of a "beneath me" issue than a scope of practice issue. There is scope of practice and there is common courtesy...and no, the latter is unfortunately not taught in nursing school!

[tonic01]

AMEN nursbrooklyn...

As I read some of the responses...all I kept thinking is....really???? As a nurse, care of our clients is utmost importance, and I include keeping the room clean as part of that care....

[nursel56]

Cleaning staff are hired to empty garbages. I don't know if it is under a nurses scope of practice. I know I wasn't taught to do it in nursing school. As mentioned, most facilities I know have a "no-lifting policy" for patients.

Honestly, it never occurred to me that emptying trash would not be in a nurse's scope of practice. Why wouldn't it be? If it was outside of scope of practice, I would have to let the waste receptacles for my homecare patients overflow if nobody was there to take out the trash.

When I worked in the isolation unit we bagged up our own trash and linens. Maybe it is a different system in Canada

[kool-aide, RN]

At one of the hospitals I work at the Environmental Services takes out the trash and linen in the mornings, so it's not technically my responsibility to do so, however, many times during the night I end up taking a bag or two out myself because it get's filled up and ES isn't there overnight... I don't think it's that big of a deal... but it's a little degrading..sort of... lol

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

When I worked in the isolation unit we bagged up our own trash and linens. Maybe it is a different system in Canada

I"m in Canada and we do our own linen/garbage. We only have a housekeeper on the unit during the day and she has enough to do with cleaning the rooms etc. If she had to empty linen bags etc she'd never get cleaning done. Sometimes we do have volunteers to help out but not always!

[CNABESS]

Hmmm, I just pulled a back muscle the other night lifting a large laundry bag of heavy wet linen. Our facility requires eve. and night shift to not only empty and replace, but load up a deep trolly cart of all linen and trash, bring it to the basement and empty into specific trolley carts for trash and linens. Some one had let the linen bag become so over full, it was much heavier than any patient I have ever had. Fortunately, a couple days off and rest helped, but it is quite easy to be injured doing this. It is complete dead weight and needs to be lifted off the floor level, up over a 3 ft. high trolley cart side. I should have just asked for help.

[kool-aide, RN]

Hmmm, I just pulled a back muscle the other night lifting a large laundry bag of heavy wet linen. Our facility requires eve. and night shift to not only empty and replace, but load up a deep trolly cart of all linen and trash, bring it to the basement and empty into specific trolley carts for trash and linens. Some one had let the linen bag become so over full, it was much heavier than any patient I have ever had. Fortunately, a couple days off and rest helped, but it is quite easy to be injured doing this. It is complete dead weight and needs to be lifted off the floor level, up over a 3 ft. high trolley cart side. I should have just asked for help.

I think we're all forgetting than NONE of us should ever injure ourselves if we're usuing proper body mechanics and lifting techniques that we all learned in our training!!!!! Kidding! haha

CNABESS: I hope your back heals quickly!

[merlee]

Yes, you would be covered for that type of injury. If you get hurt on the job then you must fill out an incident report no matter what.

And there is usually a clause at the end of your job description that states something like 'and other duties as may be assigned'. That includes emptying trash.

[LACA, BSN, LPN, RN]

I think what the OP is trying to get at isn't that it's not their job or whatever...but take this scenario into mind....let's say they are working day shift (and assuming there is cleaning staff available during the day) and OP sees a linen bag that needs to be removed. They lift said linen bag and accidentally, without intention, throw out their back. They have to contact workman's comp and the first thing WC is going to say is "Why were you lifting this when there was cleaning staff on duty?" It's not a matter of someone thinking they are too good to do something or such, it's a matter of there are people hired to do that, so if someone else gets injured doing it, how is that injury going to be taken care of?

And I'm a bit confused about the whole cleaning staff can't touch bodily fluids...what do they do then?? Is that normal regulation in hospitals?

[rnmi2004]

Maybe we should start using the hoyer on the linen bags.

[sunnycalifRN]

Cleaning staff are hired to empty garbages. I don't know if it is under a nurses scope of practice. I know I wasn't taught to do it in nursing school. As mentioned, most facilities I know have a "no-lifting policy" for patients.

Yup, where I work, we have a "no manual lift" policy! But, we're not given equipment to implement the policy, so . . . we do manual lifts!! Just another example of management with their heads stuck you know where!! (BTW, by putting the policy in place, management got kudos from the inspectors!)