Bed Baths, I dread giving them.

Nurses General Nursing

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OK, so now I'm going to split my 0.6 FTE on our small rural hospital 6 bed CCU/Stepdown unit half and half, 12 hour days and 12 hour nights, since some rare weekday dayshifts opened up. I'm keeping nights for my weekend obligation. In our unit, baths are done on days. I have never worked days in my 13 years of being a nurse. I told my manager today that my worst fear is giving baths. I have a great manager, btw.

Any tips on giving bedbaths? Really, I'm totally unskilled at giving bedbaths. Anyone else scared of them?

Adding ... care to the feet ...

I have seen small to large amounts of 'dirt' between and under the toes. When the toes are close together, I fold the wash cloth in half and pull the wash cloth back and forth between the toes.

Specializes in Nursing assistant.
moongirl posted - "Ask a CNA you work with I am sure they would be happy to show you proper techinque"

If possible, ask and work with a few, or several, CNAs.

I have worked with a few CNAs that seemed to be very fast. How? They only washed and dried. No lotion used, powder everywhere "because it smells good'. When a patient was incontient of urine, the area was not washed, just the incontient pad or brief/diaper was changed.

yeah, I took longer in a nursing home with diaper changes because I always washed the patient. I still do.

We have the warmed towlettes. They are awesome! One towelette for each area of the body. They are quite gentle on the skin AND very effective in removing body soil and odors.

I believe there's an infection control issue, too, as you're not introducing contaminates from one part of the body to another. Also, there isn't a bath pan that may be harboring germs.

However, I'm not so sold on the shampoo caps. They seem to make hair "greasy." I do use them, though, as many times there isn't an alternative that is appropriate for the pt.'s condition.

Specializes in Nursing assistant.

I long for warmed towlettes! Most of the time, I think they would be preferable to wash cloths, except in the case of someone who has been neglected elsewhere.

yeah, those shampoo caps are awful. We use those tiny blue capped bottles of rinseless shampoo, and I like them alot!

I'm mortified at the thought of someone giving me a bed bath.

If I can't get in the tub or shower, forget it.

I liked doing bed baths during our clinicals....I especially liked being able to wash the patients hair....something about having their hair washed makes them feel better or a bit cleaner than if it wasn't washed even if they weren't able to have a bed bath or shower.....I always try to think how I would feel if it were me in their place.

I have a couple of nurses I know of who actually use hand towels instead of regular sized towels they dry the patients with after washing them up......I think that is just plain lazy not to mention the towel isn't big enough for a baby, never mind a full grown person...talk about feeling vulnerable..:uhoh3: ......

Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.
These people don't bath themselves everyday at home, why should they be bathed everyday in the hospital? What a waste of nursing resources.

Indeed, RYNOBLASTER, it's possible that there are people out there who don't bathe every day. However, those people (and people in general) aren't usually lying sick in bed for days on end. Try it out sometime. You'll probably feel disgusting and truly in need of a fluff-and-buff.

Specializes in cardiology-now CTICU.

cool thread you guys! it was not until i worked icu that i began to really enjoy the bed baths. yay warm soapy water! what are the bath caps for hair washing everyone's talking about? i've never seen them. we use the rinseless ( i still rinse) stuff another poster talked about. advice: take a deep breath and prepare to enjoy making someone feel better. i was uncomfortable with the idea of giving 1-2 people complete baths every shift i worked at first but i've come to enjoy seeing my clean shiny pt lying in crisp sheets with new dressings. lol. most of the time. some people are so sick that you can never make them look neat for more than 10 seconds at a time. it just takes doing it a few times to get comfortable. oh yeah, and use plenty of water! i like to rub a very light layer of baby powder under the arms (so many people over do). i jus tdiscovered that my hospital has keri oil as well as lotion- works WAAAAy better! maybe add baby oil to the goodie bag! i love the goodie bag idea btw. sorry for coherence issues, just got off shift.

During my first semester of nursing school, I had a great instructor who showed us students how to make shaving cream for our male patients. Apparently the hospital didnt have shaving cream to pull from inventory. He told us to use two of the small individual packages of KY jelly and two dollops of liquid soap--mix 'em together and wah -lah...shave cream that didn't irritate the skin and made those crappy razors glide smoothly on the skin.

introduce yourself and explain what you're doing thru-out the procedure, regardless of the pt's loc. keep your patient covered well. water on the skin before drying is chilly.

use friction to create 'suds.' let me explain this further. one of my favorite relaxing past times is getting massages. nothing is more irritating to me than a very light massage touch. i am more tense after the hour than i was going in.

so long firm strokes when you bathe feels better than light touch. if your pt is awake & alert & is falling asleep during his/ her bath, then you're on the right track!

last, but not least, bathing is a great opportunity to assess your patient, physically and emotionally.

For extra credit, check out the dollar stores for your own stash of shampoo, conditioner and spray on deodorant.

Specializes in midwifery, NICU.

so different giving incubator baths to tiny babes--I love it! when they have been sick in the incubator for a while, they really give off a smell-- and have CHEESY FEET! -must be horrible for them! once they've had a wee bath inside their incubator, they are so fresh and clean, it's great for the parents too!

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