Patient scents

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So I am a travel nurse, and I finished an assignment a while back and something still bugs me. The patients there had a "scent" that I couldnt seem to wash off. One night, we were in for some very bad weather and being that I am not a northerner and I have no snow driving skills, I decided to spend the night at the hospital. I grabbed a blanket from clean linen and took it to my cubby. The clean blanket had that smell that the patients have. I walked back out to the clean linen area and took a sniff...nothing in the clean linen closet had that smell except the blankets, and they all had it. Now I am not accusing anyone of not cleaning a blanket., just that maybe they didnt seem to be dried long enough and picked up a scent. I didnt think to bring it up to the manager, but she emailed me a few days ago to say that she is going to give the agency I work for another contract and that if I want it to go ask for it. Do you think I should mention it to her? I dont work there now, so I cant go and re-sniff the blankets...again, I am making no accusations, but something the laundry company uses on those blankets (or doesnt use) makes them smell horrible.

Specializes in Critical Care/Vascular Access.

Well, I would say if the blankets really smell then you are not the only one to notice and pointing it out wouldn't be a bad thing. Not completely sure why you feel like it would even be an issue to mention it.

Second possibility is that it's a scent that's just unpleasant to you. Some scents are unpleasant to specific individuals while many would not care or notice.

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