Who cleans the poo?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Medicine, Geriatrics, Ambulatory Care.
I mean, if they aren't a C.diff patient, then it's just poop right? Solid, formed poop? I mean, it's not my idea of a fun Saturday night, but it's just poop and you have gloves. But that may be years of having cats, dogs and kids to clean up after speaking.

What I don't get is why you'd use towels and not toilet paper... I mean with tp you can at least FLUSH it.

Your facility must have better toilet paper than we do. On top of being rendered ineffective when it comes to pasty formed poo, it also has the tendency to clog our bathroom toilets so towels were the way to go and I can use my feet instead of getting down on my hands. I do prefer a mop but I'd have to apply to housekeeping before i get access to them.

Specializes in Medicine, Geriatrics, Ambulatory Care.
Who is attending to your patients while you are are spending 45 minutes cleaning, while your unionized cleaning crew cannot? That makes no sense at all. If they are that worried about being exposed to body fluids, poop, etc., they are in the wrong job.

This is exactly my point. I've seen comments pointing out that this incident seems complicated for housekeeping to handle but this isn't rocket science. I had sick patients that night that Iwas watching over, meds to give, charting to be done amongst other things and I don't see why housekeeping couldn't be trained adequately to clean the mess when they have access to proper equipment to do the job..

maxthecat

243 Posts

Could be worse. When one hospital I worked at "re-engineered" (management fad at the time), we lost housekeeping staff on the nursing units. Nurses and techs became responsible for housekeeping. They sent us to training--I remember being taught the "7 steps for cleaning a room." We had cleaning solution, mops, etc. That lasted for a while until I think they got too many complaints from patients who were understandably upset at seeing their nurse cleaning a toilet one minute and passing meds to them the next. (I will say our unit was much cleaner when we cleaned it than when housekeeping did it.)

I have never understood why housekeeping could not be trained in bodily fluid precautions. But maybe they wouldn't get anyone to take the jobs if that were part of it.

And yes, I've been asked to empty a hamper that was deemed "too full" by housekeeping. But then we nurses can do anything, do anybody else's job, etc.

When I think about how much better off I'd be financially if I got paid their share of the job on top of my nursing pay....

Specializes in Medicine, Geriatrics, Ambulatory Care.
I agree with this. I think there's a big general idea of "it's okay, nursing will do it." Physio not available to walk the patient? Nursing will do it. The phlebotomist is backed up? Nursing will do it. No unit clerk available this afternoon? Nursing will put the charts together. Porter's on a break? Nursing will bring the patient down to x-ray. Everything, in the end, falls to nursing. I don't even work in acute care and I see this all the time. In a primary care office, the physician wants the client to be referred for dental work? That's tasked to nursing to figure that out. A client needs help getting to and from an appointment - task it to nursing. A client doesn't have a phone and needs a message sent to them from the doc? Ask the outreach nurses to run it over. I'm actually working hard in our office at the moment to push for non-nursing tasks to go to non-nurses, but it's hard, because our providers are very used to just asking nursing to do it.

This is exactly what I'm getting at. It's the small things that culminate to a lot of things. The onus is always on the nurse and you're pulled away from doing your actual job. And so, in paper you are a nurse but a good part of the day, you're a porter, housekeeping, phlebotomist, PT etc on top of being a nurse. At the end of our shifts we wonder why we stay longer to finish up charting, didn't have adequate breaks, missed a critical lab value, making a med error OR handing over a non urgent treatment to oncoming shift, a good part of the reason is the never ending tasks. And to pay me to do portering duties on a nursing wage doesn't sound like a good business strategy either. As long as we accept these terms then we can complain about staffing and workload issues and nothing will change. Sadly, this is only the tip of the iceberg for our profession :)

wondern, ASN

694 Posts

Some of us would just do it quickly and move on because we hate politics and don't have time to play those sh*tt* little games. Not to mention we don't like turds just laying around. :smokin:

wondern, ASN

694 Posts

I have no problem cleaning up poop... The thought of formed stool randomly falling out of my rectum is horrible.

Oh Persephone Paige I needed that laugh this morning! Thanks girl!

:coffee: :nailbiting: :woot: :lol2:

Crap (sorry had to say it :sarcastic:) I worked with a waitress who had this happen with a regular customer, like 90, who'd come in with his son, like 70's. It, the formed stool, just fell right out of his pant leg onto the carpeted floor in the middle of the dining room. The experienced waitress, like 50's, just swooped down with a damp rag towel and picked it up from the carpet like it was nothing before his son even had a chance to be embarrassed, like a pro. Me, like 18 at the time, thought wow that was pretty impressive but I've got to get a better job with more money, hmm maybe nursing, I do like people. :up::dummy1:

psu_213, BSN, RN

3,878 Posts

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Not to mention we don't like turds just laying around. :smokin:

I agree. I totally understand that frustration about housekeeping not able to clean up any bodily fluids...that does not make sense. I also agree with those questioning who is going to care for their patients while they clean up poo. I agree that too may things (removing a full trash bag, taking the red bag out of the bin, etc., etc.). However, I can't just walk away and wait for housekeeping while there are pieces of poo just laying the ground.

Should everything be the nurses job? No. However, in this specific case, I think the nurse has to do the initial clean and not just let it sit there on the patient's floor.

Paws2people

495 Posts

:wideyed: Oh wow. Now that is really ridiculous. Wow, just wow. Ok so if trash is too heavy, who then takes it out?

You're gonna like this.. The nurses or aides have to separate the trash into another bag! That way each bag gets some of the weight.

Meanwhile, the reason the trash is overflowing is due to the fact that Housekeeping has been sleeping all night, or on break the bulk of the shift, or smoking cigarettes or weed in the parking lot.

Paws2people

495 Posts

I've had gloves rip on me so yes, I feel the need to double glove. feces was all over the side rails so I gowned up just in case. I tried not to go into the poopy details but it wasn't just a matter of solid poop on the ground. It was on the bed, the patient, his clothes. The stools that were on the ground weren't rock hard stools that got picked up in one scoop. It was a happy trail on to the bathroom. We had to clean up the patient, toss his street clothes in the laundry, run wipes on his bed. siderails and bedside table. The patient ended up making more mess in the bathroom. I didn't emphasize this as I know it was my responsibility to clean up the patient and the bedside area but I wanted to ask what the common policy is when it happens somewhere other than the bedside.

I'm not sure what didn't add up with this incident but I do love reading a conspiracy theory or two!

So not only are you now cleaning up the patient, but you are also cleaning up the room as well. Amazing.

How can you clean a bathroom without being exposed to bodily fluids?

Exactly. I had to laugh one time when a housekeeper took the time to chase me down to empty a commode in the toilet before she would clean it. I didn't ask her to clean it, I just had a patient discharged and was in the middle of a crashing admission that I didn't worry about checking the commode I emptied the last time I toiletted the patient.

My thoughts were, but your going to clean the emptied commode and the toilet I emptied it into. I'm surprised I'm not called to flush the bowl when someone forgets to do it themselves...

Egesse

30 Posts

I also work at a hospital where housekeeping is unionized and does not have to touch any bodily fluids. Also, nurses or aides are expected to "strip" the room and remove linens and trash and housekeeping just changes trash bags, quick mops the floor, and wipes down the counters. To me, it is ridiculous. I have no problem cleaning up feces, urine, blood etc. but it's frusteating when I feel like I do more cleaning than employees hired to clean.

Specializes in Adult Primary Care.
Oh Persephone Paige I needed that laugh this morning! Thanks girl!

:coffee: :nailbiting: :woot: :lol2:

Crap (sorry had to say it :sarcastic:) I worked with a waitress who had this happen with a regular customer, like 90, who'd come in with his son, like 70's. It, the formed stool, just fell right out of his pant leg onto the carpeted floor in the middle of the dining room. The experienced waitress, like 50's, just swooped down with a damp rag towel and picked it up from the carpet like it was nothing before his son even had a chance to be embarrassed, like a pro. Me, like 18 at the time, thought wow that was pretty impressive but I've got to get a better job with more money, hmm maybe nursing, I do like people. :up::dummy1:

I just laughed so hard I almost choked on my coffee!!!!!

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