Giving Baths At Night. Agree Or Disagree?

[kmwlpn]

we have recently started giving baths on night shift at the ltc facility i work at....many of the cna's are upset over this because they feel that it is wrong to drag residents up out of bed in the middle of the night to give a bath to them....we are not really short handed so that is not the reason for giving baths....and the residents we give baths to on 3rd shift are disoriented, but still....so question is do you or do you not agree with giving baths on 3rd shift?

i want to clarify a few details to see if the response is any different....but thank you for all your input thus far....

this is a long-term care facility,,,,and the residents, in which baths are given are unaware of the time of day, due to cognitive status......and some are frequently awake at night anyways, but not always........these factors may not change your views...but i wanted to make sure you had all the information........thank you for your response.....

[adrienurse, LPN]

deleted

[mercy1975]

we have recently started giving baths on night shift at the ltc facility i work at....many of the cna's are upset over this because they feel that it is wrong to drag residents up out of bed in the middle of the night to give a bath to them....we are not really short handed so that is not the reason for giving baths....and the residents we give baths to on 3rd shift are disoriented, but still....so question is do you or do you not agree with giving baths on 3rd shift?

i want to clarify a few details to see if the response is any different....but thank you for all your input thus far....

this is a long-term care facility,,,,and the residents, in which baths are given are unaware of the time of day, due to cognitive status......and some are frequently awake at night anyways, but not always........these factors may not change your views...but i wanted to make sure you had all the information........thank you for your response.....

this is a serious state and federal regulation violation. state would look at this as "would a reasonable person like to be awaken and given a bath in the middle of the night? the answer is no!

[greensister]

Bed-bath-gate

A family complainted about me when I was district nursing on nights(I am now retired) because I did not wake their mother--who was terminally ill--up to bed-bath her as she was sleeping peacefully and she was not incontinent or distressed. I explained this to them and they seemed to agree--or did agree, or didnt say much in the event other than stare at me. It was a bizarre situation which I immediately my manager and they whole ***** hit the fan and I was hounded out of my job because I also said this lady's daughter could have sponged her own mothers hands and face--well any caring relative could do this.

Thus ended my career because I did not give a bed-bath in the middle of the night.

In the past I have occasionally doen care home work and I always deplored the practise of getting elderly frail, often confused people out of bed in the early hours to wash and dress them. I did make my views known but I am sure it still went on, and may still go on.

When I worked in hospital in the 1970's we used to wake people up around six am and give them a bowl of water to have a wash and brush up if they could manage and then a cup of tea, but we didnt chuck anyone in the bath at that time. Maybe its a do-it-yourself-- system these days, like feeding people??????

I am talking of England by the way, it may be different elsewhere.

greensister

[catlynLPN]

I bet those little people they're bathing at night still have to get up in a w/c or geri-chair during the day, all day long.

I betcha they're not letting them get anymore rest to compensate for the time lost at night.

And another thought...I bet those little people did NOT get up in the middle of the night to take a bath when they were at home.

IMHO, it's wrong.

I don't sleep well at night but I don't want anybody dragging me out of bed for a bath.

And it is a "bath" or a "shower" where they are drug to the shower room?

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

i worked in ltc care for many years. i don't see anything wrong with bathing/showering a patient during the night if they are typically awake and/or confused. getting tasks done in ltc has to be a team effort. you don't work nights because the work is easier. after all, adls don't stop just because of the hour of the day or because a few healthcare workers feel it's not right. that is part of the old deadwood that has had to be cleared out of the ltc system for many years.

when i was a nursing assistant i worked the night shift and heard a lot of my coworkers say they'd never work the day shift because they hated giving showers/baths and having to dress/toilet/transfer the residents. they felt it was way easier to work nights and go from bed to bed turning and changing incontinent patients. their big gripe was getting patients up, dressed and into the dining room for breakfast every morning before the day shift came on.

when i became an rn and went back into the ltc from time to time to work, especially the night shift, i never forgot that and made sure the cnas on the night shifts that i worked were instructed and understood that there was more to night shift nursing than turning patients and cleaning up incontinency. my cnas gave full showers, shampoos and linen changes to dementia patients who were awake at night where time could be spent attending to them in between incontinent checks of the other residents. we made it an important function and had a basket of toiletries that our shift kept stocked to use on these patients so they looked and smelled nice. i made it my business to help us all feel proud of the contribution we were making and that night shift was not some forgotten part of the healthcare team. that is part of my job as a charge nurse! and, if i ever heard a cna on another shift sneering or criticizing what we did on the night shift, they were personally taken aside by me and given instruction and an attitude adjustment. that is also part of my job as a charge nurse.

in case anyone cares to disagree, please know that i always made sure the dons were fully aware of what i was doing. no patient was bathed, showered or shampooed on the night shift where i had not verified that it was ok to do so with the don first (as some families might object). any healthcare should never be one shift against another, but always teamwork and how we can help each other get the tasks done.

[greensister]

I have occasionally put a patient in the bath overnight--when I did bits of care home work--if it was really "needed"--I am sure you know what I mean! But on the whole I think it might upset the "body clock" of already confused patients. I have always worked nights --well for the most part anyway--as I both liked nights--expecially on the district until I met the family from hell--- and it"fitted in" with my family.

Nights was never an "easy number" in my book, there was always plenty to do but different, if you understand. In the care homes we had to iron clothes and peel potatoes and make the porridge--what a disaster! But as far as possible I think that elderly people should be left in bed until they want to get up--and that, just in case its wrongly interpreted, does not mean the othr side of abuse--leaving people in wet beds and giving them their breakfast in those conditions! Thee are some lazy folk around, people who sleep on nights and miss calls, or are exhausted from too many shifts--another story of course!

I dont know about ITU7--i

[greensister]

SORRY got "cut off " I have never worked in it, other than prem babies and they got washed/bathed and fed round the clock! That has other issues and considerations, and if someone is in a coma I dont suppose it matters a jot when you bath them--or bed-bath as the case may be!

greensister

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

greensister...i was laughing as i read your latest post. in one nursing home we had to do some of the laundry at night which included washing towels and patient gowns as well as drying them and then folding them up and putting them away in the linen closet for the day shift to get started using. in the old days (30+ years ago) on the night shift, we had daily night shift chores that involved collecting up all the bed pans, washing and sterilizing them (before disposables), hosing down wheelchairs and other equipment used by patients and the cleaning and defrosting of refrigerators. somebody had to do these things and the day shift sure didn't have time for it! i have been, and still am, a real nit-picker about cleanliness and orderliness. flo nightingale must have left a piece of her soul behind in me! i was told that in the days of nursing prior to my birth, nurses did it all: cooked, cleaned and did/supervised every aspect of what went into what the patient required. basic nursing still boils down to assisting patients with adls. you can't get more basic than in nursing homes. that will always be at the heart of nursing despite all the fancy degrees people want to pursue these days.

[greensister]

Hi Daytonite--I dont mind you laughing, but are you laughing at me or the system? I didnt bother having to peel the spuds along with my lowly auxiliary---you would not believe the tasks I have turned my hand to in my career of a district nurse!!!!!!!! I hope you didnt get that impression, I am a "grand worker" as they used to say in the Mental hospital i began my ill fated career in.

greensister http://groups.msn.com/TwixDuskandDawn

[star2nite2000]

I worked at nursing home years ago where they were getting confused and disoriented residents up in the middle of the night to give a bath to because that was how it was scheduled. After a call was made to our state board of nursing by one of the aides, that little ritual stopped mighty quick. According to our state board of nursing, when a resident is confused and disoriented and unable to express how they truly feel, it is against their right making them take a shower at an ungodly hour.

[star2nite2000]

greensister...i was laughing as i read your latest post. in one nursing home we had to do some of the laundry at night which included washing towels and patient gowns as well as drying them and then folding them up and putting them away in the linen closet for the day shift to get started using. in the old days (30+ years ago) on the night shift, we had daily night shift chores that involved collecting up all the bed pans, washing and sterilizing them (before disposables), hosing down wheelchairs and other equipment used by patients and the cleaning and defrosting of refrigerators. somebody had to do these things and the day shift sure didn't have time for it! i have been, and still am, a real nit-picker about cleanliness and orderliness. flo nightingale must have left a piece of her soul behind in me! i was told that in the days of nursing prior to my birth, nurses did it all: cooked, cleaned and did/supervised every aspect of what went into what the patient required. basic nursing still boils down to assisting patients with adls. you can't get more basic than in nursing homes. that will always be at the heart of nursing despite all the fancy degrees people want to pursue these days.

the nursing home i work at now, we have night shift duties of those that you mentioned above.

[CodeBlack]

When I was a CNA back in the early 90s, I used to give my residents showers on the evening shift before I put them back to bed. I couldn't stand them being smelly and sitting on the shower chair actually help them have a BM and empty out their bladders. Man, the NOC CNA's loved me for that and the residents seem more relaxed in bed afterwards. As for giving baths late at night, not a good idea. Too cold for that.