Home Care

[FloridaLpn2015, ASN, LPN, RN]

So I'm a nurse in the great state of Florida. I work several jobs and recently picked up 2 home care clients. They are at extreme opposites when it comes to the home environment! One clients home is like it is barely lives in. The clients parent certainly understands infection control. The other one is the exact opposite.  Dirty laundry on the floor in the clients room and unorganized supplies. The biggest thing is that she requests we take off our shoes due to the client ( 7yrs old) crawling all over the place but the floors are filthy. The kitchen floor is dirty with food spills, garbage on the floor and always dishes in the sink and counters with food and food remnants.  I feel is hypocrisy to ask me to wash out the containers and syringes when there is dirty paper towel down and no clean paper towel to place them on. I work night shift, so I'm always afraid of walking into the kitchen and finding a rat or roach confronting me. I feel a little judgemental but I just feel uncomfortable.  I have already stopped working with another client because they had no door on their bathroom for the staff to use. I let the agency know and they said they would address it several times but nothing got done. I hate to work for a few weeks then say, "oh sorry but the situation is not right because xyz. Am I being petty ?

[Kitiger, RN]

Wow. I don't know what happened to my reply, but I was able to copy & paste just what I wrote. Here it is:

 

I would ask permission from the parents to organize the supplies. Nurses know how to do this, and this is part of what we do. 

You should keep your shoes on; this is policy in my agency. Your agency can provide you with shoe covers if the family wants no shoes.

Your agency should provide you with paper towels, gloves, hand soap, and hand sanitizer. 

I would clean off enough countertop by the sink to put the cleaned syringes and containers. Are these kept in the kitchen or in his room?

Like you, I would not work where a bathroom has no door.