Housekeeping wish list

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Please list the things you wish housekeeping would do or stop doing.

Housekeepers need to wipe off tables, clean sinks and surrounds, and do toilets daily.Emptying the trash and mopping the floors is not my idea of housekeeping.

I was EMBARASSED the other day when a family member went around the room pointing out the filth in her loved ones room.

She was RIGHT. I could only offer apologies and a meeting with the DON.

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Specializes in General Surgery.

I, myself, am currently a housekeeper and in my first semester of nursing school. I'm sure I'll have some gripes about some housekeepers when I work as a nurse but just know that not every housekeeper is lazy or ignorant. I have been stopped by many nurses on various floors who know I'm in nursing school and they say, "I was on that side of the broom many years ago. Keep it up!"

At our hospital, the housekeepers have certain routes to do and nurses are not required to strip the rooms. I like to ask the nurses which pt is going to be dc'd later so I can time manage. Otherwise, I won't get my dailies done if I've got so many patients going home after lunch. Of course, every hospital is going to be a little different in housekeeper policies. If a patient had an accident, we are only required to come by and SANITIZE after the bulk is cleaned up. I'll usually help anyway but not if I wasn't asked in a respectful manner. The majority of the time, we all work as a great team!

I am usually either in the ED, medical floor or at our new rehab center. Some housekeepers, like me, get really anal and OCD about cleaning the smallest details. I like to hit everything that might be high traffic areas for hands to touch like door handles, TV remote, phones, call buttons, etc. I am also addicted to DUSTING. There is so much dust in a hospital, it's insane. I come by a few days later and it's like I didn't even dust before! Everytime I get to my area (except for the ED), I always empty isolation patient's trash first. I like to be one step ahead of the nurses, that way I don't get phone calls later asking for this and that. I want to do my job right because I want to help keep HAI's down.

But just like any job, there are those who take pride in their job and those who don't. I know some housekeepers who really don't do anything and make us all look bad.

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

Several places I've worked had great housekeepers. Unfortunately the powers that be felt it was wise to only staff 1-2 housekeepers for the 11-7 shift. One in the ED and the other to cover the rest of the building. Granted some were better than others and earlier shifts would leave rooms undone for the the next shift and then we would have to call a stat clean when getting an admit. That's when we would pull together and help by at least stripping the beds before he/she got there. They mopped the floors, cleaned the bathrooms, stocked the bathrooms both staff and customer, sanitized pt rooms for admits, cleaned up blood of the floor. They were the ones you called for chemical spills as they were the ones with the equipment to clean it up. All in all a good group, just a few spoilers in the bunch.

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Specializes in long term care, school nursing.

My LTC housekeepers are the best!! They will ambulate with residents and answer call lights in a pinch if needed.

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Specializes in ER.

I think it's insane that housekeepers can't clean up solids, but I also think they are one of the hardest working groups in the hospital. So I can't complain much. I'd love for them to glance in at the patient bathrooms on evening rounds. Currently they get cleaned once a day, and in some situations that just doesn't hold us for 24 hours.

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Specializes in ICU, MICU, SICU.

Just a little pet peeve...we have very long phone cords in our patient rooms and I keep finding them wrapped around the end of the bed. Everytime there is an emergency and we're trying to move the bed out of the room, I have to stop for 3 minutes to untangle a phone cord. It has happened at least 5 times! Other than that, I have no complaints.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

don't empty the trash at 3 am. if you must empty the trash at 3 am, please do so quietly.

don't pretend not to understand english if you don't want to do what i'm asking you to do. if you really don't understand english, please at least try! i get sick of calling the spanish interpreter to ask you to clean a room so we can get an admit!

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I appreciate all the replies.

I plan on nursing school but keep putting it off because the nature of my husband's job involves moving often and usually with short notice.

I got a job in housekeeping at a hospital shortly after our last move several months ago. I keep telling myself to remember this experience when I become a nurse. There are definitely exceptions, but overall we are overtly disrespected.

I work 2nd shift now and we are sent to clean discharge rooms all over the hospital. We strip the rooms and usually end up taking 3 to 4 large bags of linen and trash out of a room. We aren't supposed to touch equipment but we end up taking it out because nursing simply refuses to. I've seen nurses throwing extra linen in a dirty room so they don't have to carry it to the soiled room down the hall. We are being pressured by supervisors to finish and go to the next discharge probably 3 floors away. While I'm rushing there is usually an angry nurse rolling their eyes and making some rude comment because I told them (as I'm pouring sweat) that I'm sorry I don't have time to wipe off the cake crumbs from the table they're sitting at in the fully epuipped staff kitchen.

There is so much hostility! It really is a shame.

Please keep sharing your frustrations and I'd like to do the same. It feels good to let it out!

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Specializes in General Surgery.
I appreciate all the replies.

I plan on nursing school but keep putting it off because the nature of my husband's job involves moving often and usually with short notice.

I got a job in housekeeping at a hospital shortly after our last move several months ago. I keep telling myself to remember this experience when I become a nurse. There are definitely exceptions, but overall we are overtly disrespected.

I work 2nd shift now and we are sent to clean discharge rooms all over the hospital. We strip the rooms and usually end up taking 3 to 4 large bags of linen and trash out of a room. We aren't supposed to touch equipment but we end up taking it out because nursing simply refuses to. I've seen nurses throwing extra linen in a dirty room so they don't have to carry it to the soiled room down the hall. We are being pressured by supervisors to finish and go to the next discharge probably 3 floors away. While I'm rushing there is usually an angry nurse rolling their eyes and making some rude comment because I told them (as I'm pouring sweat) that I'm sorry I don't have time to wipe off the cake crumbs from the table they're sitting at in the fully epuipped staff kitchen.

There is so much hostility! It really is a shame.

Please keep sharing your frustrations and I'd like to do the same. It feels good to let it out!

Just try to remember that you are only one person. Try to do as much as you can and if you don't get everything done, call your lead or sup and see if they can help out. I try to practice time management with my housekeeping duties because I know it will help me when I work as an RN. And if they call you for something little like a spilled ice cube on the floor (this is a true call I've received), finish what you're doing and usually by the time you get over there, the "problem" has already solved itself. Just prioritize, if you've got a puddle of blood and shattered glass to clean in the trauma bay, an ice cube melting on the carpet isn't really going to take precedent.

As far as cutting corners like you mentioned about the nurses taking linen into another room, it goes both ways. I've seen housekeepers do the same thing. And just like not all housekeepers are lazy, same goes for nurses. There are a lot of them that bust their a** and there are those that seem content to just Facebook on their phones at the nurse's station the majority of the day. All departments should realize that without one another, the hospital could not continue to be there effectively for the patients.

Even if I am disrespected, I just put my head down and keep on working. I try to be the bigger person and walk away, I don't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they ticked me off because some people like to power trip. Kill 'em with kindness as they say, but that's just me :cool:

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Specializes in floor to ICU.

Our housekeeping dept in ICU is awesome! Couldn't do my job without them.:yeah:

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i get sick of calling the spanish interpreter to ask you to clean a room so we can get an admit!

what i get sick of is going to clean a room and a nurse will offer up coffee, cookies, maybe even their next paycheck if i will put off cleaning that room so they can avoid getting an admit.

then i'll get called back to it later with transport standing in the hallway with a patient, and the same nurse is standing there complaining they haven't seen housekeeping in hours.

will anybody admit to this?

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
what i get sick of is going to clean a room and a nurse will offer up coffee, cookies, maybe even their next paycheck if i will put off cleaning that room so they can avoid getting an admit.

then i'll get called back to it later with transport standing in the hallway with a patient, and the same nurse is standing there complaining they haven't seen housekeeping in hours.

will anybody admit to this?

i don't know if anyone will admit to it or not, but i've never done that.

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