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Discussion

I hate bedmaking

This may prove to be the only thing that I won't like about nursing school/being a nurse. Give me pathophysiology, give me assessment, give me risk factors....give me all of the hard facts of the human body, and I will feel like I'm in my game - but ask me to miter bedcorners and I just lose all patience like there's no tomorrow. lol. Maybe it's just a guy thing. Any other guys (or females, for that matter) who don't like bedmaking?

On a more serious note - I know I'll get the hang of it before check-off time, but right now it's just the only thing I think I don't like so far. lol.

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  • Author

I don't mind bedmaking in and of itself, but I guess I just can't help but notice that at the hospital I work at, from all the times that I've helped the nurses do it, occupied beds are not made according to any real technical plan or "by the book"...instead it just seems like you just do whatever you have to do until the bed is MADE. Also, they use fitted bottom sheets, not flat sheets.

Whereas in our check offs at school apparently it has to all be very neat and precise...no wrinkles...flat sheets only...fan-fold at the appropriate intervals...etc etc. Obviously it's all stuff we need to learn, but meh, it's just a pet peeve of mine. lol.

I know that this thread is made tongue implanted firmly in cheek. However, A wrinkle free bed does lend itself to patient comfort and less skin issues. I have seen pt's with large red areas with a nice white crease in the center from creases. I am sure many others have as well.

And don't forget the value of flipping that pillow whenever you can. The nice cool side of the pillowcase on the head seems to do wonders for patient comfort.

Just my 2:twocents:

Brian RN

  • Expert

this thread made me laugh. when i was in nursing school back in 1973 one of our instructors told us about how they had to make a perfect bed when they were in nursing school back in the 30s and 40s. they used draw sheets in those days, had to make mitered corners and the instructors would bounce a coin off the draw sheet to see if they had pulled the sheets tight enough and without wrinkles. i remember this instructor patiently redoing a mitered corner with me over and over and over until i finally "got it". what is this? i had thought. my mother never did mitered corners on the sheets of our beds at home that i remembered! just tuck the suckers in. the bed making never bothered me as much as bed baths. my mother taught me how to sew when i was very young, so constructing things, including putting the sheets of a bed together, didn't seem so bad to me. but, bed baths. . .

We had to learn the mitered corner for NS but I already had it down from the military. All bunks were made up with 45 degree on the corner. The funny thing was that in the Army we rarely slept IN the bed usually it was ON the bed to keep from having to remake it.

The funny thing in the hospital is that after taking all that time to miter the corner and make sure the sheet fold down in such a way that he seem is down so that it wont irritate patient. The first thing you do once the patient gets in is yank the blankets up at the feet so they have room for their tootsies, so much for the 45! LOL!

P2

Hospitals have fitted sheets [corners attached] in WV. N&V&suctioning = my 'dreaded' jobs --I applied to work with hemodialysis & was told that my 'dreaded's NEVER occur here. I found out that this is usually the ONLY time that they HAVE N&V & need suctioning. :eek: The fitted corners are true; the NO N&V&suctioning wasn't. Moral of the story=be careful & check things out for yourself ;)

Thankfully my program spent very little time on bedmaking and bedbaths. We were not checked off on them, but rather just introduced to them. All of our instructors said that as a registered nurse these days, making a proper bed should be the least of our worries. I don't mind making unoccupied beds, but I hate making occupied beds.

  • Expert

Thankfully, I graduated from the Mom school of bed making where mitered corners were a religion.....along with ironing said sheets, pillowcases, hankies, tshirts and underwear (1960's).

Today, I still make neat mitered corners, wrinkle free bottom/drawsheets for patients as seen too many develop decubs at home over wrinkled/bunched up linens. Many hospitals in my area now have fitted bottom sheets.

Home laundry another story, goes into dryer then folded----iron is almost relic.

During my 1st weeks as a PCA I was making terrible beds. My opinion but possibly others as well. One day I got this man in his chair (Veteran) Suddendly I got nervous I had to remember how to make a good bed. He was critical of it too. So we spent the morning talking about the finer arts of bed making and I got over my hatred from making beds in bootcamp

I don't like making beds but I do what has to be done for people who can't do for themselves.

I don't like making beds for people who are capable of making their own beds. I did a pediatric rotation last summer. there was a teenage girl who was in for a CF tuneup. She was perfectly capable of making her own bed and I was asked by the RN to make her bed. I did it without question (hey I want to pass clinical as much as the next student). My mental health background was screaming this isn't good for this teenager to have me make her bed for her.

The funny thing in the hospital is that after taking all that time to miter the corner and make sure the sheet fold down in such a way that he seem is down so that it wont irritate patient. The first thing you do once the patient gets in is yank the blankets up at the feet so they have room for their tootsies, so much for the 45! LOL!

P2

That's what a toe pleat is for- room for the feet! I guess they don't teach those any more.

We also had to make sure that the open side of the pillowcase faced away from the door.

I didn't go to nursing school with Florence, but I think some of my instructors did. :lol2:

  • Expert

We did the bedbath and bed making a couple of weeks ago in clinical lab. Our instructor showed us how to use two flat sheets, so we'd learn the corners. Then, once we were successfully passed on that, we got to use the fitted bottom sheet. And she taught us the toe pleat (I thought we were the only ones who did that anymore!) AND she taught us about leaving the closed end of the pillowcase towards the door.

It's all about patient comfort...

I hate giving showers. My shoes always get soaked and wet, and they end up stinky. Also, I get sweaty inside the shower room, and I wear glasses, it's very hard to see. LOL

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