I work for a staffing company. Through my staffing company I do in home care a few days a week. I get to work (an extra shift for this particular client). The first thing that the wife (I am caring for the husband) says to me is: I need you to take out the trash and the recycle bin." My first thought was...why can't you do it.....NOTE: I did not say this out loud.
I of course took out the garbage and the recycling bin....
I am here to take care of the husband (ALS, vent dependent, requires hoyer lift for transfers), not to take out the trash. I am more than willing to pick up my own messes, but...that is also a part of my job....along with common curtesy.
I am probably just being a bit over sensitive (I worked 3pm-12am last night, work 0730-1730 today, and the past few nights I have not slept more than 4 hours).....but I don't think that it is MY job to take out the garbage when you (the wife) are perfectly capiable to do it yourself.....I AM NOT YOUR HOUSEMAID
Specializes in PACU, CARDIAC ICU, TRAUMA, SICU, LTC.
What would happen if, while taking out the recyclables, you cut yourself on a piece of glass, and ended up with MRSA in your hand? Would you be covered under workmens compensation if doing the chores was not in your job description? Will the family pay your bills when you have no income, all because you were doing household chores that the family member was fully capable of doing?? IMO, you need a clear delineation of your responsibilities and duties as a homecare nurse. You are a homecare nurse, not a sanitation or domestic engineer....
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Tyler77 - I suggest you limit your opinions to things you have some knowledge of. Luckily, there are probably enough to keep you pretty busy and where you could make a valuable contribution. Failing that, how about starting a thread yourself in the appropriate area of interest?
Our admitting paperwork makes it very clear what we are there to do and not to do. The relatives of the patient have no claim to add to those things no matter what the nurse is doing in her "down" time. Well, isn't that just mean and selfish of me? Why not just do the laundry and scrub out the bathtub for the able-bodied adults in the house? The over-arching reason for it is that families use it as a manipulative weapon and agencies allow them to dangle the prospect of termination to get the nurse to perform as a domestic servant. That makes it more difficult for the next nurse to define her role and set boundaries. Weird as it sounds, that's how I think.
I just have to add here, that the agency I'm with now never allows those things to happen, I feel totally supported, we have a lot of Medicaid patients, plenty of cases and she's still in business despite all that. So I apologize if it seems I don't get the dire circumstances people may find themselves in allowing themselves to be exploited by the families of these homecare patients.
:up:
scoochy
375 Posts
What would happen if, while taking out the recyclables, you cut yourself on a piece of glass, and ended up with MRSA in your hand? Would you be covered under workmens compensation if doing the chores was not in your job description? Will the family pay your bills when you have no income, all because you were doing household chores that the family member was fully capable of doing?? IMO, you need a clear delineation of your responsibilities and duties as a homecare nurse. You are a homecare nurse, not a sanitation or domestic engineer....