am I wrong?

[Ms.RN]

Here is a scenerio. Nurses aide was in the shower room and she is undressing the patient to give a shower. At the same time, her other patient who cannot do anything by herself says she have to go to the bathroom. So I went to a shower room and asked her if she can toilet this lady first before she gives her a shower and she refused and her reasoning is she is busy with another patient. My reasoning of asking her to toilet her first is because there is a toilet in the shower room and if this patient is not taken to the bathroom, then she is going to be incontinent. Since a patient who needs a shower is already in the shower room she can wait a minute or so until she toilet another patient. So am I wrong? I need an objective opinion beceause my manager is not being objective at all.

[ronda919]

I have worked in healthcare for the last 11yrs as a CNA. I have encountered nurses like you, and let me tell you, the CNA's, nor patients like you, if this is how you treat them. Could you imagine being that pt, telling their nurse, " I need to use the rest room" your response, let me get your CNA?!? Are u really serious?? It is everyones' responsibility to take care of the pts, if the CNA is tied up, it is now your responsibility. So I guess your pt had an incontinence episode, making her ashamed, humiliated, and lowering her overall self esteem, because you were too good to help her.

Anyway, you were dead wrong, not only to the CNA, but to the one you are SUPPOSED to take care of, the patient.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Here is a scenerio. Nurses aide was in the shower room and she is undressing the patient to give a shower. At the same time, her other patient who cannot do anything by herself says she have to go to the bathroom. So I went to a shower room and asked her if she can toilet this lady first before she gives her a shower and she refused and her reasoning is she is busy with another patient. My reasoning of asking her to toilet her first is because there is a toilet in the shower room and if this patient is not taken to the bathroom, then she is going to be incontinent. Since a patient who needs a shower is already in the shower room she can wait a minute or so until she toilet another patient. So am I wrong? I need an objective opinion beceause my manager is not being objective at all.

Seriously? You don't really want to hear my answer. I'm glad your manager has more sense than you apparently do. But here - I'll make my answer civil:

Imagine, for a moment, that it's your mother lying in that bed, unable to do anything by herself. She has an urgent need for the toilet and the only one around to respond ("her" nurse) says to her "Oh wait. I don't have time to do that. I have paperwork and supervisory things to do. Let me interrupt someone else's work with another patient so that you can have your bowel movement in the shower room with another half-naked patient looking on."

I hope that you are a very inexperienced nurse and that you are big enough to take note of these responses and gain a little compassion and understanding of the role of a nurse.

Just imagine....

[gentlegiver, ASN, LPN, RN]

As an LPN working in LTC/Rehab, I have to agree with everyone above. If the CNA had the patient in the shower room and was undressing the pt, then it would have been disrespectful to leave the original pt to bring another into the room. Aside from the fact that it would have been unsafe to leave a naked pt alone in the shower room. Toilet the pt yourself, believe it or not it is part of Pt Care.

[JDZ344]

Agree with the others, as a CNA I would not leave someone half undressed to bring someone else into the shower room (what is the CNA going to do with the half-naked patient?). They would have to re-dress the person, remove them fromt he room, bring in the patient to use the toilet... not practical.

[lucya]

Agree with the rest of the crew... It all about team work!

[nurse grace RN, BSN]

you should have toileted the patient and let the CNA finish what she already started.

[Ahhphoey]

Any chance the OP is ever going to come back to this discussion? I would like to hear more of your side.

I was wondering the same thing:uhoh3:

[RNOTODAY, BSN, RN]

yup, your wrong.

and you do you think its Appropriate for a patient to be on the toilet with someone else in there?

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

I don't know where everyone got that you meant to put them both in the same room, I didn't read it that way at all. But I have to agree with most - if the aide is busy, take patient to the toilet yourself. Apart from anything else, it's much faster for the patient and you!

[lucylu 777]

Ouch! I hope the OP had learned a valuable lesson, she sounds genious clueless. I am not surprised, she is not the only RN who thinks in such way, sad - very sad.

[rn/writer, RN]

I don't know where everyone got that you meant to put them both in the same room, I didn't read it that way at all. But I have to agree with most - if the aide is busy, take patient to the toilet yourself. Apart from anything else, it's much faster for the patient and you!

Other members got the idea that she was suggesting to put them in the same area because of this sentence--

My reasoning of asking her to toilet her first is because there is a toilet in the shower room and if this patient is not taken to the bathroom, then she is going to be incontinent

Apart from inconvenience, this sentence minimizes the need for both patients to have privacy. The patient waiting to be showered should not have to sit there in a state of partial undress. And the patient wanting to be toileted should not have to feel that she has to do her business in front of someone else. Even if there is a stall with a door, the second patient can't help but feel she is "on the spot" and needing to hurry for the sake of the first patient.

This unfortunate decision left three people in the lurch.

[MERRYWIDOW46]

When I was a manager I told my staff, "No aspect of patient care is beneath we licensed nurses. If the Tech or CNA is busy the nurse should do the job. I don't expect techs or cnas to give meds but I expect an LPN or RN to do everything for a patient/client/resident". The time it took to find the CNA, who certainly should NOT leave someone half undressed in the shower, YOU could have toileted the resident and moved along without stress and arguing.