ICU: Nurses Wash Patients + Make Beds?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Just curious: In my hospital, ICU RNs wash their patients, make their beds, draw bloods, & do EKGs, while RNs on med-surg floors have Assistants who do these tasks (and of course the RNs on med-surg have far more patients). Is this structure typical throughout the hospital industry? I work at a NYC teaching hospital and wondering if this is standard practice.... Thanks for any input.

Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.

In my hospital system we have an Aid on every ICU. They do the stocking, garbage, help with turns, answer call lights (if we have a pt that can use a call light) take temps and blood sugars, empty foleys and do phlebotomy if pt does not have a line.

We also have a 24 hour Central Sterile Processing department that does all of the wiping down of equipment.

We have a Clinical Monitoring Team that is our resource for balloon pumps, Swans, Ultrafiltration etc. and they also place PICCS for pts requiring pressors.

Resp therapy does all the EKGs.

Material mgmt takes care of the code cart, plus all other emergent carts.

It sounds like this is not the usual set-up. My hat goes off to those of you who wear all these hats and more!

:thankya::thankya::thankya:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, SDU, OR, RR, Ortho, Hospice RN.

Where I worked in ICU back in Tasmania, we certainly did the personal care of our patients. Part of their holistic care and I loved it. By the end of my shift I always felt I did my best to cater to their every need.

I loved that ICU and the staff I worked with.

I miss them but still keep in touch with them all. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiothoracic Nurse,Nurse Educator.
In addition to the baths, linen changes, and blood draws, nurses in the ICU where I worked (have been in ER now since May) are also responsible for stocking the rooms and emptying the trash and linen bags. The fun part about stocking is that all of the linen has to be refolded to make it fit into the cabinets.

I dont believe this.I dont think this is possible.what then happened to the orderlies and cleaners.:nono:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, Research, Corrections.
I dont believe this.I dont think this is possible.what then happened to the orderlies and cleaners.:nono:

Believe it because that is what is happening! Not to mention the repositioning Q2hr with no one to help but another fellow nurse whose patients are not attended to in the process! :angryfire

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I dont believe this.I dont think this is possible.what then happened to the orderlies and cleaners.:nono:

That is how it was in my local ICU unit when I did clinicals there. There was one nurse with 1-2 patients and they were responsible for all the patients care and treatments, ect. along with stocking the units and the patients rooms. They said that they would go through the unit and do the turn/reposition together so that there was someone there to help them with that. And they would change the patients also together Q2HR.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Most of the time when I work the floor I may as well be working in the unit. Either there aren't any aides or they don't want to do their job. So I still end up doing all ADLS, all txs, all meds, meals, I/O, etc. for 3-4 times as many pts as I would if I were working back in the unit. I would've gone back to working in the unit but the nurses in the ICU were too evil - at least on the floor you are on your own and can avoid some of the politics and ugly personalities.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, Cardiology, Mother/Baby, LTC.
When I worked in ICU, back in the 70's and 80's, I did total patient care, including baths and bed changes. I had to empty foley bags out and restock necessary supplies by each patients bedside. I didn't empty linen bags, garbage, count linen, wash equipment or beds down. And a year ago, when I was a patient in Charlotte Regional's ICU, none of my nureses washed bedside equipment down. They did basicall the same things I had done years ago. Washing equipment down or counting linen is not using a nurse's time properly, IMHO.

Woody:balloons:

When I worked ICU, we did total pt care, bed baths, linen changes, blood draws from lines, no EKG's, we restocked pt rooms, we cleaned the room, cleaned all equipment, restocked crash carts, had no unit secretary, had 1-4 pts per RN, and that is why I quit. The last 2 weeks that I worked, I had 4 vent pts. NO JOKE!! That is unsafe nursing. I loved ICU,but I love my license way more. No job is beneath a nurse to do though I believe. We are all in it together to take care of the pts. I am no better than anyone else, and I basically do anything I can to help others.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

We have aides that hold the patients over while we clean them up. :) They also do blood sugars and 12-leads. I've never been on or even heard of an ICU where the nurse wasn't involved in cleaning up their patients, but I worked on a unit where we had a lot more help and where the lab did all the draws unless they were from lines. It varies.

4 vent patients??!!?? Scary!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, Cardiac Cath/EPS Labs.
When I worked ICU, we did total pt care, bed baths, linen changes, blood draws from lines, no EKG's, we restocked pt rooms, we cleaned the room, cleaned all equipment, restocked crash carts, had no unit secretary, had 1-4 pts per RN, and that is why I quit. The last 2 weeks that I worked, I had 4 vent pts. NO JOKE!! That is unsafe nursing. I loved ICU,but I love my license way more. No job is beneath a nurse to do though I believe. We are all in it together to take care of the pts. I am no better than anyone else, and I basically do anything I can to help others.

Thanks for the post. My original posting wasn't meant to convey that an RN is "above" cleaning the patient, just that I was surprised how RNs at my hospital on a regular med-surg floor did NOT clean the patients, but DID clean them on ICU---surprised me, because I thought it would be more efficient to have the RN titrate vasopressors, analyze heart rhythms, assess feeding tubes, etc. than do the cleaning that assistants do on the med-surg floor...an earlier post explained that many ICU patients have A-lines, which must be managed carefully during turning and that it's beneficial to have the RN seeing the entire skin of the patient....I think a good "compromise" is what a recent poster said: an assistant holds the patient while the RN cleans and assesses the skin....ALSO: shocked that you had FOUR ICU VENTED patients....are there any legal limits to the # of ICU patients/RN (other than in Calif.) or is 2-to-1 merely the accepted norm that often gets violated anyway.....?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.
Thanks for the post. My original posting wasn't meant to convey that an RN is "above" cleaning the patient, just that I was surprised how RNs at my hospital on a regular med-surg floor did NOT clean the patients, but DID clean them on ICU---surprised me, because I thought it would be more efficient to have the RN titrate vasopressors, analyze heart rhythms, assess feeding tubes, etc. than do the cleaning that assistants do on the med-surg floor...an earlier post explained that many ICU patients have A-lines, which must be managed carefully during turning and that it's beneficial to have the RN seeing the entire skin of the patient....I think a good "compromise" is what a recent poster said: an assistant holds the patient while the RN cleans and assesses the skin....ALSO: shocked that you had FOUR ICU VENTED patients....are there any legal limits to the # of ICU patients/RN (other than in Calif.) or is 2-to-1 merely the accepted norm that often gets violated anyway.....?

Where I work (UK) we give all care including hygiene, draw bloods, clean equipment, make beds etc. We take bloods from the lines, some of us do cannulation/venepuncture too. Our patient ratio is 1 to 1 if they are vented. Sometimes we have 2 patients, but only in an emergency. In ICU we don't have any patient care assistants but we do have a ward clerk Monday to Friday 9 to 5.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Just curious: In my hospital, ICU RNs wash their patients, make their beds, draw bloods, & do EKGs, while RNs on med-surg floors have Assistants who do these tasks (and of course the RNs on med-surg have far more patients). Is this structure typical throughout the hospital industry? I work at a NYC teaching hospital and wondering if this is standard practice.... Thanks for any input.

Worked in 4 different states in my 16 years of nursing in cardiac care, ICU, and Telemetry. Yes, this is standard. When I worked in the float pool and would go to medical and surgical floors(floated throughout the entire hospital) I would make a point to do baths for at least 2 of my patients-I would let the assistant know-it was normally on patients that were at risk for decubitus-I could do a more thorough skin assessment that way. The assistants were pretty shocked that a nurse would actually help with ANY baths which was sad to hear.....:crying2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
If there is no tech to help, are you expected to bath patients and change linens by yourself? Or do you take turns helping other RNs? I am interested in ICU nursing, but it is the physical component that is worrying me. It's not that I feel that I am above bed baths or anything, but I just don't know how I could handle this without any help. My back hurts as it is!

Yep, each nurse helps each other out. One place I worked had 'buddies' assigned for the shift. I would cover their 2 patients while they went on break or had to go down for a procedure with one of their patients and also assist with turning and lifting and they would reciprocate.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment