If YOU were the patient, would you feel comfortable...

[LifesAJourney]

Using the same bed and sharing a bathroom with a roommate like our regular patients do in a hospital? This thought just occured to me and I wanted to share it with my AN family! Personally, I would dread my whole stay there. I work as cna and knowing the number of bed changes we do with incontinent patients using washclothes to clean them up, it makes me cringe lol. I know our laundry dept does a great job of keeping our linens clean, but I can't imagine using the same sheets and towels to lay and bathe with knowing those same linens were used to clean up a patient with diarrhea! Don't even get me started with the bathrooms haha. Housekeeping cleans the rooms after a patient is discharged, so the rooms are sanitized, but how can I use the same toliet knowing a week ealier a patient with C-Diff had explosive diarrhea and it went everywhere. If I was a patient and had my own way, I would have a private room and bring my own linens and stack the toliet seat with those seat covers!

I'm not the kind of person that grosses out easily. Poop, urine, vomit, blood etc seen them all and still can hold a meal down But when it comes using those linens as a patient, knowing what I know, my stomach churns!

Soo...what are your thoughts?

[3dayRN]

Something I just noticed the other day at work. People that bring in their own coffers cups, dishes etc. Have been washing them in the little kitchen beside the nurses station. The disgusting part about that is they use the wash cloths we use on the patients!!! That is downright nasty!

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

Have your washcloths at home ever been used to wipe a bottom? Have your sheets ever encountered bodily fluids?

Oh, my heavens, YES. I have a very mentally handicapped son who is incontinent almost every night. I clorox everything every day. It would never occur to me to NOT use his sheets and washcloths.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

No. I don't share a bathroom with my husband, I'm certainly not going to share one with a stranger.

[Trekfan]

Have your washcloths at home ever been used to wipe a bottom? Have your sheets ever encountered bodily fluids?

Sadly yes I like to say I ran my own nursing home between my mom and dad . My mom was famest for pulling off her ileostomey bag and poring it all over :barf02::barf02:. My dad uses towels and pampers and he is not picky . He will use my good towels and (NO i do not want back after he's done) . I can go on , does bleach come in pool size ?

[mappers]

You don't share a bathroom with your husband??? I like my little 1.5 bathroom house. I share the one full bath with the three other members of my family and it is just fine.

I was in a third world country once where we helped remodel a house where 4 adults and 17 orphaned boys lived. Their bathroom was a toilet and spigot in a wall with a drain on the floor. We are a little spoiled in the US, I'd say.

[talaxandra]

We use disposable washclothes, which does away with one of the OP's concerns - it's not for hygeine, though, apparently they're cheaper than cleaning the fabric ones.

I'm not at all worried about the beds (designed for multiuse, thoroughly cleaned between patients) or the linen (professionally laundered at high temperatures), but would like to thank TakeTwoAspirin for her reminder about hotel cleanliness while I'm in one Even so, I'm more concerned about bed bugs than germs.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

You don't share a bathroom with your husband??? I like my little 1.5 bathroom house. I share the one full bath with the three other members of my family and it is just fine.

I was in a third world country once where we helped remodel a house where 4 adults and 17 orphaned boys lived. Their bathroom was a toilet and spigot in a wall with a drain on the floor. We are a little spoiled in the US, I'd say.

In my previous house I did not share a bathroom with my husband. Our house now I can't kick him out. I have tried. My boys have their own bathroom that I have never used and now that I have a daughter I let her use mine. I wouldn't punish her by making her share with the boys. I would have my own room to if I could. Or my own little pool house

[noahsmama]

I'm not concerned about the linens or washcloths. What grosses me out are the privacy curtains, which are pretty much never washed and rarely replaced.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

I had my kids in a hospital where 4 of the 20 pp rooms had showers. I was lucky enough to get a shower to myself both times; for all others, there .are 2 communal showers at the end of the hall. Each room had its own toilet, though, which is good on a pp floor. Where I work we used to have semiprivate rooms and I thought that was gross. I can handle sharing a bathroom with the general public, but postpartum and all that blood and ick....not for my patients. Yet, like a previous poster pointed out, we are still pretty fortunate for even that to be what I consider gross.

[NurseyNurseKRN]

You know what is really nasty....even nastier than washcloths......the MATTRESSES. How many times have you have a heavy incontinent patient with diarrhea or urine that soaked onto the mattress? EW!! :uhoh21: :barf01:

[Flo., BSN, RN]

The mattresses that I am used to don't absorb anything. They are waterproof.

[Trekfan]

i had my kids in a hospital where 4 of the 20 pp rooms had showers. i was lucky enough to get a shower to myself both times; for all others, there .are 2 communal showers at the end of the hall. each room had its own toilet, though, which is good on a pp floor. where i work we used to have semiprivate rooms and i thought that was gross. i can handle sharing a bathroom with the general public, but postpartum and all that blood and ick....not for my patients. yet, like a previous poster pointed out, we are still pretty fortunate for even that to be what i consider gross.

i find it odd that most of us have no big problem sharing with the public that we do not know who has what ? but it's when we know how gross someone is or that thay have somthing that we flip out . case in point i will the bathroom all day long at work but will olney use one tolit in my own bathroom at home because i know my dad pees every where and has druge resent infition but if he where to use a bathroom out in public the person useing it after him would not know ?