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!
Specializes in Addiction, Psych, Geri, Hospice, MedSurg.
I know of a hospital right now that still has 4 to a room........ and when I'm a patient I try very hard NOT to think about who or what have been on those linens and I use my own nightgowns /PJ's. I fish my own IV lines so they can't use that as an excuse to put on a patient gown. I use baby wipes for wash clothes and bathing. At least in my home my Kooties are at least that.....MINE.
This is still the case at a lot of VA facilities. Thank GOODNESS the military hospitals have made even semi-private rooms into private rooms. I still visit some ole' school hospitals that have semi's and non's (non private being 4 people to a room).
I've been a patient several times. I don't think about it... Now, someone mentioned the bathroom... I will take a shower with flip-flops on and in my undies. I ask my family to spray it with bleach about 30 mins before I want to take a shower. Housekeeping NEVER seem to "clean" the showers... they are never in the bathrooms long enough to "clean" the shower... and that is one thing that freaks me out (to the point that whenever we'd move to a new apt -military, so happened a lot- I would have to bleach the tub every day for a month before I would feel comfortable taking a bath in it -I'd shower, but no bath- and I *NEVER* take a bath at anyone's house, not even my mom's).
hm...our mattresses are waterproof. basicallly reminds me of a slip'n' slide. It literally will slide right off, so it doesnt soak up, just gotta wipe it down.
A regular mattress would be disgusting. (coming from a germaphobe)
I dont know what kind of mattresses my facility has then....but i would doubt they are 100% waterproof. The liquid does not just roll off of them....it leaves stains. It feels like a vinyl/plastic type of material on top but all i can say is they stain and the liquid sets in on them before "drying".......yuck!!! The housekeepers use bleach wipes on them, thats the only way I know that they are cleaned!
A few years ago, I visited my sister in L&D after the birth of her daughter. She was in the exact same room I had been in 3 years earlier when I had my son. Her 2 year old daughter was playing on the floor. I almost puked....because when I was the patient in that room, I left a huge puddle of blood in that very spot, along with a bloody trail into the bathroom where I almost passed out arter barfing on my Nurse's shoes. EWWWW. How many pp women have bled on that floor? I demanded that my little niece get up and stay off of that floor!!
Similar for hotels - you have NO idea what kind of person slept in the bed before you and people usually ALWAYS have sexual relations in bed too! But what can you do! Oy vey!
Yes agree ....gross. Especially when you think about WHO some of them are having sex with.
Hotel and motel duvets /blankets etc must be disgusting
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?
This is why I cringe when I see families bring babies in to see 'Grandma". I ALWAYS have a talk with them about how we have visiting regs and why a hospital is not a good place for a litttle one with an underdeveloped immune system.
This is why I sometimes just throw away c-diff washcloths that end up with a lot of poop on them. I know they're clean when they come back from laundry, but I still hate the thought of washing someone's face with it in the future.
But as far as the rest of it... no, it doesn't bother me. You just have to not think about it. Kinda like eating in a restaurant, using any public bathroom, sitting in a train, etc. There are endless gross-out possibilities in all those situations and more... IF you think about them!
Remove "sometimes" and you got my approach to it.
Maybe I'm in the minority but yes, it bothers me and it is one of the main reasons I won't go to hospitals myself. I will be one of those old men found in an apartment months after he died from w/e.
I have been a patient many times, and have to say that this has never really crossed my mind. Like someone else said, these days if you are in a hospital you are generally pretty sick.
Honestly, even now I think about it I would worry more about the linen in hotels. At least in the hospital you know those linens are changed and are cleaned with the assumption that they are germ filled. In other words, they don't spare the bleach. I know that they "steam press" the wrinkles out of some of the linens in hotels rather than wash heavy comforters and over-blankets rather than wash them every day. Now THAT does creep me out!
I've read some nasty things about hotels. The maids are extremely overworked/rushed and the pay is horrible.
At least in a healthcare facility the bathrooms are cleaned properly and more often. One time I was waiting to use the bathroom at a grocery store. There was only one toilet and there was an old lady taking forever in there. Based on all the shuffling I think she had an accident. I went in there after her and walked right back out. It smelled exactly like c-diff and there were "stragglers" in the toilet... mushy, orange ones.
I doubt she washed her hands properly. Have you noticed the way people in public bathrooms wash their hands? Flicking their fingertips under the water for all of 3 seconds, soap optional. Then they grab the door handle with their dirty hands and walk out. I don't consider myself a germaphobe, but I *do* notice stuff like that. And the c-diff lady probably continued shopping, touching food on her way out. Blech!
Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Hospice,IV Therapy.
When I worked in the hospital someone from housekeeping had been cleaning beds from discharged pts. I went to admit someone in one of the rooms that she cleaned and I found blood all over one of the siderails. Needless to say I put the pt in another room and immediately called the housekeeping supervisor. That person did not last long in housekeeping.
Thanks for all the responses! I've been working nights and have an evening class or else I would of responded faster haha! I definitely feel like it is a mind or matter issue, but I still cringe lol.
I'm also learning more and more about hotel cleanliness too! My hospital still has the double beds with a few private rooms. The newer one the built has all private room and new beds hopefully! I love our new beds that can weigh patients and built-in bed alarms! All we need are new vital sign machines and i'm in heaven¡
But when it comes using those linens as a patient, knowing what I know, my stomach churns!
Needless to say I put the pt in another room and immediately called the housekeeping supervisor. That person did not last long in housekeeping.
demylenated, BSN, RN
261 Posts
This is still the case at a lot of VA facilities. Thank GOODNESS the military hospitals have made even semi-private rooms into private rooms. I still visit some ole' school hospitals that have semi's and non's (non private being 4 people to a room).
I've been a patient several times. I don't think about it... Now, someone mentioned the bathroom... I will take a shower with flip-flops on and in my undies. I ask my family to spray it with bleach about 30 mins before I want to take a shower. Housekeeping NEVER seem to "clean" the showers... they are never in the bathrooms long enough to "clean" the shower... and that is one thing that freaks me out (to the point that whenever we'd move to a new apt -military, so happened a lot- I would have to bleach the tub every day for a month before I would feel comfortable taking a bath in it -I'd shower, but no bath- and I *NEVER* take a bath at anyone's house, not even my mom's).
~Demy