why the lack of baths

Nurses General Nursing

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Ok I just read part of a post talking about keeping people clean and now i have a bone to pick. I would like to know why there is a lack of baths or even washing up when in the hospital ??

My dad way in the hospital for a week and he got no bath the hole time :mad:????

I was i the hospital for a few days after surgery I was unable to get up or even really sit up for 2 days .

On day one i asked for a washcloth to wipe down my hands and face . thats the most I got on day one No toothbrush or anything? On day two the cna or nurse walked in and asked if I would like a toothbrush and toothpaste :)" all right bath time !!" I am the kind of person that takes 2 showers a day so you can understand how upset i was when i heard the the items being toss on the sink as she walked out :mad: By the end of the day i had it so I called the cna in still do not know who came in nurse or cna and asked to be undone from the c##p on every arm and leg i have so i could brush my teeth then as I am getting ready to get up she walks out yelling hit the call bell when you are done "OH THANKS " So as I am standing up and trying to ami myself towards the sink I am think WOW this was a bad idea if there ever was one I grabed onto the sink and holding on dear life i did mange to brush my teeth :) I then fell back on to the bed side ways that the #### call bell was not there "no glasses on so I could not see it and with the way i was cut forget about bending . In the end another pt heard me and called for help but come ? and I never did get a bath but at least I got a new gown as mine was bloody and wet ? but what is the deal here ?

Specializes in Intermediate care.

Interesting. Our hospital requires ALL patients get bathed at some point between 8am-11pm unless they decline, then we have to chart that. We used to do all baths in the morning. but day shift was complaining because there was way to much to do in the morning. So administration said to get as much as you can completed without stressing about it, but a PM bath is as good as an AM bath. So it does not matter when they get it, as long as they get it. Every patient atleast gets offered it.

i ALWAYS offer to at least brush their teeth at the minimum every morning. I usually offer it after breakfast.

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Specializes in LTC, HOSP, TELE, MED SURG, ETC.

I have worked in both nursing homes and hosp and I am very strong as a patient advocate. If someone asks me for a bath or complains about not getting one I make sure they get one. I have residents now that I give baths to a few times a week usually after 22:00 they don't mind waiting and they know they will get a bath and have to worry if the bath aide is going to be pulled to the floor cause someone called in. While I worked in the hosp that is the second thing on my agenda after vitals offer a shower or bed bath sometimes I have to find a woman to give baths to my younger still have modesty patients lol. Sorry you had to endure not getting a shower and no one offering to help you.

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Luckily where I work, we have the ability to keep our patients very clean.

No so in my previous job.

If you could, create a pyramid similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs related to patient care. The most common and pressing needs would be addressed first before moving on to higher needs. In some work environments where on all too many days, you are unable to give more care than meds, assessments and charting.

I became a very discouraged nurse and moved on to a place where I could give all the care from the meds to the emotional needs(at least 90% of the time).

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Did you complain to the hospital?

Yes I did complan and heres what I was told when I out right asked for a shower/bath and for my very bloody bandage to be changed as it was now just soaking me in blood . I was told that that they had no orders for a bath or a bandage change but they could get me a new gown .and I asked them to please get orders for a bath and bandage change . I left later that day so maybe my bath was coming later ??

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i know from experience (and it's understandable) that a LOT of people don't want to bathe when they're in the hospital. sometimes, i'll ask people if they need any help cleaning up or if they need any supplies and then i list them: toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, etc? SO OFTEN i hear "not right now, but maybe later." the truth is that they don't feel like bathing and it's not socially acceptable to admit that you don't want to bathe. i can't tell you how many patient's family members have inquired about their mother, father, sister, etc. not being "cleaned up" and it's documented right in their chart (and in my head) that it was offered and refused x2 or x3. i might ask a patient if they want to bathe and they'll say, "no, i got cleaned up yesterday." what they think (i assume) is that because they didn't see me yesterday and i wasn't there that i don't know if they did or not. they don't realize i can see in their chart that they didn't. unfortunately, you can't MAKE someone bathe - you can only encourage it and offer to help. that brings us to another issue. when a patient is about to be discharged i don't normally offer to help them clean up for two reasons. first, most people would rather just wait until they get in their own home and bathe there. secondly, if you're about to be discharged, you need to start doing things on your OWN. nobody is going to be there to clean between your toes when you get home. perfect example: last week a patient was about to be discharged. she asked for help bathing even though she was getting ready to leave so whatever - i got everything prepared. she expected me to do everything including wash her face. ok, lady, you had surgery on your abdomen, not your hands. of course i very kindly handed her a cloth and walked around to do her back. a short while later she wanted me to pull her up in the bed. with abdominal surgery it IS hard to pull up in the bed (i know, i've had it) but it's even harder when you don't even TRY. when i encouraged her to use the rails and her feet to pull up, she said, "i can't" without trying. her family was at the bedside and i kindly reminded her that she wouldn't have two people to scoot her up in the bed when she was home in a few hours and her family agreed. i have a feeling that she wanted to take a bath when it was almost time to leave "because she hadn't bathed in two days" because her family had asked her about it. instead of telling them she had been offered and refused each time, it was more dignified to tell them that nobody had helped her and have them "take care of the problem." i'm not saying that this is ALWAYS the case, but often times it is. i've even started telling patients, "i understand if you're not up to it, but i have to offer - would you like to get cleaned up today?" i do this because people don't like to say "NO" to that question! so when they say, "yeah, but maybe later" i can't keep on schedule not knowing when "maybe later" could be. that's why i set it up for them so they know it's OK to say yes OR no and that i'm not going to think they're "dirty" if they say no. it's awkward when someone asks you if you want to bathe (esp. if you don't) bc you feel like you must LOOK or SMELL like you need to or why would they be asking. just my :twocents:!

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
I think I should add I was not on a floor it seemed more like a cross between icu and a floor there where maybe 10 rooms in all if that and there seemed to be lots of staff because I had my vs done a lot and there where 3 people doing them at each shift for the most part they where grate, well all but this one nurse but anyway . I never waited more then 5 min. For someone to come when I called so thats why I just to done get it. That seemed to be the olney thing that buged me well that and being woken up at night for vs , blood draws, shots , meds ,

Being woken up for VS, etc, is par for the course when you're in the hospital. So many people have this same complaint, but really.....if you didn't need to be monitored around the clock, you wouldn't need to be in the hospital at all.

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I haven't read the whole thread yet and I hope someone has addresses this.........

If I am alert and oriented and you WAKE ME UP!!!!! to offer a bath and I am NOT in critical care........beware you WILL recieve an ear full of expletives and obscenities. If I have to choose sleep at night or missing a bath.....I'll miss the bath and have my family help me.

A BATH TECH???? :uhoh3: What are the qualifications and educational requirments to becomming a bath tech?

What is the problem? I am confused............Giving baths have always been apart of nursing. We have ALWAYS been "BUSY" How do you make sure your patients get their baths.....do you give the bath yourself? and If you can make notice that the CNA's are sitting around and could be giving baths...why not grab one of them and say...."Let's go wash up "324" together and get it over with........it should be pretty quick with the 2 of us..."

When did being a nurse and bathing become mutually exclusive? I noticed this when my Dad was in the hospital right before he passed.......bathing seemed to be a special order and an additional charge. I would ask if my Dad had been bathed and I would be told he was "washed up". I found him with betadine still on him from the day before (he had a vascath inserted) surgery EKG leads still on his back and last night's dinner crumbs in bed. WHen I complained everyone looked suprised.....I was told they "straighted his linnen up, changed his gown and helped him wash his face" andhe said he was fine......Really? Dad was pretty obtunded at the time, had a new vascath. a foley, an IV, and O2.......I was P.O.'d:devil:

From then on they got what they hoped......I did my fathers care.....

A good scrub can still leave betadine behind....that is some of the most stubborn stuff there is!

On the topic of the OP....

Yes, daily baths at one time were a part of routine care. Unfortunately, it has become harder and harder in recent years to bathe everyone daily, with the increase of patients to take care of per nurse/CNA. There was actually an ADMINISTRATIVE PUSH in recent years to NOT give a full bath/bed change daily to patients, believe it or not (and no, I did not agree with any part of that way of thinking). They figured that, people don't change their sheets daily at home, and it didn't need to be done daily in the hospital. This would also decrease laundering costs. The other part was that they said it was found to be detrimental to bathe patients that often, since it interrupted the skin's normal flora (or some other such BS).

Now, mind you, I retained my "older school" way of thinking, and would do a full bath/bed change to patients whenever I could (unless they refused, of course), but sadly, it became less and less possible even. It got to the point where it was hard enough to assess, pass meds, etc, in a timely manner, much less do a bath! It's just a sad reality that they're piling so much on the plate of a nurse in a day that doing all of those things aren't realistic anymore. Our staffing ratios changed to the point where I would have 6-7 patients on a day shift, and a couple of those I would be the "primary" nurse on (meaning I had no CNA to help me). For the patients that DID have a CNA in addition to me, that CNA also had the same number of patients to care for with ANOTHER nurse (so a CNA might have up to 12 patients). It was just impossible to get it all done, and administration saw no problem with this.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
My floor is often times crazy busy and I'm lucky if I have 2 minutes to to go to the BR - so really - baths are not my priority. But even those days I don't give a full bedbath - I do mouth care, and give the pt warm, moist face cloth to wipe their face, neck, and hands. That usually wakes them up.

The hospital does not provide toothbrushes, toothpaste, comb, razor - so unfortunately if they don't bring them its hard to make them look their best. I usually give them mouth swaps and mouthwash to wipe their teeth/gums/tongue.

It's not the best but that's what we gotta work with.

and see this I can find acceptable, if for whatever reason it's just a hectic shift and one can't get the full shabang, at least there is still care being given.

Clean the most important parts, do mouth care, let them wash their face etc. etc. I am surprised your hospital doesn't provide that stuff. We have anything and everything a patient can need. I think maybe not conditioner. Now our razor is crappy and will probably result in many cuts, but we have one. It's been like that every place I have been.

Cherry I have told many of patients "you don't come to the hospital to get good sleep. Just aint gonna happen"

I have to say. One of the great things about being a student is I got to observe a lot. I got to go to many floors and units, 3 different hospitals and my sr. practicum was on float. When your a student you can get to be a fly on the wall sometimes and see and hear a lot of the dynamics in the hospital. The nurses and aides don't tend to filter just because a student is around. With this I will say. I understand that sometimes it's just a hectic shift. I have had them. You can't find time to barely sit. But I noticed a trend when I was that fly on the wall. The nurses and aides that "never had the time" to do things, it was the same every shift no matter what was going on. I saw a lot of poor time management with these same workers. These would always be the SAME people that found time to gossip and surf the net. No time for patient care but time to talk trash about their fellow co-workers, the nurses and the aides and how lazy they were, the hospital, the patients and so on. So I think there are those that truly get busy and sometimes things like baths don't get done. It shouldn't be a daily occurrence and if patient care slips because of a crazy day on the floor, it should be rectified. An apology to the patient acknowledging things, but you can definitely start to see patterns with some people.

This is all my opinion. I don't need to hear all the hoopla about how I don't know this or that. I have been on both sides of the fence. I have been the patient numerous times in the hospital and I have been on the nurse/aide side.

Agree or not, there are just some people that really suck at their job and have no business being there.

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"Being woken up for VS, etc, is par for the course when you're in the hospital. So many people have this same complaint, but really.....if you didn't need to be monitored around the clock, you wouldn't need to be in the hospital at all."

Yes that is veary true BUT every hour /40 mins :lol2::uhoh3: how about coming in and doing more then one thing at a time ?and waking me up just to tell me I my BP is low "thanks I know that its also in my chart" But really how can I sleep ?

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if you want to sleep, go home. you don't go to the hospital for sleep.

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if you want to sleep, go home. you don't go to the hospital for sleep.

:yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah:

Yeah thats for shore ,to bad that was not an op.

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Actually, it was. It's called leaving "against medical advice".

We had a patient sign the form and leave for exactly your reason this week. Too much disturbed sleep.

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Actually, it was. It's called leaving "against medical advice".

We had a patient sign the form and leave for exactly your reason this week. Too much disturbed sleep.

that would have been hard for he to do as I could not even sit up ! I do not think I would have gotten far.

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