I recently started at a new facility, and I had to do a treatment that involved washing someone. I looked in the patient's basin for his soap, and couldn't find anything. I looked in the supply room, nothing. Finally I went to another nurse and asked "Where is the soap? I can't find any." She looked confused and said "...soap?"
I tried to explain that I was looking for some sort of body soap/body wash for the patients, and she finally said, "Oh, we only use the soap in the dispensers."
I nearly fell over. The antibacterial hand soap ... in the bathroom dispensers ... that dries out my hands if I use it! No wonder I'm doing so many skin treatments for wounds/rashes! I tried to explain that every other facility I've been in (nursing home, hospital) has used a little bar soap or bottle of body wash for each resident, but no one else had heard of such a thing. Is this common?
We had gallon pump jugs, and the CNAs would get a 30cc med cup of the stuff if there was a bath not in the shower room. Part of it was to keep the residents who were confused from eating it
We do not supply soap,lotion, shampoo etc. We expect pts to provide their own.
What many of us do is that any time we travel we collect the hotel samples and bring them in so we have a stash of items we can use if pts don't have their own.
We also have disposable pre-mostioned wipes to use.
We would prefer to spend our supply budget on health care supplies.
We use no soap and no bath basins. The bath basins are a major source of re-contamination. We use something like glad bags with disposable wipes and hibicleanse on everyone. It is not used for the perineal area or the face. Wall soap, is used for incontinence.
This has decreased our catheter related infections to zero. No bath basins period. No home soap. We can order a specific brand of lotion that does not counter act the antibacterial soap as well as a perineal spray that is gentler and has a disinfenctant.
Whoa. I've never thought about it but yeah, those bath basins must be a haven for germs.
I had no idea there were so many variations in washing people up!
We do not supply soap,lotion, shampoo etc. We expect pts to provide their own.
What many of us do is that any time we travel we collect the hotel samples and bring them in so we have a stash of items we can use if pts don't have their own.
We also have disposable pre-mostioned wipes to use.
We would prefer to spend our supply budget on health care supplies.
Wow. It's good that you have backups but I can't imagine a facility that doesn't stock lotion. Then again, if I were a resident I'd want my family to bring the shampoo/hand cream/soap I'm used to. :)
xtxrn, ASN, RN
4,267 Posts
We had gallon pump jugs, and the CNAs would get a 30cc med cup of the stuff if there was a bath not in the shower room. Part of it was to keep the residents who were confused from eating it
Body wash was available- just not in each room :)