NOC Patient bathing

dekatn · Jul 29, 2004

Personally, I think it's inappropriate, if someone woke me up in the middle of the night to give me a bath, I would probably try to drown whoever was bathing me, especially if I'm sick. :angryfire. Then, on the other hand, the facility I currently work in, gives baths at noc, mops and buffs the floors,(with a very loud buffer), nearly drives me mad trying to work, I can't imagine trying to sleep with all this activity going on. Especially, after some of the pt. taking meds to help them sleep!!!!! This is one crazy world we live in.

Nurse Ratched, RN · Jul 29, 2004

Are we assuming these are alert and awake patients? (As opposed to tubed/vented/unconscious when it may matter less when the bath occurs?)

If it's an alert/awake patient, it's ridiculous.

I will say when I worked at the nursing home, it wasn't unusual for me to give an early morning bath while I was ending my shift, then lay the resident back in bed until breakfast.

longtermcarern · Jul 29, 2004

Is it appropriate to insist that a patient receive a bath during the night shift to save the day shift some work and to suit the schedule of the hospital, or is the patient's rest more important?

It should be what ever the pt normal home routine is. If this person was in the habit of getting up everyday at 4am and taking their shower then that is ok, but to bathe a person at night just for the convenience of staff it is never ok, even if they have dementia.

hospicemom · Jul 29, 2004

actually according to state laws ( i believe ) you are not suppose to wake a patient b4 7 to get them up for the day....or before 7 pm to get them ready for bed at night. but I could be wrong on the exact hours.....something liek that though. also I agree on that though...I find we are waking people up WAY too early to save time for the next shift...and whats up with the 3 a.m weights!!!!!!!! happens all the time. glad Im not the patient, I would freak.

RN-PA, RN · Jul 29, 2004

Our night shift staff is encouraged to bathe patients who aren't oriented and maybe if they've had a bad episode of incontinence and need to be cleaned up anyway. They just give a little longer bath and they're ready for the day shift. I don't think it happens too often, though.

I quit working night shift a number of years ago at another hospital where I worked med-surg when day shift started demanding we do a certain amount of baths to help them out. It was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, dealing with their rotten attitudes every morning, and always getting management to dump more on us 11-7 staff. I had enough trouble caring for up to 14 patients-- no nurses' aides-- and an extremely lazy co-worker. Bleh! :angryfire BAD memories!

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Jul 29, 2004

This idea was recently introduced where I work, and of course it was met with the usual chorus of complaints whenever anything changes........I've worked both day and noc shifts, and I don't see where it's a problem as long as people (including management) are flexible. You don't want to WAKE people for baths, of course, but in the course of turning and cleaning up an incontinent patient on, say, 4 AM rounds, what's wrong with doing a few more swipes with the cleaning cloths and changing the linens? By the same token, there are a lot of A&O pts. who like to shower in the evening......why not set them up and let 'em shower?

Again, the key word is FLEXIBILITY......There shouldn't be a 'quota' as to how many baths must be given on nocs, because staffing is usually bare-bones from 11-7 and there are some nights when you can't even get all your regular work done, let alone anything extra. But the expectation should be that ALL shifts help with bathing patients........health care facilities are 24-hour-a-day operations.

RNforLongTime · Jul 31, 2004

actually according to state laws ( i believe ) you are not suppose to wake a patient b4 7 to get them up for the day....or before 7 pm to get them ready for bed at night. but I could be wrong on the exact hours.....something liek that though. also I agree on that though...I find we are waking people up WAY too early to save time for the next shift...and whats up with the 3 a.m weights!!!!!!!! happens all the time. glad Im not the patient, I would freak.

Maybe that's how it is in WI, but in PA when I worked at a nursing home we started getting people up and ready for breakfast at 6am, sometimes 0530. You almost HAVE to when you've got 16 residents to care for and that's just doing the bare minimum care.

I work ICU and if I have to clean up an incontinent pt, I just go ahead and give them the bath right then and there. But to purposely wake them up, no I don't do that. Our unit has a policy that ALL pt's must be weihged by 0600. Usually, at one time or another during the night the pt is awake or awakened so I try to grab the weight at that time so not to awaken them later. I also work days and sometimes there's just NO WAY I have time to give a bath. Between trips to CT scan, transferring pt's to the floor, admitting a new pt or post-op, there just isn't enough time. If the night shift nurse has bathed a pt, that's great! The last ICU I worked at started baths at 0400. Usually around that time X-ray would be in or the lab to draw blood, so they're gonna be awakened anyway.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Aug 5, 2004

After all everyone knows those lazy night shift nurses get paid more and do less, at least make them bathe the patient

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Aug 5, 2004

P.S.

Ive never worked days in my life

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Aug 6, 2004

I suggest someone make rounds at the administrators homes about 0300, and make them get up and bathe, after Q2h vitals and use the same lukewarm water that we have at NOC.

moia · Aug 9, 2004

we bath on nights...most of the time it makes sense because its a surgical ICU and they need a post op bath..I do feel bad for our chronic patients though because no one on days ever thinks to give them a wet face cloth in the morning or let them brush their teeth. Most of our patients are too sick to care when they get their bath.