I am looking for ideas on how to address patient hygiene issues in acute care. It is essential nursing care in my book, I am all for it, I try my best to get it done and help our CNAs to get it done. I'll absolutely MAKE it happen if a patient is exceptionally fragrant. But it doesn't always happen, and now it is on the "list" of high priorities for patient satisfaction for our managers. So frustrating.....
1. We often are not staffed to matrix. So when we do not have a unit clerk, the phone traffic becomes another nursing responsibility. I can either answer the phone which could be a critical lab value, physician, or family member, or I can let it ring ring ring and then hang up while giving a bed bath. Bathing is even less likely when we are down one nurse or one CNA.
2. We allow very few people out of bed on their own, so just letting them "have a shower" is not an option for 85% or more of our patients. And I don't like the idea of letting any elder bathe solo on a wet, soapy, slippery surface, even with a shower chair. If you're younger, I might risk it but certainly don't breathe a sigh until you are out and dry!
3. We don't have a "system" for determining who is due...if you are here for surgical observation and won't be here more than a day, are we to offer a shower in that case? On the other hand, we don't have a shower schedule for those patients who may be with us for 3 or more days.
4. Bathing for most of our patient population is at least a 30 minute affair....covering IVs and dressing sites, finding shower chairs and supplies.
4. Can I just have a bathing team? Kind of like a lifting team? Oh wait, we don't have that either....
Is anyone successfully providing hygiene in the hospital? How are you doing it?
