Patient bathing

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Hey fellow RNs...what are you doing in your hospitals to bathe your patients? I know patients that can bathe themselves can take a shower on their own....but what about bed-ridden patients that need a bed bath...do they get a soap and water bath or do they get wiped down with a CHG wipe? I've tried to talk to our managers about this but I haven't gotten anywhere. If you read the back of the package of the Sage wipe, it says that it is not intended for daily patient bathing. Is anybody else using these? My patients are left sticky and gross...how is that good for preventing infection?

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

I know having had three surgeries in the last year just how disgusting chlorhexidine is. My skin hated it; it would get fiery red and break open, and that was just after one shower pre-op with the stuff. I refused to use it the last time I had surgery. Seems to me having clean, intact skin is better at preventing infections than having it cracked and chapped.

Some of that old school stuff still has merit.

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How awful! Definitely better to go into surgery with intact skin! Was it a generic CHG or Hibiclens in the teal bottle? At my other hospital where we used Hibiclens, I never saw a patient have a reaction to it.

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Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.
While re-using basins make it far more disgusting, even using a brand new basin for each patient still results in just redistributing whatever you're trying to clean off to various other parts of their body.

I think you might have misread what I wrote, because I'm not entirely sure what this has to do with plastic basin liners.

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Specializes in Med Tele, Gen Surgical.

This is what I'm trying to get in our hospital. I used these while camping and I actually felt clean, smelled good, and was not sticky. Even took campfire odor off!

ReadyBath Complete Washcloths | Medline Industries, Inc.

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.

We don't use basins. Several soapy washcloths are put in a ziplock & microwaved about 90 seconds. Wrap it up with a dry towel to keep the heat in while several "baths" are prepared. Ziplock is thrown away when you're done & you aren't recontaminating because you don't put any used washcloths back in the bag. Just be wary of potential hot spots from microwaving.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I've been a patient have been bathed with both and personally I prefer the wipes to washcloths. Washcloths that are industrially cleaned repeatedly are about as comfortable as 80 grit sandpaper. I don't know if it was just the irritation from the washcloths or little scratches from it, but afterwards I itched like crazy wherever I was touching the linens, which went got better after a couple baths with the disposable wipes.

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My favorite aide and I used to wash patients like boats, with the bottle of lotion floating in the hot water for after. The whole room got wet, but they always felt better.

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Specializes in NICU.

Each patient gets a basin when they are admitted and they are sent to be cleaned on discharge. We use washcloths with hot soapy water in the basin.

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Interesting. My hospital has no policy at all on bathing pts. Other than those with central lines get a CHG bath daily. Almost all pts I have given a CHG bath to have stated they felt very clean and refreshed. Never touched a wipe with bare hands so never noticed any stickiness or irritation personally either. I love to give a good bath but it is a time commitment I can rarely give, unfortunately.

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