Per Magnet Directives, Nursing first Cleans Bodily Fluids, then Housekeeping

toomuchbaloney · Nov 11, 2015

I'm going to agree on a couple of points;

1) if there is a safety risk because of a body fluid on the floor I am going to at minimum throw a towel or similar over it to minimize risk of fall by anyone.

2) I can pick up a turd with a tissue and put it into the toilet as well as any other human. If the stool on the floor is liquid please see (1.

3) If housekeeping has a beef with how well nurses are completing housekeeping tasks they can discuss it with me individually or they can complain through proper channels. Until then, the care of the actual patient remains the focus and priority of my duties. All housekeeping tasks are prioritized accordingly.

SwansonRN · Nov 11, 2015

I don't have a strong opinion either way because I tend to just clean it up myself without a second thought. However, I can say that it's a bit degrading and it has nothing to do with title or education. Me on my hands and knees with a towel or washcloths vs someone with a cart full of cleaning supplies and a mop?

kayern · Nov 11, 2015

This has nothing to do with Magnet status! For goodness sake....get over yourself. Its everyone job to care for the patient and if that means keeping the environment clean and safe, so be it. Prioritize and take care of the patient first, then address the feces/urine and if you need to help pick it up, just do it! I don't want to tip toe through puddles or turds............lend a hand!

loriangel14, RN · Nov 12, 2015

This has nothing to do with Magnet status! For goodness sake....get over yourself. Its everyone job to care for the patient and if that means keeping the environment clean and safe, so be it. Prioritize and take care of the patient first, then address the feces/urine and if you need to help pick it up, just do it! I don't want to tip toe through puddles or turds............lend a hand!

exactly! Are you going to leave a pile of poo on the floor just because you think housekeeping should do it? What would you do at home?

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Nov 12, 2015

Hi
I am a nurse and I work at NSLIJ NY. I need to raise an issue to magnet and do not know how to.
If there is a feces or urine on the floor, it has to cleaned first by Nurses or PCA before the housekeeping comes and mop the floor. I found this embarrassing for nurses to do that in this century. If it's on the patient, I understand. But this is on the floor and why nurses has to clean the floor not house keeping. I am sure it's not how it suppose to be. But we have to do it because we are not union and we cannot raise our voice. I have spoke to my manager about it and i was told housekeeping has union and that's their policy.

Yes, that is how it's "SUPPOSED to be". Your manager has laid it out for you. Housekeeping has a contract to disinfect the area, after nursing cleans the visible waste.

In this case, a magnet would not be of any help. I suggest mops and paper towels. :roflmao:

APRN., DNP, RN, APRN, NP · Nov 12, 2015

#1. (Takes a deep breath)

#2. The day that the ANCC starts relegating the management of bodily fluids into the realm of MAGNET, is the day that pigs start flying.

#3. Perhaps you would enjoy a management position if you don't like to get your hands dirty and do like to tell others what they should be doing for you.

Best of luck in your journey.

Eschell2971, BSN · Nov 13, 2015

I was thinking the same thing about the name of the facility. You ALWAYS have a voice, but know that it takes COURAGE to use it, and when couragebis exercised, there are risks involved.

Are you willing to take the risks? NOTHING EVER CHANGES WITHOUT CHANGE!

Eschell2971, BSN · Nov 13, 2015

You're a nurse and you have an issue with cleaning poop off the floor?

Ohhh, it's because it's on the floor, not that it's poop?

Eschell2971, BSN · Nov 13, 2015

Oh, please, get over yourself, too. I guess you've never had to get in your knee to fully drain a Foley that just wasn't hanging within reach?

So, just because your a nurse, you can no longer clean urine or feces off the floor? No one ever told you to throw a towel over it and use your feet to swish the towel around? You do know you don't literally have to get on your hands and knees, right?

ohthatswhatthatdoes · Nov 22, 2015

I never even questioned the fact that I clean things up as best as I can before I give them a call. Perhaps I'm naive. It takes 30 seconds to put on gloves and reach for the paper towels...

Now let's talk about the real cleaning, projectile vomiting or a carotid rupture, that's what you need the mop bucket cart for

Postpartum RN · Nov 22, 2015

Well here's the thing, i do think a line should be drawn somewhere. I do clean up feces or urine from the floor with a quick towel or paper towel, and would call housekeeping for the rest if needed. BUT, I agree this is not exactly an RNs job. Here's where it gets tricky. I'm talking about money. Does the hospital really want to pay me $60 per hour to clean up poo and pee? Or pay housekeeping to do their job, their one and only job which is housekeeping. And talking about changing briefs as well. That's why we have CNA's, to assist with ADLs. People who they pay much much less to do this work. I'm not trying to start an argument or debate here about different job duties of RNs and CNA's, or housekeeping, but really, RNs cannot DO IT ALL for the pts. Before anyone jumps on me, yes I do change my pts brief whenever it needs to be changed, I call the CNA if I need help and sometimes I don't call if I can manage on my own. Sometimes, I do call the CNA and ask them to change it because I do not have time, need to run to another room. It's how our job is.

It's not that bad at the hospital though. Where this mentality of "nurses do it all" really bothered me was when I worked in home health and a clinic, and some in SNF.

I would get very upset yes, when I was doing wound care and had a line of pts waiting for me, and someone needed to use the bathroom I would call the CNA. I'm sorry but I cannot toilet everyone and do all of my nursing tasks that require a license, while the CNA's SIT around, yes SIT around.

We did not have the luxury of medical assistants bringing pts back into the clinic for wound care. No, I had to run all the way to the front, find my pt and bring them back to the back of the building where we did wound care. And then bring them back up front to their table. We had to stock all of our own supplies, do all the secretarial work in the clinic such as answering all the phone calls and etc. This is where I was getting very frustrated that I had to do all these things as an RN. I had to work late overtime every day while the test of the staff and CNA's went home right on time, I became bitter.

So anyway sorry about that rant, old memories haha; where was I?

Oh yes, not everything is an RNs job, or atleast it shouldn't be, but that's how it is sometimes.

I see and definitely understand OPs frustration. Because more than likely, wiping up poo/pee from the floor is not the only thing that is bothering OP in regards to how the place is run.

kalycat, BSN, RN · Nov 22, 2015

I once had a patient get so angry over his care and psych issues (not my patient) that he decided to take a full-fledged dump on the floor. First he threatened; then he made good on it. As a former psych person, I was asked to go try some "service recovery". The charge nurse went with me.

The only thing we could get him to agree to after hours of emergent mopping was to at least aim for a strategically placed chuck (on the floor) and to stop throwing the feces.

During Day shift someone offered him a laxative and took away the chuck because we were insane night shift wackos. When I came back that evening, I cleaned a whole lotta poop off that floor on my hands and knees.... Rivers of it. Housekeeping just looked at me like I was insane when I called in back up in the form of janitorial supplies. No amount of redirection, medication, or anything else helped.

Thankfully the nightmare ended when I woke the provider at 0300 for an order for a posey bed. He felt quite shat upon by the early call, but was willing to comply and came through with a generous change in antipsychotics as well.

Good times. I recommend double gloving and slightly dampened disposable chucks for the really sticky stuff. Enjoy!