Protocol for dirty linen?

[NRuiz]

Hello there,

I hope you are all having a wonderful day or night, whatever time it may be :)

I just wanted some insight about something. I am a CNA who has been working on a med/surg floor for several years now, and am curious about something.

When changing a patient who has messed the bed, it is common for the nurse or aide to toss the dirty linen to a pile on the floor, rather than having a linen cart in the room and putting it directly inside. This has always made me somewhat uncomfortable and I try to bring the cart in with me and use it appropriately. However, I've noticed that this is not a common practice; the floor piles are. After the change is done, the pile is picked up and carried to the cart.

This is how I was shown, and nothing has been said about the exact protocol in linen disposal, and I was just wondering if this is normal in other hospitals too? Any thoughts? Thank you!

[RNperdiem, RN]

I remember the 2 linen carts were located in the dirty utility room at the end of the hallway in my first job.

Piles on the floor are not good practice, but when there are linen carts easily accessible with a 2 person turn, it becomes less of a problem.

[DoGoodThenGo]

It is both gross and fascinating how they can disinfect and clean those gross little poop rags! When people tell me they think my job is gross, I always respond with...imagine being the person who works at the laundry facilities that take the linen! Between the soiled linen and the chemicals that they use, it must be a stinky, stinky place.

Aside from the sorting and or holding area for soiled linen most commercial/hospital laundries smell like any other such place; of chemicals and steam. It is the heat and humidity, especially in warmer times of year/parts of the country that get to most laundry workers. That and being on your feet several hours per day.

A small operation might look like this:

While a larger operation might look like this:

Back in the 1960's you would find hospital laundries like this: Patricia Foster: St. Francis Hospital Mangler | Cape Girardeau History and Photos

When I was a nursing assistant we always left the cart outside patient rooms and carried soiled linen out. That or bring a laundry bag with fresh linen and found a way to "tie" or otherwise affix it to something near patients bed or in room. For isolation patients one nurse/assistant was "soiled" (inside the room) and another outside the room holding the bag was "clean". Linen came from the soiled part already bagged and would be placed into the clean bag outside (double bagged) and then closed and sent to laundry. We had special bags for isolation or whatever was being sent had to be marked accordingly.

NOTHING was supposed to go on floors. Besides the safety aspect of someone slipping on the linen there was the prospect of urine, feces or whatever else was in the soiled linen spreading around the floor.

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

I always pull a trash can to the bedside and when finished pull the trash bag out and voila no mess and I'm not spreading any contaminants around.

[amoLucia]

I always pull a trash can to the bedside and when finished pull the trash bag out and voila no mess and I'm not spreading any contaminants around.

This is the technique that many staff have done - putting the balled-up linens on the top of the trash can. The spent laundry is then just gathered up and the trash can bag liner is toss-able.

I've also used that time-old trick of using a pillowcase as an impromptu linen bag.

Some places have used the trash bags as substitute linen bags. They get brought out into the hall to go into the hall linen cart. Kind of like a double-bag technique. The laundry dept empties the bags downstairs to process.

I just can't see the cleanliness/sanitary-ness of bringing in a hallway linen cart INTO a pt room. Isn't that already contaminated?

[0.adamantite]

If you bring a linen bag into the room, you can tie it onto a bedrail and put the linens in there.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

Being that our linen carts are in the bathroom, it is simply impossible when you are by yourself handling a patient that say, can't stay turned on one side to be changed for so long. So, what I do is put a few clean towel down on the floor and then put the soiled linen on top of that. I would love to hear others input for new ideas that are realistic and cleaner. :)

We don't have linen carts or hampers where I work. We dump bags of dirty linen down a chute.

What I do is bring a linen bag in with me, set in on the bed, and put the soiled linen in it as I go. As long as the dirty linen doesn't touch the clean stuff, nothing is contaminated.

[ellaballet]

We have a linen cart in every room but I still see stuff end up on the floor! Mostly with nursing students and new staff who learn soon enough when were all screaming waitt nooooo!!! Maybe its just routine from making their own beds at home. Also, I always see full bedpans on a bedside table..ick. People eat off of that!

[monkeybug]

It is both gross and fascinating how they can disinfect and clean those gross little poop rags! When people tell me they think my job is gross, I always respond with...imagine being the person who works at the laundry facilities that take the linen! Between the soiled linen and the chemicals that they use, it must be a stinky, stinky place.

I've read a description by Stephen King of working in an industrial laundry when he was young. No thanks! I remember especially what he had to say about tablecloths boiling with maggots and dealing with hospital laundry (free false teeth in lots of washes!).

[amoLucia]

Also, I always see full bedpans on a bedside table..ick. People eat off of that!

Urinals, too. Ick, again.

[NRuiz]

We have a linen cart in every room but I still see stuff end up on the floor! Mostly with nursing students and new staff who learn soon enough when were all screaming waitt nooooo!!! Maybe its just routine from making their own beds at home. Also, I always see full bedpans on a bedside table..ick. People eat off of that!

EW! Full!? Empty is gross enough but FULL...that is just nasty! I would have a strict speaking with anyone who toileted someone on a bedpan and didn't empty it/put it away in the bathroom after. Yuck.

[amoLucia]

EW! Full!? Empty is gross enough but FULL...that is just nasty! I would have a strict speaking with anyone who toileted someone on a bedpan and didn't empty it/put it away in the bathroom after. Yuck.

There are some pts who actually want the pan/urinal on their tables so they use it themselves, on & off. Trying to put them away only angers the pts.

I know I wouldn't want them on my kitchen table but you can't argue with some folk. Go figure!

[DoGoodThenGo]

There are some pts who actually want the pan/urinal on their tables so they use it themselves, on & off. Trying to put them away only angers the pts.

I know I wouldn't want them on my kitchen table but you can't argue with some folk. Go figure!

Was watching the film "Places In The Heart" the other night when someone commented on Sally Field's character and her sister laying out the recently deceased husband on the kitchen table to bathe and dress him before burial. Apparently she felt "would never eat off that kitchen table again", to which many of us replied "if you dirt poor living in small dirt poor Texas town during the Depression you would.