Residents who are constantly BMing

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I know this isn't a very pleasant topic but I just want to vent. Tonight I worked a day I don't usually work and had to give "Ms Smith" a shower. Well "Ms Smith" pooped from the minute we got her out of the wheelchair, leaving poop drops down the hallway, and pooped all over the shower floor. Pooped all the way back and then into bed. WHY??? I feel so bad for her, its disgusting. She's like this all the time -- pooping every waking out. It was the most horrible shower experience I've had in a while, and the cleanup took about three times as long. It's like this yellowish smeary stuff that smells horrible. :barf01:

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Specializes in geriatrics, dementia, ortho.

I have one like that too, she just oozes small amounts of loose BM all the time like a soft-serve machine. Just one of those things, I guess! Luckily she's got dementia & so is completely unaware of it/not bothered by it. We just have to toilet & change her a lot.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Report this to the nurses. It might be c dif and could be treated.

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Let the nurse know. Could be a bunch of things...diet..maybe a lactose intolerance or could need more fiber to firm up the stools. could be that they have no sphinter control (maybe they were addicted to enemas and laxatives), could be the Cdiff.

We have shower chairs that have a potty chair attachement underneath of them. For a few residents that are bed ridden, this might be one of the few times they are out of bed and in a chair and it is just natural for them to go.

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I once had a resident that did this -- severe incontinent blowout every 1-2 hours. She was negative for C. diff and everything else they could think of. Turns out she was receiving 4 different laxatives/stool softeners throughout the day, some of them multiple times. Senna + Colace + Milk of Mag + Miralax do not make for a good day for CNAs. Once they cut back on these significantly, she became slightly more continent and the number of BMs became more manageable for both her and us.

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Specializes in Mostly geri :).

Just report it to the nurses and keep her as clean and comfy as you can, barrier cream does help :)

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No C. Diff, just lack of spincter control. This has been an ongoing problem for a while that nurses are aware of.

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Specializes in CVICU, CCU, MICU.

I had a resident that was like that due to medicine that the person was on. Our shower chairs had an open area on around the residents bottom so if they had a bm it would go in the shower. I learned to position a commode bucket underneath it to help contain it. I hope that helps. If not I would try to keep him/her in a brief until it's time to take the shower so you do not have to pick it up in the hallway and the resident isn't embarrassed.

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Let the nurse know. Could be a bunch of things...diet..maybe a lactose intolerance or could need more fiber to firm up the stools. could be that they have no sphinter control (maybe they were addicted to enemas and laxatives), could be the Cdiff.

We have shower chairs that have a potty chair attachement underneath of them. For a few residents that are bed ridden, this might be one of the few times they are out of bed and in a chair and it is just natural for them to go.

Yes!! We have a shower chair that we actually move into people's rooms. It has a commode bucket attachment underneath and we transfer people from bed directly onto it, then cover them with bath blankets and wheel them down to the shower room. It really helps for incontinence and people who are combative about being bathed, just get them in the chair and once they're in the shower room they really can't protest too much. :idea:

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