Should RNs do housekeeping job or is it our job?

[Lenap]

:angryfire Wanted to ask if anyone experienced similar situation and how the issue was handled. 1st of all let me mention that I work for a huge hospital that is considered to be one of the top hospitals in the nation, but it seems like there are some holes in the system that no one seem to notice. The issue I have is with the hospital's housekeeping. It appears to me that they make up their own policies. Last weekend I had a really sick patient who had vomited approximately 2.5-3 liters of green bile emesis all over floor and his bed. I had never seen anything like that! He was the 1st patient I saw coming on my shift. I Helped pt get washed and called housekeeping. Well when housekeeping came they refused to clean the room. Making it very clear that they don't clean up messes like that-it's nurses job to clean. What they can do is wipe the floor when it's clean, so it will be disinfected. I spend at least an hour on my knees and used up almost half of our supply of pink pads and towels to dry everything up. It was only after pt had 2 more of episodes of projectile vomiting each approximately 1-2 liters of emesis that the MD gave me an ok to put in NGT. My point is having 8 very sick patients that night and spending all shift cleaning up messes and with no help from anyone else, should it be our job to clean up? I am not talking a little mess here-that takes few seconds to clean up, but a time consuming accidents. I had a similar episode maybe a year ago, when a pt had diarrhea and missed the toilet. The diarrhea explosion was all over the floor and bathtub. I was 9 mo pregnant at that time and was told I have to clean it up myself. I brought that up with management last time and was told its not housekeeping job, but ours. Also we don't have any cleaning supply on the floor and must use pt's bed linen like pink pads and towels to clean up. Anyone had similar situations? I don't think it's fair that other pts have to miss out on hours of care and get their meds hours late because their nurse is cleaning someone's room. Any input is welcome! Thank you.:imbar

[leslie :-D]

under Nursing News, there's a thread about how there are 2,000,000 hospital acquire infections....

do you think there's any link between sloppy housekeeping and the astronomical rate of 'PREVENTABLE' nosocomial infections????

leslie

[leslie :-D]

under Nursing News, there's a thread about how there are 2,000,000 hospital acquire infections....

do you think there's any link between sloppy housekeeping and the astronomical rate of 'PREVENTABLE' nosocomial infections????

leslie

[lifeisbeautiful]

This is an ongoing joke where I work. We always say this to one another when we have to do something completely out of our written job description that we signed when we were hired, "I am glad I got my BSN in nursing to be a nurse..and a secretary...and a housekeeper...and a counselor..and a waitress".:chuckle

[lifeisbeautiful]

This is an ongoing joke where I work. We always say this to one another when we have to do something completely out of our written job description that we signed when we were hired, "I am glad I got my BSN in nursing to be a nurse..and a secretary...and a housekeeper...and a counselor..and a waitress".:chuckle

[barefootlady, ADN, RN]

Nurses do the bulk of the cleaning when a patient has a "serious" accident here. Housekeeping just glosses over the top of the room most of the time. I cannot count the times I have had to page a supervisor to get housekeeping to return to finish cleaning a room properly. Dirt and dust bunnies under beds, sticky table tops, and cobwebs on windowseals. Recently a supervisor told the staff to finish a room, housekeeping was on lunch, well every RN, LPN, CNA was working through their lunch time, so the room did not get finished until 22:00. No admits that evening.

[barefootlady, ADN, RN]

Nurses do the bulk of the cleaning when a patient has a "serious" accident here. Housekeeping just glosses over the top of the room most of the time. I cannot count the times I have had to page a supervisor to get housekeeping to return to finish cleaning a room properly. Dirt and dust bunnies under beds, sticky table tops, and cobwebs on windowseals. Recently a supervisor told the staff to finish a room, housekeeping was on lunch, well every RN, LPN, CNA was working through their lunch time, so the room did not get finished until 22:00. No admits that evening.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

under Nursing News, there's a thread about how there are 2,000,000 hospital acquire infections....

do you think there's any link between sloppy housekeeping and the astronomical rate of 'PREVENTABLE' nosocomial infections????

leslie

Could be, but the current thinking is it is the nasty nurses fault for not washing their hands properly. It's always the nurses fault for anything and everything don't ya know?

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

under Nursing News, there's a thread about how there are 2,000,000 hospital acquire infections....

do you think there's any link between sloppy housekeeping and the astronomical rate of 'PREVENTABLE' nosocomial infections????

leslie

Could be, but the current thinking is it is the nasty nurses fault for not washing their hands properly. It's always the nurses fault for anything and everything don't ya know?

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

This is an ongoing joke where I work. We always say this to one another when we have to do something completely out of our written job description that we signed when we were hired, "I am glad I got my BSN in nursing to be a nurse..and a secretary...and a housekeeper...and a counselor..and a waitress".:chuckle

LOL That's how I describe my job when I'm in the mood. "Excuse me sir are you a nurse? " "Yes, I'm the charge nurse, the secretary, the dietician, the orderly, the housekeeper, the case manager, and the nurse's aide....how may I help you?" Usually gets a laugh.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

This is an ongoing joke where I work. We always say this to one another when we have to do something completely out of our written job description that we signed when we were hired, "I am glad I got my BSN in nursing to be a nurse..and a secretary...and a housekeeper...and a counselor..and a waitress".:chuckle

LOL That's how I describe my job when I'm in the mood. "Excuse me sir are you a nurse? " "Yes, I'm the charge nurse, the secretary, the dietician, the orderly, the housekeeper, the case manager, and the nurse's aide....how may I help you?" Usually gets a laugh.

[palesarah]

I'm amazed that nurses are expected to do the bulk of the cleaning in so many facilities!

We are supposed to page housekeeping after a delivery to wipe down the bed, mop, etc. The hospital has limited housekeeping staff from 11-7, and while they will come if we page them, we can't be guaranteed that they will come at the most convienient time for my patient (usually when we get her up to shower). So if it's not a big mess I'll usually do it myself- I'm in the room anyway!- so my patient can get some rest after. I know where the mop is and I know how to use it! Housekeeping will do a more thorough cleaning in the AM. If at any time there is a big mess, or any situation that requires housekeeping's expertise, of course I'll page them. I don't want to risk spreading infection by doing something incorrectly. But if it's something simple, I can't see the point of paging housekeeping to empty a garbage, change out a linen hamper, simple things that take less time to do myself than it would to page them. I was shocked the other day- the staff bathroom ran out of soap. A couple people complained about it. I overheard and said "there are extra bottles of soap in the housekeeping closet, the key is on that hook right behind you" to the loudest complainer (who, may I add, was sitting around doing NOTHING). She said "or I could page housekeeping and they could get it for us". I replied- "or you could spend the 30 seconds it would take to page them to do it yourself and not have to wait for them to get up here!"

Some people are just lazy... and spoiled. We have an excellent housekeeping staff and good hospital policy... some of these nurses would never make it at some of these other hospitals!

[palesarah]

I'm amazed that nurses are expected to do the bulk of the cleaning in so many facilities!

We are supposed to page housekeeping after a delivery to wipe down the bed, mop, etc. The hospital has limited housekeeping staff from 11-7, and while they will come if we page them, we can't be guaranteed that they will come at the most convienient time for my patient (usually when we get her up to shower). So if it's not a big mess I'll usually do it myself- I'm in the room anyway!- so my patient can get some rest after. I know where the mop is and I know how to use it! Housekeeping will do a more thorough cleaning in the AM. If at any time there is a big mess, or any situation that requires housekeeping's expertise, of course I'll page them. I don't want to risk spreading infection by doing something incorrectly. But if it's something simple, I can't see the point of paging housekeeping to empty a garbage, change out a linen hamper, simple things that take less time to do myself than it would to page them. I was shocked the other day- the staff bathroom ran out of soap. A couple people complained about it. I overheard and said "there are extra bottles of soap in the housekeeping closet, the key is on that hook right behind you" to the loudest complainer (who, may I add, was sitting around doing NOTHING). She said "or I could page housekeeping and they could get it for us". I replied- "or you could spend the 30 seconds it would take to page them to do it yourself and not have to wait for them to get up here!"

Some people are just lazy... and spoiled. We have an excellent housekeeping staff and good hospital policy... some of these nurses would never make it at some of these other hospitals!