showers

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

How often do you give showers at your facility? Ours get them once a week, which I think it not enough.

I wish they would make it twice a week and put one more CNA one the floor of each wing just for the showers. First of all I feel bad that these people only get a shower once a week and it's over in all of 5 minutes. But as it is now we usually have one shower on each assignment for the evening shift, and I think 2 would be too much. They are such a pain in the A to squeeze in since they're one at a time (and there are so many stupid rules about when we can do it), and I hate getting all hot and slimy and frizzed out. Sometimes we have a CNA floating between 2 wings and they'll do all the showers and it's so nice not to have to leave the floor or tell someone repeatedly that they can't go to bed because they have a shower at 7pm and you weren't allowed to give it earlier.

I wouldn't mind having the "shower assignment" once every week or so if it meant I could skip them the rest of the time.

How many showers do you do on your shift? Do you have shower aides?

[Trilldayz,RN BSN]

At my LTC facility, each patient takes showers twice a week. Once a week, in my opinion, is wrong. But unfortunatly, we don't get shower aides. We have to do it all! It can be frustrating trying to squeeze in 2-4 showers in one shift, while trying to keep on schedule, get ADLs done, AND having to get people dressed and in the dining room for Breakfast, lunch, or dinner ON TIME. And then, the sound of some nagging nurses who think you are not doing your job fast enough and want you to hurry up, only adds to the stress.

fuzzy, I TRULY feel your pain. Shower aides would be very helpful in my place of work.

[yousoldtheworld]

Everyplace I've worked, they get showers twice a week. I think this is a good number.

I do however understand that in some places, it's just not possible with staffing and the economy being as bad as it is.

I guess if you consider how often those residents get cleaned, it doesn't seem so bad. I wash mine up when they wake up and before bed, as well as every time I change or toilet them - at least the peri area every time, and armpits in the morning and night. If I notice someone is sweaty or covered in food, I will wash them off while dressing or toileting them. If you think about that and the fact that most of them don't do much to get dirty otherwise, I guess one shower a week can be acceptable.

Usually where I'm working now, we have two showers per shift per hall/side. They're easy to get done there though, because it's a memory care unit where most people are limited to extensive assist, no totals.

When I worked in 2 nursing homes, we had anywhere from 1 to 4 showers a night, per hall. It's near impossible to get four showers done yourself on second shift while still getting everyone to bed and changed properly, so I can understand why places might cut down to one shower a week.

Having a shower aide is wonderful, but right now the economy is so bad that the healthcare field is suffering, too. Sometimes it comes down to the facility just being cheap, but sometimes, it's either having fewer aides on the floor/no shower aide, and having to lay off/fire people or otherwise cut corners. So, I guess all you can do is the best you can.

[ColtsMom]

We do twice a week as well unless the resident refuses. But they sometimes get more than two a week if they need it. We have a CNA who does just showers on those shifts, sometimes two CNAs.

[OzarksgalCNA]

I don't know how many showers our residents get, but I do know that there isn't time to get them done. The other day I had 17 residents, 6 showers. I managed to get one done because she told me at 2pm that it was her shower day so I got her in right away.

[walkingon, CNA, LPN]

Our residents get showers 2X week. It's usually not that bad because the showers are scheduled so that there's only one or two a day on our individual assignments (no shower aides). But if our low census picks up, we're in for it, because management will just keep heaping people on the exisiting aides without hiring new ones until something bad happens.

[opradiva]

This is interesting. When I worked in LTC, each resident got three showers a week. The list was divided among the morning and evening shift. It would not be uncommon for me to give 4-5 showers on a given shift, and unforutnately, we had no shower team.

[rancelumsden]

Ditto on the twice a week at the facilities I was at. No shower aides. Great idea though if the place can afford to have a CNA doing that.

[jakeb]

I work in a hospital and our patients get showers every other day...Then again I am only assigned 4-6 patients. Usually I have 2-3 showers. The people I work with are quite sick, (paraplegia, guadriplegia, ventilated, severe strokes, MS, TBI's, etc.) and it is hard to get all the showers done. I do get it done though. Add Straight cathing multiple patients, getting ADL's done, vitals q4h, and it can get a little hectic!! I love it though.

[yousoldtheworld]

When I worked at the hospital, we gave our patients bed baths every day unless they were feeling well enough and wanted a shower. We didn't have a shower schedule there though, and I usually only had one or two people a week who wanted them.

[princezzzz]

in our facility they get shower twice a week. we usually have 2 showers everyday in our section.. but still depends on the resident if they want to...

[AmberL, BSN]

At my facility our residents get showers 2x a week, all the residents are divided up amongst all three shifts.