Smelly Body Wipes

[OhioCCRN]

Is it just me or do the body wipes at the hospital smell FOUL!!!!

i NEVER feel the pt is clean after a 'bath' w/ that smelly excuse for a body wipe....lol....

good old soap and water for me.... although the wipes for cleaning up a bowel movement smell rather nice...must be all that eucalyptus....

Randomness i thought i'd share....:)

[Indy, LPN, LVN]

There is a compromise that I find works really well, by the way. I run a bath basin of soapy water, then open the wipes and dunk 'em in the water. Throw the wipe away when you're done. I don't use a whole lot of soap, and it's the no rinse kind. Most of the techs also use a stack of washrags that they rinse with, using plain water. It doesn't take so much more time to get the patient wet than it does to run wipes over them. Our wipes don't smell too much but the patients don't smell good if they just get a wipedown.

Also, if I walk into a poop mess that is big enough, I will run bath water for that and we will just do the bath. If a patient sat in it long enough to stick then you will need water to get it off anyway. I wish that didn't happen but we all know it does.

One tech I know gets a piping hot bath basin, with no soap, she puts the soap in a cup. Dunk wipe (or washrag) in water, get soap, and lather up. The rinse is done with a towel dunked in the hot water. That way the whole bath is warm and by golly her patients smell clean. I love my techs and I enjoy giving a good bed bath, it's therapeutic for everybody, the nurse included. You get to slow down and really help the whole patient.