So sick of people running to management and telling lies.

[RN1982]

Someone went to my manager and complained that the night shift isn't doing any baths. Give me a break. I worked almost every night last month, I bathed one patient every shift I worked and can vouch for my co-workers. I didn't bath the patient that was alert/oriented x 3. I bathed the vented patient with all the lines. Whoever complained stated that they are busier on days and do all the admits and transfers. Totally wrong considering I've gotten a considerable amount of admissions while working nights. I'm just sick of people lying to management and expecting the night shift to do all the work so their shift is easier. I've come in many times and find the day shift nurses sitting on the computer looking at facebook or checking their email. I'm just sick of people being petty.

[RN1982]

I haven't talked to the NM. We have computerized charting, they can easily go back and see that it is documented that the patient received a bath. And I make it a point to tell them that the patient was or wasn't bathed when giving report. I usually bath the patients who are not alert and are vented. And before I leave, I make sure that my patients look tidy and not disheveled like I've seen when I come in.

I think someone is just being petty, period. We get admits all the time on the night shift, we take patients to tests i.e. Cat Scan, we don't sit on our butts all night long.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

keep a log of the disputed items. no need for hipaa transgressions. refer to patients by room numbers. but do keep an accurate account of how you spend your time and things like baths and other tasks until this kind of pettiness dies down. document everything you can. that way you'll have some kind of coherent response when someone from another shift starts slinging false accusations.

it's unfortunate that some people have to act this way. sorry you're going through such unpleasantness. ultimately, you know what kind of care you give and how you treat your residents. a clear conscience is a good thing.

thank you, on behalf of your residents for all that you do.

we actually have a check box in the electronic chart that we check off when we bathe a patient. perhaps there's some way you could chart your bath so that the day shift can't claim you didn't do one. ditto for many of the other "invisible" things that night shift does that day shift has no idea about! chart checks, shampoos, shaves, linen changes, etc.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

sorry -- i responded before reading detroit's note about charting her baths.

[Butterfliesnroses]

Why do baths NEED to be done at night? From the sounds of things you work in a hospital which I understand is different from a nursing home. But most of the residents I have prefer AM baths. Days and evenings do the baths due to budget cuts and no showe aide. When there was a shower aide she/he worked day shift. I work evenings and it's a fight getting the resident in the shower because they prefer morning showers. I just think it's cold and heartless to get someone up in the middle of the night and give them a bath, unless of course they are awake and a night owl. Where I work night shift doens't do showers. They have 2 aides and one nurse. Pulling an aide from the floor to do a shower is unheard of, what if that aide is needed, ect.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

why do baths need to be done at night? from the sounds of things you work in a hospital which i understand is different from a nursing home. but most of the residents i have prefer am baths. days and evenings do the baths due to budget cuts and no showe aide. when there was a shower aide she/he worked day shift. i work evenings and it's a fight getting the resident in the shower because they prefer morning showers. i just think it's cold and heartless to get someone up in the middle of the night and give them a bath, unless of course they are awake and a night owl. where i work night shift doens't do showers. they have 2 aides and one nurse. pulling an aide from the floor to do a shower is unheard of, what if that aide is needed, ect.

from the sounds of things, the op works in an icu -- she's talking about bathing the ventilated patients with muliple invasive lines rather than the alert and oriented patient. in a busy icu, patients don't get to sleep much anyway. there are the q 1 hour vital signs, the insulin drips which require q 1 hour glucose testing, the monitor alarms and the frequent medications, assessments, etc. we always bathe our patients at night in the icu because during the day it's just too busy. the doctors make rounds -- one set of rounds for each service seeing the patient. echocardiograms, venous doppler studies, x-rays and other tests are done at the bedside, and sometimes patients travel to ct, cath lab or mri. pt comes by, speech therapy to do swallowing evaluations, nutrition team, social work, the clergy and pharmacy. there there are all the visitors, etc. if the patient isn't seeing one of the above, the roommate is. there's just too much going on in the daytime to afford the privacy a bath requires. it isn't an ideal situation, but it's far from cold and heartless.

[Butterfliesnroses]

So when do they get sleep? I guess the ICU is a whole nother world. But I would think they would be in the ICU to get better and would need their rest so they could get better? I dunno though, I'm no nurse so maybe they don't need rest to get better.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

so when do they get sleep? i guess the icu is a whole nother world. but i would think they would be in the icu to get better and would need their rest so they could get better? i dunno though, i'm no nurse so maybe they don't need rest to get better.

if all they need to get better is rest, they don't go to the icu. people are in the icu to get intensive care nursing. just not compatible with a straight eight hours of sleep.

[RN1982]

ICU is completely different from a regular med/surg unit. Patients need hourly monitoring, VS every hour, I/Os documented every hour. There are interruptions and sometimes its constant because usually these patients have about 4-6 groups of doctors taking care of them. ICU isn't a sit-on-your-duff unit because you have two patients. You have to be constantly aware of what is going on because you never know when someone is gonna take a turn for the worse.

Today, I worked, I had two stable patients but that doesn't mean I can just sit and hang out, I am obligated to help my co-workers.

We try to minimize how much we disturb the patient's sleep but sometimes we can't help it if it is frequent.

[Vito Andolini]

Managers need to deal with this stuff. They need to assess whether or not each worker is doing what he or she is supposed to do and praise or correct accordingly.

It has been my sad and frustrating experience that the one doing the complaining gets believed. No research is done by management to either verify or discredit the complaint.