Sternal precautions and butt wiping

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I'll keep this short

I'm new to IMC, I had a 3 days post CABG pt who was slightly incontinent and wanting to wipe himself each time. Another nurse said this is against sternal precautions and that they basically can't do much at all with their arms. What do you guys think? Because I thought a big goal is to get a post CABG pt moving quickly to recovery and working on ADL's and ambulation.

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Policies might be not be the same at every facility, but we let our patients wipe their own butts as soon as they have something they need to wipe (if they're able).

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Specializes in Critical Care.

We teach to wipe from the front (reach their orifice buy going between their legs, rather than all the way around the back), which goes along with teaching not to pull pants up from the back and not to keep their wallet in their back pocket.

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Specializes in ICU.

I think it's more of a 10lb force limit rather than ROM. Certainly you don't want them S T R E T C H I N G to reach, and don't wipe that hard! :whistling:

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