These just seems so gross to me

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So somebody at my facility has decided to make the rule that the cna's on 11-7 have to collect all of the plastic bed pans from everyone's room and soak them together in some bleach in the soiled utility room. I mean I know that bleach kills a lot of things, but ew. And this will surely wash off all of the names written on the bed pans, people may not get their original bed pan. This just gives me the willies. Am I overreacting here?

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

just don't wash the bedpans and forks together. that would be gross.

:barf01::barf01:yuck!!!

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Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.
life is easier if you don't think about these things.

is it weird if i start bringing my own silverware to restaurants?

no, i know a couple of acquaintances of mine that carry their own silverware when they go out to dinner :cool:

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If this is a nursing home, I commend them for thinking about cleaning them. I'm a LTC nurse and no place that I've worked has had a policy in place to really clean bedpans....(well, when I first started we had the hoppers and the metal pans were just being phased out)

What normally happens is patient uses the bed pans, they get rinsed off and wiped off with regual soap and water or what ever is in the bathrooms. We mostly have semi private rooms that share a bathroom. Then they get placed in the bottom drawer of the bedside stands or left in the bathrooms.

Instead of collecting and soaking them all together....why cant they spray and clean them in the resident's bathrooms on the 11-7 shift?

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Hoppers...

Lord helped you if you held the bedpan the wrong way while you were hopping it...

My ex-husband, who was a maintenance guy at the nursing home, actually devised and constructed nifty clear shields that fit onto the hoppers to prevent splash-back.

BTW...

We also used to clean stool with washcloths.

(I still swear it is the best way to properly clean a patient.)

We rinsed the cloths in the hopper, threw the cloths into a bucket of bleach solution and housekeeping washed the cloths (in house) in the monster washers and killer-hot dryers.

I know some of you will think I worked in a nasty nursing home, but that is the farthest from the truth.

When I tell you that was the cleanest and best run facility I ever did see, you better believe it.

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Instead of collecting and soaking them all together....why cant they spray and clean them in the resident's bathrooms on the 11-7 shift?

Hey yeaaaaaah....

Why not?

That just makes a lot of sense.

The pans get disinfected and the patients get their own pans back.

That's a win-win for everybody!

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Not quite sure . Does the state you are in , that regulates the facility , think so?

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Instead of collecting and soaking them all together....why cant they spray and clean them in the resident's bathrooms on the 11-7 shift?

while i like your idea michelle, i can hear the 11-7ers now:

"why do we (11-7ers) always get the **** end of the stick?"

just giving a heads up.:)

leslie

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Specializes in LTC, peds, rehab, psych.

The cnas said that they were willing to go room to room to wash them but so far it's a no. Not sure what state would think about it. Lots of places used to wash bed pans together and I guess our facility used to long ago but it was metal bedpans. Are disposable plastic bedpans even able to be properly disinfected with bleach? That's what I'm curious about. And yes this is definitely a money-saving tactic.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

That means carting the dirty bedpans to the cleaning area. This is why we use disposable ones and wash between times, but do not sanitize any more than you would your toilet at home.

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Plastic bedpans are made of the same stuff that those basins that we use for bathing patients are made from. Which they now don't want us to use for baths more than once because the porous plastic is breeding germs.

This sounds like an amazing plan to spread germs throughout your facility.

Can you say my favorite word???

Give me a F.

Give me an O.

Give me a M.

Give me an I.

Give me a T.

Give me an E!!!!!!!!!!!

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

wooh...

i certainly hope you were wearing your official allnurses guide cheerleader's uniform when you did that cheer!

it wouldn't have been as good otherwise.:D:w00t:

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

while we're on this lovely subject, i have a quick question.

my husband was sent home from wound care rehab about 6 weeks ago. he was sent home with two plastic urinals

because when he gets up at night, to walk to the bathroom, he'd have to put on a special wound dressing cover and

lace on his wooden shoe. we have been soaking them with a tbl of clorox liquid to about a l of water daily. he doesn't

use one every night, but when he does have to go, he uses a urinal.

my question is since we don't have an autoclave, should we be boiling them too? we've also been setting them on

the back porch (faces west) on warm days. thanks!

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