This is not my job?!?

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I am a student and my pt couldn't make it to the bathroom. Poop all over the floor. I went out in the hall and told a housekeeper staff member what had happened and asked her to clean it very politely. I also suggested a mop would be useful (wet poop). She caught the biggest attitude and asked me why I couldn't do it. I said if I had the cleaning materials I'd have no problem. Then her friend (male) told her to calm down, which made her even more enraged. Long story short, it took her 4.5 hrs to finally clean it up.

First of all, that really isn't an rn's job, or should I say priority. Second of all, that is why she gets paid, or a tech's job? How should I have handled this?:confused::confused::confused:

I am a student nurse and would have cleaned it. I have a very strong gag reflex esp with poop but I would use a paper towel first, then a wash cloth.I'll probably wear a mask with mint rubbed in it if it smells horrible. If after cleaning it still smells bad, then I will call for housekeeping. However, I will also prioritize. 4.5hrs is not healthy for u and the patient and its more difficult to clean when dry. My opinion!!!

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Specializes in Geriatrics, WCC.

The mop the housekeepers use is for cleaning ALL the floors in the resident's rooms, dining room hallway etc. It would have been inappropriate to clean up the runny stool with it. Nursing should have cleaned up the majority of it and then asked housekeeping to do a once over of the area afterwards.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.
Most of us would clean it ourselves or clean most of it and then ask the housekeeping person to go over it with a mop. Here is an example of blank if you do and blank if you don't. Our facility was getting a super going over after the DON walked out just before the yearly inspection by the state. The place was tense to say the least. One day the new DON was following a new RN around with a clipboard. He had been caught the previous day giving 7 am meds at 2 pm. He encountered a resident who was inundated with liquid poop. Instead of getting a CNA to clean the resident, the RN just cleaned the resident himself. The DON fired him at the end of the shift. So you see, it makes sense not to let the poop stay on the floor for 4.5 hours, but you never know when cleaning it yourself will get you criticized or even fired. Blank if you do and blank if you don't. I wouldn't let it stay there for 4.5 hours. They can fire me for cleaning it :uhoh21:if they want to.

I find it highly unlikely that the RN was fired for cleaning poop off a pt. There is some other fact in this story that we are not gettting. As for the OP, clean the **** up!! It is astounding that you would let poop stay on the floor of that pt's room for hours. Although the HK sounds like she was being rude, it is YOUR responsibility to provide the BEST care for your pt that you can. This means making sure they don't have **** in the room for hours, or even minutes too long because you don't want to do it. Guess what hon, when it comes to pt care, RN or not, it is your job to clean ****, puke, boogers, blood or whatever necessary to make sure your pt is as healthy and safe as possible. If you have this "I'm not doing it because it's not my job" attitude now, you will sink like a rock in the world of nursing. I'd start practicing your deposition now if I were you.

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Specializes in ER, ICU,.

I can not believe it sat there 4.5 hours! That is horrible!:uhoh3:

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Specializes in psych. rehab nursing, float pool.

For heavens sake. Nurses do clean up the messes as best we can rather than risk a patients falling. Housekeeping is then called to mop the floor up. Believe it or not it is not housekeepings job to handle any body fluids/substances. All of the nurses on our unit, we clean up as best as possible, grabbing paper towels for small jobs, regular towels for bigger jobs, then we call the housekeeper to mop up.

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Specializes in ICU/ER.

WOW--good thread, couldnt read it all but agree with what I have read so far...at our facility housekeeping will not touch blood/vomit or stool. Not allowed. Nursing gets the majority of it up and then housekeeping comes in after to sanitize.

In our home if your the one that sees the dog poo,, then your the one that has to clean it up!!!

Just out of curiosity, this post was from a student, where was the assisnged RN or nursing instructor for 4.5 hours??

i AM mortified to think of stool being on the floor for 4.5 hours, what did the student have to step over it through out the day...give me a break!

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Specializes in OB.
It would do most other departments well to have a little common respect for the nursing department.

I've found you usually get what you give.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
I was the one doing the dirty work here...NOT HER!:banghead:

Welcome to the wonderful world that we call nursing. If you can't get over this its going to be a long frustrating career.

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I think the OP may have poorly worded her first post if her second is true:

Just to clarify... I did clean it up the best I could. There was also poop encrusted in the floor (this wasn't the first time). All she really needed to do was run "the/her" mop over the floor. I got the major stuff up OF COURSE!

If the job didn't req a mop I would NOT have asked "housekeeping" or w/e they refer as.

I was the one doing the dirty work here...NOT HER!

If that's the case, and you did your best to clean up the majority of it, then yes, housekeeping is failing to do their job. The RN shouldn't be above cleaning up a mess, whether it's on the floor or on the patient. However, at least where I work, all the janitorial supplies are kept in a LOCKED (requires a key) closet - our med room just requires a combination. However, I also wonder where your instructor/preceptor was. The housekeeper may have either thought you were leaving her the whole mess, or simply caught an attitude not knowing who you were or why you were telling her what to do. Still, the floor should have been cleaned in less than 4.5 hours.

What do you do if you page an MD about an acute change in pt condition at 0300 - and he yells at you and hangs up the phone? Do you then wait 4.5 hours for him to roll out bed and come in and assess your now deteriorated or dead patient? As RNs, we're responsible for coordinating many aspects of pt care and advocating for our pt. That includes going up the chain of command when the resident won't listen to you, and it includes talking to your instructor, your preceptor, or the charge nurse if there's an issue with housekeeping or any other ancillary staff. The goal here is to get the room clean and keep the pt safe, and the result of asking about it may just be that someone finds you a mop and bucket. I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here, and assuming that you did as you said and made an attempt to clean it as best you could. If so, in the future, you do have to follow up with someone to make sure that all necessary tasks are completed for each pt.

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Specializes in Er/ICU/Med-Surg/Home health.

You need your support staff! Treat them the way you would want to be treated. They are paid to "assist the nurse", not do all the dirty work. Besides, there has to be mutual respect from both sides. Once housekeeping sees that you are willing to get in the trenches with them, chances are they will come to respect you for it and want to help you more. At least thats been my experience.

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).
I've found you usually get what you give.

I've found that's usually true, too, but certainly not always. Too many times, the idea that the nurse is responsible for every aspect of the patient's care seems to translate that a.) anything that goes wrong is the nurse's fault and/or b.) if anyone doesn't want to do his/her job, they can just dump it on the nurse.

My previous job was considered clinical--I was in Nursing Services, rather than Environmental Services. I did all sorts of "menial" tasks, like cleaning toilets, running after supplies, passing dinner trays. It sometimes seemed like my job description literally was whatever no one else wanted to do. But it was my job, and no one held a gun to my head to make me stay in it. In fact, it was a pretty decent job. I did my housekeeping-type duties as well as I could and understood why they were important, and I really enjoyed the patient-care side: taking people to tests and procedures, helping them in and out of bed, assisting the nurses and aides with baths, dressing changes, etc.

As a nurse, I've occassionally encountered personnel who appeared to think I asked them to do something because I thought I was "too good" or "too important" to do it myself. I once asked an aide, who was working with me, to replace a wristband I'd had to cut off to start a new IV. She had no problem, but another aide who was sitting on his butt doing nothing felt the need to inform me that I was allowed to do that job, myself. I was too new, at the time, to think of an appropriate response, and the other aide's, "Sure, I'll get it," defused my inappropriate response before I said it, but the simple truth is that, at that moment, I really was "too important."

Starting that IV took time, and I needed to get caught up on a dozen other tasks only a nurse could do, so it was proper to ask for help with something the aide could do just as well. Again, most aides understand that. I've even commited the old bugaboo of asking an aide to help someone with a bedpan as I was coming out of that room, because I just didn't have time.

I've seen both sides--nurses who treat support staff like "the help," and support staff who are rude and insubordinate. So, yeah, most people will return the respect they are shown, but some will see it as an invitation to walk all over you.

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Seriously? There was stool on the pt's floor for 4 1/2 hours? Because neither of you would clean it up? How humiliating for the patient.

Had a similar situation about 2 weeks ago. Wiped up what I could with towels then cleaned the floor with the Virex wipes we stock. I informed the housekeeper so she could do any further cleaning as might be required by policy. Probably took me 5 minutes. Infection control is a priority and is EVERYONE'S job.

Amen, Amen, :bowingpur

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