This is not my job?!?

AprilW3 · Nov 4, 2008

Um...you left it to dry on the floor? I think that's a horrible thing to do. What about the patient's dignity? It's bad enough that he/she was incontinent....then you left it on the floor. :nono: You do know that you WILL eventually have to get your hands dirty don't you? And btw, in the facility in which I work, housekeeping isn't ALLOWED to clean up waste...that's nursing dept responsibility.

NurseWannabe1129 · Nov 4, 2008

By doing your best to clean it up, not only have you helped preserve the patient's dignity and did your job with infection control.. You will also earn a lot of respect from the other people working at the hospital.

What did your instructor say? I don't even want to know what my instructor would've said (or even my fellow students) if I had left poop on the floor for over four hours. How sad.

When I go into clinicals as a student nurse, I look at them as a chance to not only learn how the hospital runs and how to strengthen my nursing skills... But also to help make anybody else's job on the floor easier! I think if more students thought that way, maybe we wouldn't get treated like such a pain in the you know what! Just my :twocents:

sissiesmama, ASN, RN · Nov 5, 2008

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!

Racingmom- I love it! We have 3 dogs, one is a minidaschund who is a house dog. The other two sneak in. My 2 boys will go out of their way to avoid the poop, and come find me, saying, "Mom, _____ Pooped on the floor!". My response usually is "Did you find it?" Then I hand the finder a napkin and say "Go to it!"

Pauligirl · Nov 5, 2008

At the hospital where I work the nursing staff is responsible for cleaning up the obvious fluids, chunks, etc.. which may be on the floor, walls, toilet seat, bed rails, and other possible areas. Once we clean up the obvious housekeeping will then come and do an "area clean" which is basically sanitizing.

As a patient care aide this is usually my responsibility. On occasion an RN who doesn't have a superiority complex will assist. :up:

A few days ago there were student nurses on our hospital floor. As I was walking in the hall toward my patient who was on a bedside commode I overheard one of the students comment "Wooooooo! SOMETHING smells!". Well there sure was something that smelled and it was the BM in my patient's commode. Later that evening I realized that the student that openly (and in my opinion unprofessionally) commented on the odor was the student assigned to that particular room!:angryfire

I didn't see that student in that patient's room all evening. Perhaps she wasn't required to do any direct patient care that evening. :rolleyes: But it sure was nice of a male student to offer assistance with getting the patient on the commode even though it wasn't his patient.

It appears that some of the student RN's don't want to get their hands dirty! :down: Perhaps direct patient care experience or CNA training should be an entrance requirement of all nursing programs. I've noticed that some are now requiring CNA certification as a pre-req.

I have a bachelor's degree and plan on going for a second bachelor's in nursing. Sometimes when I'm cleaning up chunks and puddles I think "WOW! I can't believe I'm cleaning this stuff up! What the heck am I doing here." And studying for another degree and will still be cleaning this kind of stuff up! But ya know what? This is my choice. And getting my hands dirty IS part of the nurse's job!

uscstu4lfe · Nov 5, 2008

i understand the OP point of view. on one hand, we're trained to believe we are professionals, and on the other hand, we're told we're supposed to clean up poop. unfortunately, in the business world, nurses are not considered professionals. we are support staff whose duties include cleaning up poop - which some people have trouble doing (and understandably so!).

kythe, LPN · Nov 5, 2008

It appears that some of the student RN's don't want to get their hands dirty! Perhaps direct patient care experience or CNA training should be an entrance requirement of all nursing programs. I've noticed that some are now requiring CNA certification as a pre-req.
I have a bachelor's degree and plan on going for a second bachelor's in nursing. Sometimes when I'm cleaning up chunks and puddles I think "WOW! I can't believe I'm cleaning this stuff up! What the heck am I doing here." And studying for another degree and will still be cleaning this kind of stuff up! But ya know what? This is my choice. And getting my hands dirty IS part of the nurse's job!

The way I see it, I make a lot more than the ancillary staff. I should pitch in and help whenever possible, because all too often they are expected to do all the dirty work for very little pay or recognition for the roles they serve. Even if I didn't "have" to, it doesn't hurt for me to earn my keep by helping out whenever possible. I don't want to be one of those nurses who develops a reputation for just passing meds and sitting doing paperwork all day.

chevyv, BSN, RN · Nov 5, 2008

I really can't believe a student would ask housekeeping to clean up stool. Please, it is part of your job not only as a student, but also when you become a nurse. Clean it up! You don't really think it's part of a students job because we're so busy doing more important things? If my instructor saw that, I would be leaving for the day!

I was a CNA for 12+ years and never once asked houskeeping to clean up something I could do myself. I'm surprised that housekeeper went that easy on you. Many would have told you exactly where to get off.

It probably won't change once you become a nurse.

A few years back when I was a cna, a nurse walked out of a pts room and told me to go in there and put the pt on the bed pan. I had to tell her that she better go right back in there unless there was a code and put that man on the bed pan. Then she could give him the call light and I would be more than happy to finish the job. Her reason? It was cna work!!! I just about fell out. We had a rather lengthy conversation at the end of the shift and she never came out of a pts room and asked me to do something she could have done while she was in there again!

Really, things like cleaning stool off of the floor is really just a common sense thing. Imagine how that pt must have felt knowing that was there. I truly hope they didn't have visitors during that 4.5 hrs. I think you've imagined some sort of boundary lines here. Try to remember that the pt comes first, not our egos.

Instead of being upset, try to look at it like 'What can I learn from this?'. Good luck with the rest of your clinical.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Nov 6, 2008

OK, I read the WHOLE thread- and I recommend others do too before they comment. The OP clarified that dhe did NOT leave chunks of poop on the floor for hours, just that it needed a disinfecting mopping.

At hospitals I've worked at nursing cleans the big chunks and housekeeping disinfects the surfaces.

In my opinion, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to pay me $20/hour to do cleaning work, especially if there are care issues that require RN education that have to wait while I do it.

In actual practice what I would do is escort the patient back to bed, page housekeeping or have someone do it for me, throw a towel over the mess, get the patient clean, comfortable, and safe, go back and deal with the lesser priority mess. Sometimes housekeeping shows up in a jiffy and has it done before I finish cleaning the patient, sometimes I end up doing it all myself, and they just wipe the mop over the area, and other times we tag team. So long as I am tending to the patient housekeeping tends to totally understand, and I make sure I thank them because that makes a HUGE difference.

You can never be faulted for caring for the patient before you care for the mess. But if housekeeping finds you sitting doing crosswords at the desk they will be angry, and rightfully so. I've used this method on small messes and on huge, tornado type, OB labor and delivery messes. Stabilizing a postpartum hemmorrhage, or a cardiac patient who vagalled while taking a huge poop can take a lot of time. Leave the mess until you can safely leave your patient and don't apologize for doing so. You CAN help as much as possible and thank your cleaners profusely when they do show up!

chevyv, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2008

I reread the thread and even though she cleaned up most of it, and then went out to ask housekeeping to finish, just seems to me it may have been easier to just ask to use the mop or whatever policy is for that facility. To know it took 4.5 hrs to clean it seems that instead of watching the time, cleaning it would have been easier.

Maybe the op came across negatively towards housekeeping. Either way, it needed to get done and it should have been done as soon as possible. I've cleaned many floors as a tech and do not have a problem cleaning them now. Just to know it took so long tells us that someone was actually keeping an eye out. It's a shame that it took so long, when it really wasn't that big of a deal. Who cares who's job it really is? Unless its union (and I know they have more stringent guidelines when it comes to who does what), it's everyones job. :twocents:

Keepstanding, ASN, RN · Nov 7, 2008

geeeezz....just clean it up ! :icon_roll

nursemike, ASN, RN · Nov 7, 2008

I reread the thread and even though she cleaned up most of it, and then went out to ask housekeeping to finish, just seems to me it may have been easier to just ask to use the mop or whatever policy is for that facility. To know it took 4.5 hrs to clean it seems that instead of watching the time, cleaning it would have been easier.
Maybe the op came across negatively towards housekeeping. Either way, it needed to get done and it should have been done as soon as possible. I've cleaned many floors as a tech and do not have a problem cleaning them now. Just to know it took so long tells us that someone was actually keeping an eye out. It's a shame that it took so long, when it really wasn't that big of a deal. Who cares who's job it really is? Unless its union (and I know they have more stringent guidelines when it comes to who does what), it's everyones job.

It may have been inappropriate for a student to delegate to paid staff, but I think it was clearly inappropriate for the people paid to mop the floors to refuse to do so. The OP's job was not to mop the floor. It was to notify the charge nurse that housekeeping refused to mop the floor. It should have nothing to do with being too proud to mop a floor, but a nurse really should have more important things to do. There is nothing disrespectful about expecting others to do the work they're paid to do. "It's everyone's job," sounds laudable, and often is. If I can do some service for a patient now, instead of waiting for an aide to find time, I'll do it. But I will not neglect my duties so someone else can goof-off. If it really was "everyone's job," the housekeepers could pass meds while the nurse was mopping the floor.

missmiamoore · Nov 8, 2008

I was referring to the poster who said they used regular towels as well as paper towels to clean up poop.
However good a laundry is, I wouldn't feel comfortable using a towel that had been used a day prior to wipe poopie off the floor. Would you?

When I use a facecloth/towel for cleaning up poo off a patient or any other surface, I always dispose of it in the trash, as it is hard to imagine someone putting their face on it again even after laundering.