Throw it on the floor?!

Yea....I throw it on the floor. Alllllll the time. The thing is the floor is linoleum and the house keepers coming by soon to wash it anyways sooo yeah. If I know ahead of time I'll wheel the linen cart to the door and donut that way instead. But yeah if I'm dealing with a big huge mess you betcha it's goin on the floor. And I use wash cloths too and if it's reallly reallly bad towels. That's not the worst part...... I even throw the linen away sometimes. *shrugs* if it's that bad I wouldn't wanna use it and I'm not gonna let someone else use it. :-0.

"No day but today"

I work night shift so my barrel is right outside the door :). If i know it's a big ugly BM mess, though, I usually bring a trash bag in to receive stuff by the Resident on the bed.

I've tried putting pre-opened bags at the foot of the bed, and as soon as you roll the resident over, unless they're extremely short, their feet hit the bags and everything gets dumped on the floor anyway (if the bag hasn't already floated off the bed). And half the time it's still difficult to get the stuff into the bag in the first place when you're trying to hold the resident over and you have poop on your glove, the bag is sticking to itself, etc. Sometimes you can drape a pad (if laundry isn't being stingy with them), over a wheelchair or an open drawer and toss the linens on the pad. As for throwing everything in the trash can, I have to say I can't STAND it when other CNAs do this because most of the time the bag slips down into the can and stuff ends up getting thrown on top of it. And even if the bag stays in place the CNA always takes it out with them without replacing the bag and that drives me nuts. OR they forget to take the bag with them and then I have the housekeeper following me around harassing me about it.

I can see why putting linens on the floor is an infection control issue, but I have so many residents that spit chewed up food and loogies on the floor as well as residents that start whizzing all over the place as soon as you stand them up to get them on the toilet that my shoes are tracking germs all over the place within 10 minutes of my arrival.

I carry a roll of trash bags in my pockets, so that I don't have to throw linen on the floor. Sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do. But only if it isn't linen covered in poop/urine.

Residents live in these places. Would you like the floor of your house covered in pee and poop? I didn't think so.

Throwing linens on the floor is a pet peeve of mine. If I have to change linens or pads ill make sure I bring a linen basket into the room. Whenever I see an RN or aide throw soiled linens onto the floor all I can think is really?? Do you not realize the next time your in the room your gonna probably gonna be walking in that?

When I worked in LTC I would carry a bottle of virex around with me when I was doing my AM cares and spray the bathroom down when I was done. Same thing when I was doing HS cares. I never used to be a germ/clean freak until I became a CNA. Now Im professional bacteria and virus killer.

OR shoe covers are great! Not only I wear them under the boots in the OR for c-sections but I wear them also (without the boot of course) in lady partsl deliveries. It's no fun to slip on amniotic fluid and land on your butt! (not that it happened to me yet,LOL).

We wheel linen trollies around to the bedside and put the soiled linen in. If a pad is changed, I just place it on the top and throw it in the bin when I get back to the dirty room.

I have to admit that I have done that befor. At the first facility I worked for we never did that because the facility held the CNA classes so everything was fairly by the rules. When I went to another facility EVERYONE did it, at first I was appauled and swore I never would do that. But it soon rubbed off on me with it being so busy there and everyone else continually doing it. I am in the better habit now (since starting Nursing school) of bagging or if I forget to get a bag and I need to set it down quick I set it on top of the trash can till I can bag it.

We use to roll the bins outside or pts rooms while doing care but then we were taged buy the state. So now we don't do it anymore.

I have been guilty of throwing stuff on the floor, I'm not gonna lie. Now I carry small trash bags and put diapers in the bags and with linens, I roll them up (clean side out) and put it on the foot of the bed until I can put it in the linen barrels. I do see quite a few people throw stuff on the floor but I also see people not use gloves the whole shift...yuck!!!

Yep. Used to throw them on the floor all the time. If you're working alone, it'd hard to step away and throw something in the bin. *shrug*

Gonna be blunt here.... there is school and then there is real life. I use common sense about it, but I am a floor-thrower and will be for the forseeable future. What's my option? Bring the dirty linen container full of every other rooms' germs into the patient room? Nope. Wrestle with trash bags the consistency of saran wrap while trying to provide care? Nope. Put down a relatively clean and dry bed spread to put linens on while bathing a patient and changing their bed, then wrapping it all in that spread and taking it to the linen container? Yep.