I'm admittedly a bit of a tree hugger so it bothers me to see waste in general. It makes me cringe at work to see waste. I worked a lot with this one nurse who if a sheet/blanket/towel was moderately/heavily soiled and I don't mean with HIV laden blood I just mean poop or urine she would throw it out! I recently saw her throw out a pillow with a little poop on it! She said would say things like "there's no way the laundry service can get that clean" but I'm pretty sure they do. I say that because people throw poop laden towels in the linen bins all the time and I've never seen an unused towel with poop on it.
I'm sure the laundry service that specifically cleans hospital linens has already thought of this 'how will we sanitize things covered in poop or urine' Also I'm sure they have to meet rigorous standards set by whatever organizations governs that kind of thing.
And there's so many other instances of unnecessary waste, when I worked in the ER if a pt came in with a full bag of lets say NS hung by EMS and the MD ordered a 1 liter NS bolus I would just let the EMS bag run. Why toss it like so many nurses do? I know you have to restart field lines within 24 hours because they're "dirty" but a bag of fluids?! C'mon they're packaged just the same as the hospital bag.
Or when you walk in to an incontinent pt's room and there's like 6 unopened bags of peri wipes, 2 tubes of barrier cream, 8 towels and 4 chux pads. Not only does it drain the main supply room but when the pt leaves all that extra stuff gets thrown out, I like to be prepared to but within reason, only take what you need and maybe one extra for the next shift. Especially if the patient's only gonna be there a day or two, all this waste adds up. It all just factors in to the rising cost of healthcare/taxes/drains on our paychecks (in the big picture/long run) etc.
My gosh. I'm sure the same people who are arguing about how wasteful it is to throw out pillows and about how clean once excrement-laden washcloths are after they are washed would not blink an eye if they themselves (or one of their loved ones) received a fresh, brand new pillow or washcloth should they be hospitalized (God forbid).
I give my patient the same standard of care I would be okay with for me or my family. I would have absolutely no problem taking a pillow that had been wiped down regardless of what had been on that pillow. Have you read about those wipes?! they're so carcinogenic and powerful you're not even supposed to touch them!
I threw away a pillow once. The universe was glad.
Also, side note--one day as i was wandering the halls outside the burn unit I happened to cross a chair sitting ominously next to the wall. A sign was haphazardly thrown upon it. "DIRTY"
There appeared to be not even a speck on the cool green vinyl upholstery. *shudder*
paramedic-RN
171 Posts
I give my patient the same standard of care I would be okay with for me or my family. I would have absolutely no problem taking a pillow that had been wiped down regardless of what had been on that pillow. Have you read about those wipes?! they're so carcinogenic and powerful you're not even supposed to touch them!