Told to clean room

[cargalrn]

Last night we were getting plowed under with admissions, 4 nurses, 1 CNA, 32 patients, no unit clerk, paper charting, moving patients to different rooms, and the supervisor had us clean a room. Ok, so first I argued and he told me to do it. Went in the room, clean bed, and my colleague took saniwipes and wiped things down. Later he called and told us to move another pt and clean the room. Patient is MRSA, we have no access to mops etc and this time I totally refused. Not only were we dangerously low staffed, but it was over the top wrong to order us to do this. No housekeeping at night. Oh BTW, I have been there three yrs and was never told to do this, but other nurses and the supervisor said this is not unusual. Oh yeah, this hospital is one that is closing. I can't wait to leave.

Would you want your loved one in this room?

[itsnever2L8]

Using saniwipes?? CRAZY!! When I worked in LTC as a housekeeper we had to have a bucket of sanitizer and a wet rag and wipe everything down, new bed linen, washed divider curtain, walls, windows, etc. And this was for a new admission, let alone MRSA!!!

[iluvdetroit]

Last night we were getting plowed under with admissions, 4 nurses, 1 CNA, 32 patients, no unit clerk, paper charting, moving patients to different rooms, and the supervisor had us clean a room. Ok, so first I argued and he told me to do it. Went in the room, clean bed, and my colleague took saniwipes and wiped things down. Later he called and told us to move another pt and clean the room. Patient is MRSA, we have no access to mops etc and this time I totally refused. Not only were we dangerously low staffed, but it was over the top wrong to order us to do this. No housekeeping at night. Oh BTW, I have been there three yrs and was never told to do this, but other nurses and the supervisor said this is not unusual. Oh yeah, this hospital is one that is closing. I can't wait to leave.

Would you want your loved one in this room?

Well, THANK GOD for that!!!!

BTW, if this hospital is so slammed with admissions that they can't even take common sanitary precautions, why are they closing? I swear, I just don't understand the corporate powers that be. Even without that horrible situation with the dirty isolation room...those other 32 patients couldn't have been happy or gotten good care, not if you were Florence Nightingale herself. 32 patients for 4 nurses? In an inpatient hospital unit? Sheesh. So do the powers that be care AT ALL that their clients are unhappy and not receiving adequate care because of their ridiculous staffing ratios, or do they just take each other out to dinner, put it on the hospital's tab, and pat each other on the back for managing to not hire any RNs this month? Holy cow...

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I'd venture a guess that there are Joint Commission standards on how a room should be cleaned and they are being violated by this facility. If it's just once in three years, perhaps I wouldn't make a big deal about it, but it sounds like it's common without housekeeping on staff.

Best wishes in finding something better. Sounds like a dreadful place to work.

[oramar]

I have worked at hospitals that were on the down ward slide. This is the sort of thing that was going on, the closer to the end the worse it gets.

[CathyLew]

I would think the hospital has a policy on how to terminally clean a room. (the case with the MRSA room) and those people would have to be trained to clean the room. when you are that low staffed, it just isn't safe. It must be hard with the hosp closing. They must be cutting costs everywhere. But it isn't right.

[Lacie, BSN, RN]

There have been many times due to transfer of pts to other rooms to open beds for new pts we as nurses had to clean rooms which is not out of the ordinary but we had the proper cleaning chemicals and equipment to do so. I agree with you I would refuse to place a pt in a room not properly cleaned but would not refuse to clean if proper equipment available. I've cleaned many beds in my 28 years. Goes with the territory.

[ayla2004, ASN, RN]

Cleaning rooms is not unkown to me. espiacally to open a private room for infection control or if a specfic gender room is required. was always have cleaning equiment available. However if a room occupant has been on infection control measures we contact facillites. however bed and suroundings are cleaned by nursing staff. oh and any technical equiment is nursing responilt o2 mask tubing, and pumps etc and suction and suction canisters.

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

Ready room should've been "terminally" cleaned before the next one.

NO EXCEPTIONS.

[cargalrn]

There have been many times due to transfer of pts to other rooms to open beds for new pts we as nurses had to clean rooms which is not out of the ordinary but we had the proper cleaning chemicals and equipment to do so. I agree with you I would refuse to place a pt in a room not properly cleaned but would not refuse to clean if proper equipment available. I've cleaned many beds in my 28 years. Goes with the territory.

"I've cleaned many beds in my 28 years. Goes with the territory. "

But not with my job description....

[proudnurseRN]

We can't even get into the housekeeping closet on our floor. It's locked. I'd imagine our house supervisor has a key, but a complete cleaning of a room, done by nurses, in the hospital I work at, is unheard of. Now, we will clean up a "mess" (vomit, bowel, blood) before calling housekeeping to sanitize it, but I for one wouldn't know the first thing about the "right" way to clean a room.

[MedSurgeMess]

I've only had to clean rooms a couple of times in 7 years. For those of you who say "not my job" you may want to look at a copy of your job description. The last time I used that excuse, I was presented with a copy of an RN job title that had the usual stuff and also stated "and any other activities that supervision deems necessary for patient care". Found out that this is how many facilities get around this type of stuff.