Vanderbilt Medical Center to have nurses cleaning up

Published

"Cleaning the room after the case, including pulling your trash and mopping the floor, are all infection-prevention strategies. And it's all nursing, and it's all surgical tech. You may not believe that, but even Florence Nightingale knew that was true," said a hospital administrator to staff in a video obtained by the Channel 4 I-Team."

http://www.wsmv.com/story/23364976/vanderbilt-medical-center-to-have-nurses-cleaning-up

They are not thinking this trough. Was HR ever consulted on this? This is going to affect their RN recruitment and retention big time. Vandy is not going to attract the best and the brightest nurses with a job description that includes heavy lifting janitorial services. And it will be a big incentive for the ones already working there to look elsewhere for employment. In the end, the nurse turnover and costs associated with training new RNs will far exceed whatever this new policy will be saving them. And I am not even go into the subject of infection control (you think we nurses, already behind on everything we need to do will disinfect and clean as well as the environmental services staff?). This policy will be immediately reversed when their hospital acquired infections increase (for which they will have to eat the cost of treatment) and their HR budget skyrockets. Short-sighted and dumb-headed. Penny-wise but pound foolish Vandy.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Vanderbilt is a magnet hospital and level 1 trauma center with a lot of respect in the community and if cleaning starts taking time away from pt care they may see satisfaction rates drop.

Does anyone else see the irony of this????? Magnet status for care with excellence and shared governence with a crazy e-mail about

"refrain from speaking negatively about this in an open forum where our customer can hear. If you need to vent come see me."
and a mop.......:no:.

I am not rendered speechless often.....yet once again I am God smacked

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
British NHS nurses do this with a ratio of around 12:1 (generally between 10-14 pts). It sucks.
Government healthcare at it's best. I'll be it 's not like that at the private pay facilities.

This country is in for a BIG SURPRISE when Obama care "Rolls out" completely

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I just threw up

Me too...gaggggg

This is absurd!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Every hospital I have worked in required that we pull the trash from patient's room at the end of our shift and all but one required that we pull all linens (especially the bed linens) after a patient is discharged. We would have to pull all equipment used and throw away anything like IV stuff, etc., wipe down the heart monitors and other all the other equipment used, wipe and spray down the IV pumps. In other words, all housekeeping would have to do is disinfect the floors, beds, furniture, etc., and remake the bed. Occassionally, we do that, too, if we need an ICU bed quickly. I am in the habit of always wiping down my patient's bedside tables with antibac wipes, and their toilets, too. I can't stand to see them sticky or nasty. Granted, we don't always have time, but I guess I am just in the habit and can do it pretty fast. No, we don't have to do a full-scale cleaning unless we really need the room right then. We all pitch in, it doesn't have to be just an RN.[/quote']

^ I wiped down monitors, workspace working in the PICU; but I'm seeing the long term...do nurses have to mop too???

I worked at a small facility where we did this, but not on a scale as a hospital...I can see where the infections and cross contamination can increase...this will hit the hospitals' pockets FAR more than having adequate staff...they are shooing themselves in the foot, foolishly, IMHO...

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I hope they're looking forward to having CAUTI CLABSI, fall, and pressure ulcer rates going through the roof. Good nursing ratios is the number one thing proven to help these things. I don't think it counts when nurses are playing housekeeper though, rather than triple checking their meds, looking up drugs they're not familiar with, watching cardiac monitors, or doing pre-op teaching with a nervous patient.[/quote']

THIS...

The sacrifice of patients's care has come to a head...it's taken twenty years for the public to see the ugliness of the business model ruining healthcare...in some ways if it takes a turn for the worse, I'm almost relieved that people will see this absurdity, and actually do something about it...like exert common sense! :yes:

I just fear for the patients...I agree with lindarn...and get the public involved.

I would NOT want my nurse pulling my trash, while taking care of me...they are NURSES, not housekeepers!!! Again...gagggggg!!!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I must disagree. While there is (as you said) some overlap between customer service actions and nursing actions, getting granny her tea versus turning her q2 hours...which do you think is customer service related and which do you think is going to prevent serious physical harm to the patient?

If you're focused on customer service type issues, you are not going to be able to accomplish all the nursing tasks that are essential to keeping patients safe and (relatively) healthy. Not when you're running for Mr. X's tea, Mrs. Y's extra pillow, calling Mrs. Q's sixth cousin twice removed to tell them she wants to see them because she can't hear on the phones at your hospital, trying to figure out how to get Mr. L's family a ride back to their hotel, and now you have to clean Room X because that patient was discharged. Customer service issues can be time consuming enough on their own to pose a serious threat to quality nursing care. To add on an extra chore to a nurse's already bustling schedule is nothing short of criminal.

To excuse this kind of behavior with Florence Nightengale is despicable. Absolutely, she advocated for cleanliness and fresh air. Anyone who's ever read Notes on Nursing knows that. But it's 2013, and many of the duties that nurses performed in eras past have been delegated to other services because nursing as a field has expanded and gained vital responsibilities that cannot be delegated.

Not that I go to work thinking of customer service anyway, but if you told me I had to clean rooms as a nurse working an inpatient ward, your tea would have to wait. Under the outline above, there's no way I'd be taking away from assessments and patient health/monitoring/ADL/safety-related concerns in order to fluff pillows and scrub floors. Perhaps I'm one of those "bad nurses", but I've told patients and family members that I cannot call their relative right now because I have other patients and needs to attend to. I will get back with them if and when I have the time, but I cannot take away from another patient's pressing needs to tend to matters that are less important in the grand scheme of things.

I'd love to see a mass exodus of nurses from this place. This is one of those areas where nurses need to stand together and do what we're supposed to do: advocate for our patients and for ourselves.

THIS THIS THIS THIS^^^^^^^^^^^

Florence Nightingale improved the patients care because patients were cared for in squalor where people including those caring for them didn't bathe.....Florence Nightingale my behind.... UNBELIEVABLE. How can ANY nurse support this measure.....their CNO should be ashamed to support this action and evoke Florence Nightingale in as if to justify her actions.

While I think it is everyone's responsibility to straighten the room and keep trash empty....... it is completely different to do daily toilet cleaning and terminal cleaning of patient rooms.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Does anyone else see the irony that this is a Magnet facility with excellence in care and shared governance????

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Government healthcare at it's best. I'll be it 's not like that at the private pay facilities.

This country is in for a BIG SURPRISE when Obama care "Rolls out" completely

If I could like this a billion times, I would.

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Our CEO made over 5million in pay and bonuses 2011. Just saying.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Does anyone else see the irony that this is a Magnet facility with excellence in care and shared governance????

^I do!!

Gaggggggg......

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
So tell me again why Unions are such a bad thing?

THIS.... :yes:

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