The hospital I work at recently took our washcloths away. ( FOR REAL!)I called housekeeping at 8pm...no washcloths. All through the night,we called, and NO WASHCLOTHS. At 5am,preparing to do am baths, we called again and to our surprise, a HOSPITAL WIDE policy had been enforced: no wash cloths....only disposable"wipes"were going to be available for patient care. Not that this wasn't bad enough,having to tell patients that we had no washcloths, but the "new wipes" were not even ORDERED yet!! (ps we nurses suggested placing the washcloths in the PYXIS-but would probably have to count those when we do our narc count!lol)
don't get me started on the new" peanut-butter -like" substitute that comes in a squeeze packet,which was substituted for REAL peanut butter ( like it could EVER compare to smuckers!!!) Patients CAN tell the difference.
Where i worked we put all the soiled laundry in a pillowcase and when all the residents were finished one of us would take the pillow case into the hopper room...it had a laundry tub and scrub brushes and we would rinse and scrub the soiled laundry.
Did your facility include a large population of total care residents in briefs with q2h check and change? If so that would mean a lot of excrement soaked pillowcases to be rinsed and scrubbed by hand.
We had a fair share of those and it was A LOT of dirty pillow cases. But we all took turns and wore gowns and gloves. We also had one of the big toilett things you mentioned...and you are right...the water would spray (not very much, but enough that we always wore the gowns!)
Gross. If I were a patient I would complain and no wash cloths is a valid complaint. Every time someone complained I would march the CN down there to hear about it and I'd instruct the patient to complain in writing as well.
I would be cutting up towels too. I might even buy some of my own and I shouldn't have to do that but I would because I feel for the patients here.
I admit it. I've thrown out washcloths before. But hardly ever, I swear! Most of the time I do my duty and spray them out in the hopper. Or just swish them around in the toilet. But a few times I've "accidentally" rolled one up inside a chuck if it's got a huge plop of C-diff on it. So sue me. The thought of having to rinse it out, spray it all over the hopper room, which also has some supplies in it, then carrying it back into the res/pt's room to go in their isolation hamper disgusts me. I picture c-diff spores flying through the air and getting tracked everywhere. And then the next day someone is going to use that washcloth on their face.
My facility does not stock wipes and at times they've withheld washcloths because they've decided we were using too many. Usually this was one particular laundry lady on second shift who pulled stuff like that all the time. That is when the towels simply got used. When the towels ran out, we'd start wetting sheets. People have to get cleaned one way or another.
my first job....1985....it was known that you shouldnt be "washing" the dirty linen in the hoppers that way (creating a mist) do to the risk of aeresolizing infectious agents.....they should be sent to laundry in spec bags and washed appropriately.
My facility does not offer the bath wipes, though we do have incontinence wipes available that comes in packs of 3. Other than that, it's basins, washcloths, soap and towels. To be honest, I like the washcloths way better than the bath wipes. They really CLEAN the skin instead of just barely wiping it.
We are in no way required to rinse any of our linens before they go to the linen bags. I will admit that I feel for the people responsible for opening up our bags and laundering. Our linen is sent out for cleaning and returns to us good as new.
don't get me started on the new" peanut-butter -like" substitute that comes in a squeeze packet,which was substituted for REAL peanut butter ( like it could EVER compare to smuckers!!!) Patients CAN tell the difference.
The thought of having to rinse it out, spray it all over the hopper room, which also has some supplies in it, then carrying it back into the res/pt's room to go in their isolation hamper disgusts me. I picture c-diff spores flying through the air and getting tracked everywhere. And then the next day someone is going to use that washcloth on their face.
That's my take too. I don't go throwing them away willy-nilly but some are definitely going in the trash.
My old facility didn't help itself by not stocking the damn plastic bags we needed to do our jobs. CNAs just started throwing everything away in one bag because there just weren't any bags available.
I just remembered - one day I freaking drove to Walgreen's to buy gloves and plastic bags. There were none available. Nurses were picking gloves off the housekeeping carts (talk about gross).
dannyc12
228 Posts
Did your facility include a large population of total care residents in briefs with q2h check and change? If so that would mean a lot of excrement soaked pillowcases to be rinsed and scrubbed by hand.
Yikes.