water spills

[Sunrise2009]

In a morning situation, just after breakfast, a patient has spilled her water jug, so the floor has

a large amount of water - to me this is a safety risk and must be cleaned up right away.

What would be the most important things to do, upon realizing that there is a water spill?

I cleaned it up with paper towels. But - would patient morning bathing be more important?

Or transferring a different patient up to wheelchair?

I think it is most important to get that spill cleaned up so that no one slips on the water.

[peytonsmom]

Is this a trick question?

[Sunrise2009]

no, this is not a trick question.

I am interested in what everybody thinks about what would be most important

to do - when there is that water spill.

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

HINT: Think safety

[theykallmekem]

it should not take that long to clean up some water. just get an fitted sheet from the linens and use that to clean it up. then give the bath.

[Sunrise2009]

The person who has criticized me for cleaning up the water spill right away

has suggested that instead I could have put some paper towels onto the water, then do the patient activities, and then return to clean up the towels/water.

I disagreed - and said that the water should be cleaned up for safety reasons.

I still disagree - because it only takes very little time to clean up that water

(prevent an accident)

[9livesRN, BSN, RN]

it probably took long to hear what she had to say than to wipe the floor didn't it?

[loriangel14, RN]

Wiping up the spill promptly would be the responsible thing to do. It wouldn't take that long and would prevent an accident.

[Bug Out, BSN]

Patient safety is always #1 priority. Always.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

If you are coming in to do the patient bath throw a towel on the floor to sop up the mess, and to make the spill more visible. Do the bath and throw all your dirty linen on top of the wet towel, then when you are done everything gets bundled into a neat little pile, and chucked. Look on the bright side- if your pt had actually ingested all that water the clean up job would have been much worse.

Go get your pt that need to be put in a wheelchair, and accidently/on purpose rollover the toes of the coworker that has nothing better to do than to criticize your housekeeping skills. Ask her if she thinks wheelchairs are a greater injury hazard than water spills, and if we need a policy that limits visitor proximity to moving chairs. Or maybe one of those dingy bells to warn people that you are coming their way. Roll madly along before she recovers, extra points if your patient is still giggling when you reach the elevator.