Seriously. I don't know. I just know they are worth their weight in gold in hospitals.
Two nights ago, central supply brought up a huge bag of them. I saw it with my own eyes, and I lit up like a Christmas tree. WE HAVE PILLOWS!
Tonight, a patient asked me for a pillow. I very confidently said, "I'll get you one. Give me a minute."
Off to the stock room I go. No pillow in sight. I asked one of the CNAs. She would certainly know where the pillows are, right. Turns out that when they came up two nights ago, she grabbed them and hid them in the closet of one of the rooms. She told me where they were because we get along like that.
Again, I feel on top of the world. I KNOW WHERE THE SECRET PILLOW STASH IS!!!
I put my hand in the closet, and all I came out with was an empty bag. The one that held all those wonderful pillows two nights ago. *****!
Why do pillows leave and never come back? I seriously don't understand the life cycle of the almighty hospital pillow.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
the pillows are hanging out somewhere with all of our chairs . . . wish i knew where that was! i could use a dang chair!
if it were pacemakers you were asking about, or iv poles, or iv pumps, i know where those go. i see the or staff searching out and stealing them on the night shift.
We found that a lot of patients would take them home when they were discharged. Or they took it home by accident: we do allow patients to bring in their own pillows and perhaps the hospital's pillow got lost in the mix.
I swear, if I ever work more than two shifts in a row with all the linens and pillows I need readily available, I'll become a devout Catholic...b/c it'd be a miracle straight from God.
I ticked off some higher ups a long time ago by asking how we're supposed to "reveal the healing presence of God" when I can't even manage to reveal the mundane presence of linens. (I work for a Catholic hospital, and that's part of our mission statement.) My manager was not impressed.
I'm lucky in that our hospital uses the disposable kind and we have an abundance of them. Our DON who is extremely budget conscious (tight with the money lol) Says they are actually cheaper than trying to sanitize the reusable ones. We encourage pts to take them home and if they don't, we save them (unofficially) for the homeless shelter
Poi Dog
1,134 Posts
I am chuckling at the title of this thread.
So has the mystery been solved or do we need to place a call to MythBusters or Unsolved Mysteries? Actually I think Dirty Jobs would be more fitting.