Where's the difficulty?

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For the past 3 weeks my facility has been out of shampoo. These are the same folk who are pushing for better resident grooming yet, they cannot/will not/forgot to stock up on shampoo. We have a million bottles of conditioner, but where's the shampoo?

I have informed the charge nurse, the DON and basically anyone who can make shampoo happen. I went out and picked up a bottle for the residents I had to bathe last night. This is plain old ridiculous. Sheesh :down:

So what supplies are you in need of?

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

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I would talk to the central supply person and see if they know anything. Maybe it is on back order or something. I think that is crazy to not have any shampoo and to have the staff have to buy it.

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Briefs for night shift. They always forget to pass them out. Usually someone has the key to supply, but even then I usually end up having to use other residents briefs on residents they aren't assigned to. Family provides briefs for my facility and they all have names. I just think it's tacky to have someone wearing a brief with another name on it... I don't have to time to search through boxes and boxes of briefs to find a certain residents diaper. They need to keep up with it better.

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Specializes in LTC.

I wish we had conditioner. Most of the residents' hair is so dry! I brought in a huge bottle once and put it in people's hair without rinsing it out. I do that to my own hair too.

Our "shampoo" and bodywash are one and the same... yuck.

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I want separate shampoo AND body wash (not the all-in-one crap). I would also like for it to NOT be watermelon cucumber. My male residents would very much appreciate this, too. Every time I smell that scent outside of work it makes me want to hurl.

I want glycerin swabs for my residents mouths. The disposable toothettes do not moisturize their mouths!!

I want individual deodorants that do NOT smell like oven cleaner. I hate that we have the "community" spray bottle.

I want Derma-gran or some REAL barrier cream. Our pressure ulcer rates seem to have doubled after they switched to the cheap parafin crap.

I want real perineal cleaner. Not stuff that makes my residents' skin sticky.

I want enough toothbrushes and toothpaste to go around. Makes my blood boil when I walk in every room and find out that 15 residents have NOTHING for mouth care. Nothing.

I want lotion that actually moisturizes my residents' skin rather than sit on top and cause their clothing to stick.

I want hearing aid containers so that they don't have to be stored in med cups.

I want bath blankets so that my residents don't have to be exposed or cold during their showers.

I want prep wipes and appropriate creams for my colostomy residents. Perhaps then the bag wouldn't fall off every day, causing us to have to waste yet another adhesive "O-ring." I also want enough spare bags that we won't have to irrigate and reuse the dang things.

I want "normal" bedpans. I don't know why everyone gets "fracture bedpans" which hurt immensely. I don't know why it's such a big deal and why they must then be "special-ordered." Really?

I want enough Foley privacy bags for everyone because maybe they don't want their friends to see their urine while they're playing Bingo.

I want more than 1 Hoyer sling to go around for the 30 residents that use the lift.

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We never have ANYTHING. We sometimes take in cheap stuff so patients don't stink, because if they do give us anything it's used in a day.

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Specializes in LTC.

We have to use electric razors and they don't work. I have to buy that pre-shave stuff so the hair actually comes off.

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I have informed the charge nurse, the DON and basically anyone who can make shampoo happen. I went out and picked up a bottle for the residents I had to bathe last night. This is plain old ridiculous. Sheesh :down:

So what supplies are you in need of?

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

One Sunday, the LTC TCU floor I worked on was completely out of plastic bags and gloves. Nurses were picking gloves off the housekeeping carts. Yes, the ones who clean the toilets, don't wash their hands, and reach back in for more gloves.

I went to Walgreen's and bought bags and gloves. A coworker told me, "If you do that (buy stuff) once, you will be doing that over and over again. I told her, "Not if I don't work here anymore I won't"

I don't work there anymore and I am really really really glad. I learned so much but that place is a nightmare. The TCU manager was fired a few months ago for stealing narcs and the ADN was recently canned and escorted out of the building for falsifying an incident report. It appears she was trying to cover up a fall injury.

Idiocy. The facility could help prevent falls by staffing adequately AND holding aides responsible for doing their jobs, but nooooooo.....

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Specializes in Med-Surg/urology.
I wish we had conditioner. Most of the residents' hair is so dry! I brought in a huge bottle once and put it in people's hair without rinsing it out. I do that to my own hair too.

Our "shampoo" and bodywash are one and the same... yuck.

Lol is it blue? Because once we were out of handsoap & I asked on of the girls in housekeeping. She said "you know the soap, shampoo & bodywash are all really the same." Ickkkkk.

At one of my jobs, we're always running out of medium sized gloves & wipes. Its become so rampant, that a lot of the family members have been bringing in those supplies for their loved ones room.

My other job is pretty well stocked, but the one thing I seem to notice goes missing a lot is barrier cream.

Sometimes I bring in my own gloves & wipes because I hate wiping a person with wash cloths, but seriously..these people pay sooo much every month to stay in that facility. WHY ARE THERE NO SUPPLIES?!?

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice.

Where I work, if you want washcloths for your residents, you better get to them first, because there is never enough to go around. We used to have wipes, but those were dropped to save money. When we complained about not having wipes or washcloths to wipe behinds, the administrator said something along the lines of 'we use toilet paper to wipe ourselves, that should be good enough for them too.' Ummm, OK, but I'm not incontinent, I don't have cr@p allover my bottom..... They used to have lotion in all the bathrooms in a dispenser next to the soap. That got replaced with hand sanitizer. Yah, I know having the sanitizer handy is important, but having dry hands from washing makes cracked skin which is more susceptible to infections. I hate that I have to buy my own supplies in order to take care of my residents in the way that I believe they deserve to be taken care of.

Not all of this is the facilities fault. They just don't have the money because our State is 6-9 months or more behind on paying medicaid/medicare bills and can't seem to balance their budget. We are actually one of the luckier facilities, there are some that had to close their doors because they went broke.

Nikki

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Specializes in LTC.
Lol is it blue? Because once we were out of handsoap & I asked on of the girls in housekeeping. She said "you know the soap, shampoo & bodywash are all really the same." Ickkkkk.

Yup, it's blue! And it comes out of the dispenser in pea-sized amounts so you have to keep pushing 50 million times just to get a little bit on the washcloth. And it doesn't lather.

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Yup, it's blue! And it comes out of the dispenser in pea-sized amounts so you have to keep pushing 50 million times just to get a little bit on the washcloth. And it doesn't lather.

You all have the blue fancy stuff? :lol2:

My facility has the clear goods.

:uhoh3: :lol2:

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