Who Should Clean Up, Offgoing Shift or Oncoming Shift?

[Kooky Korky]

You are the Day RN 7-3:30.

You see Docs come in to Round about 1515. You do not see which patient they see first.

You go in to Report Room a moment later, come out at 1528, sit down to chart (first chance all day to do so). You have had no break that day except a quick potty run, including no lunch. You have about 1/2 hour's worth of charting to do and you will be on overtime, which is highly discouraged.

3-11 RN comes to you at 1540, tells you that Room 3 has a mess in it and you have to clean it up. She is loud and angry and speaks none too calmly.

Docs had done some procedure on Rounds while you were in Report and had left the aftermath (trash, sharps, bloody stuff - this was a long time ago when blood and sharps were left wherever).

On the one hand, you did not know there was a mess because you did know the docs were on the unit, but you did not know what they were doing because you were in Report. Also, you still had to chart and were already on OT.

On the other hand, is it right for the 3-11 nurse to walk into a mess which, she argued, happened before she was on duty? She was on duty, technically, at 1500, came out of Report about 1528.

So who should do the clean-up?

[morte, LPN, LVN]

CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF. Why would you even think to leave a mess for someone else? Your workplace is not the home you lived in when you were 12. You are an ADULT now and a LICENSED MEDICAL professional who should not only appreciate a clean and orderly environment, but require it.

I've worked every shift in a hospital for significant amounts of time each. I clearly recall complaining about one shift or another until I worked them. Try each of them out before judging any. Still, you should be supporting each other and relying on each other in shift change as the most valuable assets you both have anyway.

By the way... in case you might have forgotten...it's not about you or the other shift nurses. It's all about maintaining a clean environment for the patients.

sigh, i think you need to reread the OP

[morte, LPN, LVN]

They did, did they not?

no...

[morte, LPN, LVN]

CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF. Why would you even think to leave a mess for someone else? Your workplace is not the home you lived in when you were 12. You are an ADULT now and a LICENSED MEDICAL professional who should not only appreciate a clean and orderly environment, but require it.

I've worked every shift in a hospital for significant amounts of time each. I clearly recall complaining about one shift or another until I worked them. Try each of them out before judging any. Still, you should be supporting each other and relying on each other in shift change as the most valuable assets you both have anyway.

By the way... in case you might have forgotten...it's not about you or the other shift nurses. It's all about maintaining a clean environment for the patients.

If i could down vote, this would be the post.. nurses are not martyrs.

[armyicurn]

Outgoing shift should clean up. I expect the same when I return in 12 hrs. I might let you get away with it once but that depends on the pt's acuity. Do it again and I see it as habit forming, I take you in my office and deal with it right there.

[lrobinson5]

My concern is they walked in the room, saw hazardous materials and sharps in the room, and did not immediately pick them up. I understand this is not a recent event, but if this happened today and I was the oncoming nurse I would clean the mess up and file an event report to investigate. The doctors shouldn't have left the room dangerous, and it didn't look good on the outgoing nurse (even if you weren't aware a mess was present, it still looks bad).

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Well Kooky, I think it's both. So clean as you go and no one is left holding the bag with you might guess what's inside it.

I agree with this in general. But it's not applicable to the situation I posted about.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

The physician who MADE the mess should do the clean up.

Back when this occurred, doctors were not expected to clean up after themselves. It was a different era. But thanks for weighing in.

[ED_Murse]

I can't count the number of times I've come on to resus literally looking like a bomb has gone off in it. You roll up your sleeves (figuratively speaking) and deal with it because you know that the previous shift has been through the wringer. Would I expect them to stay on and tidy? No way, and I know my colleagues would do the same for me.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

You've endorsed the patient to the oncoming nurse. It is their responsibility now. If you were able to leave on time, you wouldn't even be there.

I would take it to management. They will not want you staying over longer to clean up. It's a 24/7 job and stuff happens.

Certainly the doctors should clean up their own mess. Some do , some don't . In this case, it's a moot point because the doctors are gone.

I think the oncoming nurse had a habit of running to the boss about stuff like this. She likely would have done that in this case and the 7-3 nurse would have been hit with it by the boss next day. The oncoming nurse was often huffed up about something.

A lot of this isn't taught in school, I think - like restock supplies and don't leave a mess. Maybe it should be common sense or common courtesy, or maybe not. Maybe we are supposed to learn the hard way.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

You do realize that threads take on a life of their own and that you can't dictate how someone responds, right?

Healthcare is a 24/7/365 world. It is going to be impossible to get everything done within only 8 hours of that 24. That's why nurses who expect everything to be done and all loose ends tied up irritate me- it's impossible. That said, neither the oncoming or off going nurse should have had to clean up that mess- the physician who made the mess should have cleaned it up and been held accountable if it wasn't.

Yes, I know threads take on a life of their own. I just was hoping for replies to my specific question and I value the opinions of my colleagues. I apologize for requesting that.

Stupid me, I just should have let it pass. At any rate, thank you for the guidance.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

This is exactly the sort of pettiness and divisiveness that nearly makes me regret entering nursing. I cannot believe that adults behave this way. If your shift is 7-3, you work 7-3, and anything after that is the next shift's business. I actually hate coming to work, getting report, and then having the night RN start explaining that "Oh, I'll clean that up, I'll finish that, I'll hang this, I'll do that..." ... I'm just like, go home. I can handle working my hours and whatever that entails. It's time for you to go home.

And I utterly hate when people say "Well, are you going to finish the care plan? (or some other stupid crap)" No, the patient got here 30 minutes ago, I am not going to do any of that. It is your time now.

Seriously. The level of pettiness, laziness and absolutely ridiculous behavior from adults in nursing is so discouraging. I have never seen another profession or healthcare sector behave the way nurses do, save maybe the most petty members in phlebotomy (you know the ones I'm talking about).

Some people need to grow up and become professionals if we want to call nursing a "profession".

You might not see it in other sectors, but it probably does happen sometimes, so don't be too discouraged.

One job I had, no matter how close to the end of the shift a patient arrived, even if we were giving Report or doing the Count and we might still have charting or other work to do (restock the med cart, sign off a couple of orders, whatever, last minute dressing change), we were expected to do the admission interview, exam, and paperwork.

Enough complaints to the boss from people who had to get home to get their kids off to school or give the car to the spouse so he or she could get to work finally got this rule changed. It was set back to a half hour before shift end, then to the more reasonable 1 hour before shift end.

Does your job have a cutoff?

[Scroll89]

Didn't read through the entire thread, but I have to say that as night shift I'm often times the one who gets to clean up after day shift. It drives me nuts too because its simple things like linen piles in corners, cords, lines, and cables that are a tangled mess, commodes in the middle of the room, ect.. When I do come in the day shift nurses are all on their phones texting and whatnot so its not like they didn't have the time to do so, but they just don't. I don't say anything, because I know that should I need the ammunition against a complaint against night shift (which happens all the darn time because we get the "easy shift" - pfft yeah right). When day shift complains that I didn't get a patient, who isn't a fresh post op or who is trying to sleep after being woken up every hour by us all throughout the night, up out of bed and into a chair, I can remind them that I was too busy cleaning up after their shift yesterday.

I should also add: If you are day shift, leave the room how you want to find it in the morning. If I'm busy, and the patient is trying to sleep, I simply don't have the time to tidy up and its not like I'm going to be doing a lot of things that will mess up the room. So often times I have no contribution to the mess, its just how I found it when I came on shift.