Sunday, April 27, 2014

What Caregivers Do vs. What people THINK we do #1

Situation: When you have to "clean up" the patient of stool.
What people think: You wipe their butt . It takes two seconds.
What the caregiver ACTUALLY does: 
  1. gowns and gloves up to practice good infection control
  2. takes out all pillows so that you are able to roll patient
  3. rolls patient over to one side so that the butt is exposed
  4. wipes the butt MULTIPLE times with a dry cloth until poop is gone
  5. wipes butt with multiple damp soapy disposable washcloths to clean up what the dry cloths left behind
  6. dry off patient's butt thoroughly
  7. place all of the dirty cloths and toilet paper in the dirty chucks 
  8. Roll up dirty chucks as far as patient's backside
  9. Change gloves from ones smeared with shit to clean gloves this is very important to protect both patient and caregiver and particularly caregiver. The caregiver is not used to whatever organism may be lurking in patient's poop, 
  10. Apply medically prescribed ointment and powder to prevent skin breakdown 
  11. Place clean chucks partially under patient for the next time
  12. Have patient roll back over to the other side 
  13. PUll out dirty chucks while simultaneously pulling the other side of the clean chucks through the underside of the patient
  14. Throw out all dirty item including gloves in a covered wastebasket 
  15. Wash hands
  16. wipe down bed with Clorox  wipes 
  17. Pull patient to one side or another to reposition patient in bed, making sure patient is centered
  18. Patient is paralyzed from waist down so cannot reposition self in bed the way healthy people can by simply shifting weight
  19. Pull patient up in bed 
  20. lift legs and reposition 5 pillows under patient's legs so that heels "float" off the bed to avoid skin breakdown 
  21. reposition one pillow next to patient to avoid patient rolling over to one side and ending up with head under tray 
  22. reposition one pillow under head 
  23. Wash hands again
  24. REPEAT steps 1-23 as often as patient poops in bed because patient can no longer distinguish when they are having a bowel movement due to paralyses 

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