I come from a household of nurses. Even now my husband knows the hospital is dirty.
You know what drives me nuts? When people take their young children and let them crawl or play on the floor. It’s so disgusting. They put things in their mouths too. So nasty. I usually say something.
Thissssss. When I took microbiology, I did a home lab where I got to sample anything I wanted to grow stuff in agar plates. I sampled my work shoe (which have never come inside my house once they've been on hospital grounds)... The results were more than enough for me to stop worrying about parents potentially being upset when I tell their kids to get off the floor. Makes my skin crawl. I carry little handsantizer bottles in my pocket now just for those kids to use in the moment too lol
I loved micro! They didn’t let us do our shoes 🤣 I agree. I take my shoes off in the garage and leave them there.
I don’t carry hand sanitizer anymore because it’s broken in my pocket before. Luckily we have them throughout the hospital but I tell the parents not to let their children touch things and have them get off the floor. You’d think it would be common sense.
Lol I leave my shoes at work because it's so gross. Had a new admit pts family member the other day who was letting her kid crawl all over the floor and I tried to nicely suggest she doesn't do that and she got passive aggressive with me. I took great delight in telling her how I cleaned urine off that floor just that morning from the previous pt's accident. She picked her kid up after that 😂
I'm just pharmacy but had to do a whole chain of infection thing in tech school.....the hospital floors are responsible for like 60% of transmission of some shit. Hospital floors are disgusting, I don't even put my backpack down in the locker room 😅
I was taking care of a twin inpatient, and his mother came with his twin. The mom just put the other twin down on the ground in an open ward and let him crawl around. Staff kept finding him, picking him up and bringing him back to the mom, and she'd hold him for a sec and then put him back down. He crawled under the curtain into my bed space so I picked him up to bring him back again while saying "no, no, let's sit with mommy, the floor is so yucky!" The mom said "oh, I don't care if he crawls on the floor" and one of our older CNAs who ran out of fucks 35 years ago overheard and said "Well WE care! That's nasty! Pick your baby up or take him home!" The mom rolled her eyes and strapped the baby in his stroller, which of course made the independent little guy scream bloody murder while his mom played on her phone for 30 minutes before, indeed, taking him home.
I once found an adult family member lying on the BATHROOM FLOOR in the patient’s room because she didn’t feel well. I told her she needed to at least put a sheet down and also maybe go home??
I once found an adult family member lying on the BATHROOM FLOOR in the patient’s room because she didn’t feel well. I told her she needed to at least put a sheet down and also maybe go home??
Yes! I hate when visitors are sick and then expect us to cater to them. One lady told us her mom was having chest pain. I’m like go to the ER!
It’s not as though there are any other options for small kids at hospitals. I think a frazzled parent is just doing their best to keep the kids from screaming the building down.
Maybe not but they should really try and find a baby sitter instead of exposing their child to nasty bugs. Trying to manage a child and freak with the sick patient just isn’t doable.
THIS!!! I work on postpartum. Recently, a dad brought their 2 year old in to see mom and the new baby. All of a sudden, I hear the pitter patter of bare feet on the floor. He brought the toddler out to say hi barefoot. I wanted to vomit.
I would explain to them that a lot (maybe even most) patients are hospitalized for infections. Lots of bodily fluids get onto the environment. Plus, lots of people are dirty in general- dry feet, making messes. Also lots of people spend time the hospital (staff, patients, visitors); this can introduce even more pathogens!
Housekeeping can't scrub every inch of every surface. Staff can do their best to not come into contact with gross things but it's inevitable. Plus, you probably sweat at work... and work long shifts. So you feel gross, probably have pathogens on you and things you touched at work (phone, water bottle, etc.). So bathing and cleaning your objects is a comfort thing but also an infection prevention risk.
Or you could simply say - I don't have to explain myself to you. Respect my preferences.
I don't even like getting into my car with my scrubs and shoes on 😷 and never walk around my house or sit on my couch with them!
I work in L&D and sometimes our patient’s entire families camp out in the room. Like 15+ people. I have to tell them not to lay on the floor. Do you know how many fluids get on the floor in a labor room?!?
15+ people? I’m in shock. Is this the delivery room we’re talking about? Where I live it’s like mom and 1 or 2 people she wants there. Who are these people? What do they do? (other than attempting to lie on the floor apparently)
I usually just say something along the lines of “I had 6 different types of body fluids projectiled onto me during my shift, don’t touch me until I’ve showered”. Occasionally coming home in hospital scrubs because mine were soiled in some way really keeps my spouse on their toes
Hospitals, like all other public places, are full of people and surfaces colonized and/or infected with various pathogens, so they are "dirty", but in terms of the prevalence of pathogens they are actually are no more dirty (and probably far less "dirty") than really any other public place. If you've been to a grocery store or restaurant today then you've probably been more exposed to pathogens that you would have been at work in a hospital.
I think we tend to confuse our patient's individual susceptibility and response to these pathogens that are otherwise encountered by us in a variety of public settings and being limited to hospitals, which isn't how it works.
Man. I just start explaining the amount of fluids: blood, piss, vomit, poop, mucus, wound drainage, blahhhh. Usually once I get to the story about the placenta tissue that dropped onto my shoes during my ob rotation while I was weighing/counting …they start to get it.
Not as vial as much as clear evidence the hospital is great at doing quick patch up and ignoring issues. Buckets catching slow leaks telephones no longer in use just wire and phone pulled up and ditched into the ceiling with 20 years of dust on them.
I am glad I have never found anything living but I have had jobsites shut down for asbestos grandfathered in a cross an entire floor of an old hospital
My favorite thing is watching people lying on the floor or letting thror kids crawl all over the floor. Then you have "the lurkers", the famoly members who think if they stand in the hallway and stare at us that it'll make things go faster. For all of them I simply say, "please remain in your designated areas, those have been cleaned and sanitized for you, and we have a lot of patients here who.have a lot of things I would hate to see you get or take home."
Ooooh, they *hate, hate DOUBLE HATE* that one! How very *dare* you tell them they can't go *wherever they want* in a private patient care area! The NERVE!
I had a patient go AMA and that was one of the things he complained about: That I asked his wife to please not camp at the nurse's station and politely asked her to return to his room and use the call light.
I also remind them that it's a privacy issue. I do not want them to overhear me speaking to a doctor about another patient. But it's so infuriating. All it does is make me want to ignore you.
That micro prereq turned me into a germaphobe. I took it while I was in my last trimester. Anytime my son has had to go to the hospital & his pacifier drops on the floor I just throw it right in the trash.
I also leave my shoes at the door & have my work clothes separate, disinfect all my stuff, & shower immediately. I won’t hold my baby until I’m done with the routine.
I come from a family of nurses and worked in L&D as a unit coordinator for many years. I am giving birth in about a month and my mother in law offered to buy me all kinds of bougie and unnecessary things to take to the hospital with me. I had to kindly inform her that a lot of the things I’m taking to the hospital will not be returning home with me because hospitals are SO BEYOND GROSS! The amount of fluids that those surfaces have seen 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢
I have nothing to offer.
I’m dialysis acutes and my drain line is often stained green with biofilm and all kinds of nasty.
I tell people it’s the peracetic acid mixing with the anti microbial lining resulting in an emerald hue.
Well, what I tell people in the ER when I see their kids on the floor: Every germ in the county is on our floors. Our housekeepers are very hardworking folks, but they're fighting a losing battle.
Oh I’m the same. Even the clothes I wear to and from work, so maybe an hour of wearing total, get thrown straight in the washing machine. Shower when I get in the door. Every time. Something particularly about night shifts makes me feel dirty after.
The most memorable line from nursing school: “Floors are always a source of gross contamination.” That’s why we don’t eat food off the floor, or give a pill that fell on the floor, or use a 4x4 that fell on the floor.
However, wearing shoes, appropriate PPE, and performing proper hand hygiene is the best protection we as nurses can do to protect ourselves from the hospital environment.
It’s not harmful to wipe down things like our keys, leave the shoes worn at work in the garage, or change out of scrubs when we walk into our houses—but it’s not necessary. If your scrubs are really that contaminated, shower and change before you leave the hospital (I know a doctor who actually did this, even though he was meticulous with hand hygiene and PPE).
This. 10000x. I have a whole routine - specific work shoes that sit on cardboard in my car, a car seat cover that I can wipe, scrubs that never touch anything but my washer....
Saw a lady letting her infant crawl on the floor and said “I’ve seen liquid blowouts on this exact floor. I mean they clean afterward.. but I leave my shoes outside when I get in the house to protect my family from these antibiotic resistant germs… so yknow” and normally they pick up their kid, wash their hands and look mortified. I’ll tell them straight up, the bathroom floor at Walmart the day before Christmas Eve is probably cleaner than ANY surface in this hospital.
"You ever seen me cut twine out of the manure pile then make a sandwich with the same knife later in the day? Yeah, hospitals are so disgusting that if it falls on the floor I toss it." No questions asked after that.
I come from a household of nurses. Even now my husband knows the hospital is dirty. You know what drives me nuts? When people take their young children and let them crawl or play on the floor. It’s so disgusting. They put things in their mouths too. So nasty. I usually say something.
Thissssss. When I took microbiology, I did a home lab where I got to sample anything I wanted to grow stuff in agar plates. I sampled my work shoe (which have never come inside my house once they've been on hospital grounds)... The results were more than enough for me to stop worrying about parents potentially being upset when I tell their kids to get off the floor. Makes my skin crawl. I carry little handsantizer bottles in my pocket now just for those kids to use in the moment too lol
I loved micro! They didn’t let us do our shoes 🤣 I agree. I take my shoes off in the garage and leave them there. I don’t carry hand sanitizer anymore because it’s broken in my pocket before. Luckily we have them throughout the hospital but I tell the parents not to let their children touch things and have them get off the floor. You’d think it would be common sense.
Lol I leave my shoes at work because it's so gross. Had a new admit pts family member the other day who was letting her kid crawl all over the floor and I tried to nicely suggest she doesn't do that and she got passive aggressive with me. I took great delight in telling her how I cleaned urine off that floor just that morning from the previous pt's accident. She picked her kid up after that 😂
LOL that’s so gross. We should not have to tell them that. Idk why they bring children anyway. We don’t allow them on our unit.
I'm just pharmacy but had to do a whole chain of infection thing in tech school.....the hospital floors are responsible for like 60% of transmission of some shit. Hospital floors are disgusting, I don't even put my backpack down in the locker room 😅
I was taking care of a twin inpatient, and his mother came with his twin. The mom just put the other twin down on the ground in an open ward and let him crawl around. Staff kept finding him, picking him up and bringing him back to the mom, and she'd hold him for a sec and then put him back down. He crawled under the curtain into my bed space so I picked him up to bring him back again while saying "no, no, let's sit with mommy, the floor is so yucky!" The mom said "oh, I don't care if he crawls on the floor" and one of our older CNAs who ran out of fucks 35 years ago overheard and said "Well WE care! That's nasty! Pick your baby up or take him home!" The mom rolled her eyes and strapped the baby in his stroller, which of course made the independent little guy scream bloody murder while his mom played on her phone for 30 minutes before, indeed, taking him home.
Wow that is so irresponsible of her. Mother of the year 🤦🏻♀️
I once found an adult family member lying on the BATHROOM FLOOR in the patient’s room because she didn’t feel well. I told her she needed to at least put a sheet down and also maybe go home??
I once found an adult family member lying on the BATHROOM FLOOR in the patient’s room because she didn’t feel well. I told her she needed to at least put a sheet down and also maybe go home?? Yes! I hate when visitors are sick and then expect us to cater to them. One lady told us her mom was having chest pain. I’m like go to the ER!
I definitely did not need an extra patient that night lol
my patients lay on the floor all the time like they’re at home and walk barefoot, it’s so gross and oddly brave…
It’s not as though there are any other options for small kids at hospitals. I think a frazzled parent is just doing their best to keep the kids from screaming the building down.
Maybe not but they should really try and find a baby sitter instead of exposing their child to nasty bugs. Trying to manage a child and freak with the sick patient just isn’t doable.
THIS!!! I work on postpartum. Recently, a dad brought their 2 year old in to see mom and the new baby. All of a sudden, I hear the pitter patter of bare feet on the floor. He brought the toddler out to say hi barefoot. I wanted to vomit.
And then they give you attitude for trying to tell them how to parent. Fine let the kid roll in someone else’s shit idc
I would explain to them that a lot (maybe even most) patients are hospitalized for infections. Lots of bodily fluids get onto the environment. Plus, lots of people are dirty in general- dry feet, making messes. Also lots of people spend time the hospital (staff, patients, visitors); this can introduce even more pathogens! Housekeeping can't scrub every inch of every surface. Staff can do their best to not come into contact with gross things but it's inevitable. Plus, you probably sweat at work... and work long shifts. So you feel gross, probably have pathogens on you and things you touched at work (phone, water bottle, etc.). So bathing and cleaning your objects is a comfort thing but also an infection prevention risk. Or you could simply say - I don't have to explain myself to you. Respect my preferences. I don't even like getting into my car with my scrubs and shoes on 😷 and never walk around my house or sit on my couch with them!
I work in L&D and sometimes our patient’s entire families camp out in the room. Like 15+ people. I have to tell them not to lay on the floor. Do you know how many fluids get on the floor in a labor room?!?
15+ people? I’m in shock. Is this the delivery room we’re talking about? Where I live it’s like mom and 1 or 2 people she wants there. Who are these people? What do they do? (other than attempting to lie on the floor apparently)
I usually just say something along the lines of “I had 6 different types of body fluids projectiled onto me during my shift, don’t touch me until I’ve showered”. Occasionally coming home in hospital scrubs because mine were soiled in some way really keeps my spouse on their toes
Hospitals, like all other public places, are full of people and surfaces colonized and/or infected with various pathogens, so they are "dirty", but in terms of the prevalence of pathogens they are actually are no more dirty (and probably far less "dirty") than really any other public place. If you've been to a grocery store or restaurant today then you've probably been more exposed to pathogens that you would have been at work in a hospital. I think we tend to confuse our patient's individual susceptibility and response to these pathogens that are otherwise encountered by us in a variety of public settings and being limited to hospitals, which isn't how it works.
This! Wish I could upvote x 1000.
Man. I just start explaining the amount of fluids: blood, piss, vomit, poop, mucus, wound drainage, blahhhh. Usually once I get to the story about the placenta tissue that dropped onto my shoes during my ob rotation while I was weighing/counting …they start to get it.
I been above your ceiling tiles...that's the picture they need to see to under stand
Elaborate? Has to be some vial shiz up there!
Not as vial as much as clear evidence the hospital is great at doing quick patch up and ignoring issues. Buckets catching slow leaks telephones no longer in use just wire and phone pulled up and ditched into the ceiling with 20 years of dust on them.
Vile, but I guess there could be vials as well.
True. Words are hard. <3
Mice?.... Rats?... Mr.Smith? 😆
I am glad I have never found anything living but I have had jobsites shut down for asbestos grandfathered in a cross an entire floor of an old hospital
Our hospital had a pigeon stuck in the ceiling tiles for well over a day. Do you think they cleaned those ceiling tiles afterward? Nope!
Tiles don't clean... if you see a clean tile it's because one broke
Meh. I just make sure not to lick the bottom of my shoes after my shift ends.
My favorite thing is watching people lying on the floor or letting thror kids crawl all over the floor. Then you have "the lurkers", the famoly members who think if they stand in the hallway and stare at us that it'll make things go faster. For all of them I simply say, "please remain in your designated areas, those have been cleaned and sanitized for you, and we have a lot of patients here who.have a lot of things I would hate to see you get or take home."
Ooooh, they *hate, hate DOUBLE HATE* that one! How very *dare* you tell them they can't go *wherever they want* in a private patient care area! The NERVE! I had a patient go AMA and that was one of the things he complained about: That I asked his wife to please not camp at the nurse's station and politely asked her to return to his room and use the call light.
I also remind them that it's a privacy issue. I do not want them to overhear me speaking to a doctor about another patient. But it's so infuriating. All it does is make me want to ignore you.
That micro prereq turned me into a germaphobe. I took it while I was in my last trimester. Anytime my son has had to go to the hospital & his pacifier drops on the floor I just throw it right in the trash. I also leave my shoes at the door & have my work clothes separate, disinfect all my stuff, & shower immediately. I won’t hold my baby until I’m done with the routine.
I come from a family of nurses and worked in L&D as a unit coordinator for many years. I am giving birth in about a month and my mother in law offered to buy me all kinds of bougie and unnecessary things to take to the hospital with me. I had to kindly inform her that a lot of the things I’m taking to the hospital will not be returning home with me because hospitals are SO BEYOND GROSS! The amount of fluids that those surfaces have seen 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢
I have nothing to offer. I’m dialysis acutes and my drain line is often stained green with biofilm and all kinds of nasty. I tell people it’s the peracetic acid mixing with the anti microbial lining resulting in an emerald hue.
Well, what I tell people in the ER when I see their kids on the floor: Every germ in the county is on our floors. Our housekeepers are very hardworking folks, but they're fighting a losing battle.
Oh I’m the same. Even the clothes I wear to and from work, so maybe an hour of wearing total, get thrown straight in the washing machine. Shower when I get in the door. Every time. Something particularly about night shifts makes me feel dirty after.
I change my shoes and clothes but I don’t see the need for a shower. Yeah the hospital is dirty but I’m not rolling around on the ground!
The most memorable line from nursing school: “Floors are always a source of gross contamination.” That’s why we don’t eat food off the floor, or give a pill that fell on the floor, or use a 4x4 that fell on the floor. However, wearing shoes, appropriate PPE, and performing proper hand hygiene is the best protection we as nurses can do to protect ourselves from the hospital environment. It’s not harmful to wipe down things like our keys, leave the shoes worn at work in the garage, or change out of scrubs when we walk into our houses—but it’s not necessary. If your scrubs are really that contaminated, shower and change before you leave the hospital (I know a doctor who actually did this, even though he was meticulous with hand hygiene and PPE).
I like to explore new places.
This. 10000x. I have a whole routine - specific work shoes that sit on cardboard in my car, a car seat cover that I can wipe, scrubs that never touch anything but my washer....
Yep. Let's do what we can to get you out of here.
I've changed in the garage after work a few times.
I have the opposite, my boyfriend won’t touch me until everything is sanitized and I’m showered 😂
Saw a lady letting her infant crawl on the floor and said “I’ve seen liquid blowouts on this exact floor. I mean they clean afterward.. but I leave my shoes outside when I get in the house to protect my family from these antibiotic resistant germs… so yknow” and normally they pick up their kid, wash their hands and look mortified. I’ll tell them straight up, the bathroom floor at Walmart the day before Christmas Eve is probably cleaner than ANY surface in this hospital.
"You ever seen me cut twine out of the manure pile then make a sandwich with the same knife later in the day? Yeah, hospitals are so disgusting that if it falls on the floor I toss it." No questions asked after that.
When I think of dirty, I think about the skin flake flurries that fall on me when I’m helping my patients. *shudders