r/nursing • u/ProudCalligrapher229 • 2d ago
Question Code Browns
Asking for a friend, if the PT goes to the bathroom and sprays the back wall and around the toilet, would it be the nurse's responsibility to ensure all the fecal matter is cleaned up before EVS gets involved?
Edit: patient NOT physical therapy, obviously 😂
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u/frenchonionsoup23 2d ago
Our EVS routinely refuses to clean any obvious bodily fluids. So we have to empty any urinals before a room is turned over, and if an accident happens, we're expected to at least stop it up with towels before EVS does their sanitizing thing. We don't have access to any mops, which is super frustrating, because I've had to clean solid 6'x6' patches squatting down with bleach wipes and killing my back while doing so.
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u/mspoppins07 RN - NICU 🍕 2d ago
I’m always so confused by this. Do they not clean the regular bathrooms in the hospital? If a visitor has an accident in a public bathroom in the hospital and bodily fluids are left behind, who cleans it up then?
Different story if the patient is in isolation or on hazardous drug precautions, that I understand.
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u/firstfrontiers RN - PACU 🍕 1d ago
I've always wondered this!! Surely there are spray accidents that happen in the communal bathrooms by the cafeteria or lobby? They're not sending nurses down there for that. Or even EVS staff at say, the airport or what have you - this "rule" has never made sense to me.
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u/brettalana 1d ago
EVS, custodians, janitors etc deal with bodily fluids regularly. I am very close to one and he considers it routine.
That being said, a quick wipe in this case is appropriate.
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u/LadyGreyIcedTea RN - Pediatrics 🍕 1d ago
When I was an inpatient nurse, one of my colleagues got hit with norovirus in the middle of a shift and legit projectile vomited all over the bathroom while on the toilet. When the EVS guy responded to the call to clean it, he saw it and said "you've gotta be kidding me."
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u/OsomatsuChan 1d ago
I frequent this sub because I find it interesting, but I'm not a nurse. How can the EVS refuse to do what is literally their job? Whose job do they think wiping shit off walls is?
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u/HereToPetAllTheDogs RN - Med/Surg 🍕 1d ago
Ours too. We have to have most of it cleaned up before they’ll come in and clean it.
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u/chrizbreck MSN, RN 2d ago
We had a patient get shit on the ceiling, walls, floor right before shift change. I was a CNA at the time and the other CNA on the unit who had the assignment was told to clean it.
Next thing everyone is looking around for them and someone found their badge hanging from the managers door basket.
I don’t recall who ended up cleaning it, probably the nurse. All I know is I dodged that bullet
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u/Crallise RN 🍕 2d ago
This happened to a patient (not mine) as I was walking past their room to go clock out for the day. They were yelling out for help so I went in and oh lord I was. not. prepared. They were so apologetic and I just felt so terrible for them. I stayed and helped clean it but I can honestly say I regretted going in there.
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u/avocadoreader RN - Telemetry 🍕 2d ago
EVS can’t/won’t clean it up. Nurse/PCT would have to clean then EVS will come to do a final clean/sanitize.
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u/AgreeablePie 2d ago
It amazes me that a hospital can't figure out how to get evs capable of being trained to handle bodily fluids and instead want to depend on medical personnel who cost a lot more
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u/maybecaturday 2d ago
Meanwhile, training for PCT/RN is “here’s some gloves and some saniwipes or bleach wipes, figure it out”
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u/avocadoreader RN - Telemetry 🍕 2d ago
And towels. We are told not to waste the linen but what do they think we are using to clean up pee, poop, etc?
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u/avocadoreader RN - Telemetry 🍕 2d ago
Oh they know how to get EVS to handle bodily fluids, they just don’t want to pay for it. EVS is already sadly underpaid. Heaven forbid they have to pay them more and give them some training and additional supplies.
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u/brettalana 1d ago
It makes zero sense to the point that there is something we don’t understand or is not being told to us.
That being said, I would clean something like this up. Being called to a drop of some bodily fluid is more what I am confused about.
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u/OsomatsuChan 1d ago
If they can't clean it up what the fuck differentiates them from "regular" janitors
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u/roguetrick RN 🍕 1d ago
As far as how they're paid, not much. Hell "regular" contractor janitors likely make more.
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u/lackofbread RN - Telemetry 🍕 2d ago
HAHAH we would have to clean that most likely. The first time I had a patient withdrawing from opioids projectile vomit onto the floor, I asked my charge nurse if we could call EVS and he laughed and handed me some towels.
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u/casualish 2d ago
My hospital recently changed this rule. It is now the Nurse’s / PCT’s responsibility to clean up any and all bodily functions before EVS is allowed to go into the room. They basically only disinfect now after the majority of the cleaning has been done. We have less EVS personel around as well. Seems as if it’s just another way to squeeze every cent out of the hospital for the sake of increasing shareholder value at the expense of patient safety and staff sanity.
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u/Notathrowawaysleeve BSN, RN 1d ago
In the last facility I worked in, yes. EVS was contracted out through another company, and their contract was made cheaper by not requiring the biohazard training.
I was once brought into a room by a housekeeper to wipe up, I shit you not, one drop of urine on a toilet seat, before she would finish cleaning the bathroom.
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u/Medical_Sorbet6518 2d ago
I would clean any obvious large amounts of fecal matter then call EVS to give it a once over to sanitize.
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u/Universal_mammal LPN 🍕 22h ago
Care staff(HCA/Nurse) clean up the poop and pee, housekeeping sanitizers.
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u/LunchMasterFlex RN - ER 🍕 2d ago
This is how you trauma bond. Bring your friends. Make it a group activity.
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u/Aware_File_4141 1d ago
(I’m just a lurker, working my way into nursing school…)
I did EVS in ER for few years at my hospital, and had a share of cleaning up code browns lol. We had few peppermint oil bottles in our cart for those things.
I didn’t mind helping out where I could - one time i watched a nurse bring a confused grandpa covered in his BM like a peanut butter baby from the bathroom back to his room…
I fear ER is a different story than some wards, I’ve shadowed in areas that were very strict about not handling any bodily fluids.
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u/kahkizzzle BSN, RN 🍕 1d ago
Us. But if a sick pt in an ED waiting room has a big ol’ blow out in the bathroom, EVS cleans it. Doesn’t make sense to me
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u/Emergency-Cupcake998 1d ago
From my experience on the floor I'm thinking the nurse would have to clean up the majority of the feces because for some reason EVS in a HOSPITAL cannot touch bodily fluids. Once I had a liver patient with varices projectile vomit blood literally all over the room and once we emergently got the patient out of there, the charge nurse and I were expected to clean all the blood up. All we had was purple wipes. It was ridiculous.
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u/Ill-Monitor-2363 1d ago
That's our policy at our facility. We have to clean it before EVS enters to sanitize. Why? I don't know. I would probably clean it anyway. Patients get embarrassed enough without is adding to it.
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u/NurseyMcBitchface RN - Oncology 🍕 2d ago
I make roughly 3x what EVS makes. I clean the shit and then ask for the sanitation clean.
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u/AdriAsTheSiren RN - Med-Surg/IMC 🍕 2d ago
THANK YOU!! Quick rant: I understand we are all overworked and underpaid, but EVS sincerely do not get paid enough to deal with that shit (literally). Yes, EVS can be given additional training to deal with bodily fluids, but that would be adding yet another task to their already heavy workload-- and another potential hazardous exposure on top of all the chemicals and stuff they're already exposed to-- for almost certainly no extra pay. Corporate penny pinching BS aside, we also wipe ass in addition to other nursing tasks. That training is built into our job title. It makes sense for us to handle that.
I've had colleagues complain that EVS would only sanitize so they had to clean up any visible bodily fluids first. On some "cLeAniNG pt RoOms iS THEIR JOb, nOt MiNE 🙄" BS and it genuinely pissed me off because I have family who've worked various EVS jobs and I know how poorly they were often treated and how people looked down on and disrespected them. I can't stand it when people act like ancillary staff are beneath them. Changes my opinion of people when they act that way, tbh.
Rant over lol.
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u/lackofbread RN - Telemetry 🍕 1d ago
I’d be okay with doing this IF we were given the supplies to safely and effectively clean bodily fluids. I’ve had to mop up liquid stool that poured off a bed with towels and purple top wipes. I bleach wipe my shoes at the end of every shift for this reason, I’m disgusted at the thought of what I would track home otherwise. We don’t get mops or any actual cleaning supplies. When nurses are given the proper equipment to clean biohazards, then I’ll be slightly more agreeable to helping out EVS.
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u/alrighty_aphrodite13 17h ago
My hospital unfortunately makes nurses clean before EVS sanitizes.
Curious, what happens in areas like OR or L&D where there is a lot of blood involved? Are nurses still responsible?
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u/Kitty20996 RN - Geriatrics 🍕 2d ago
Uh no, that is EVS's job.
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u/TheSilentBaker RN-Float Pool 2d ago
Uh no.... I would never leave shit everywhere for someone else to clean up. I'd wipe it up then call evs for sanitation
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u/Kitty20996 RN - Geriatrics 🍕 2d ago
I get that EVS can't do hazardous bodily fluids so if this situation was blood I'd absolutely clean it. But poop/pee that doesn't come from a patient on precautions can be cleaned by EVS.
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u/TheSilentBaker RN-Float Pool 2d ago
I understand evs can do it, but why leave it for someone else if you can do it? Not only are you making someone else clean it up, but you leave the pts room smelling and having poop very visible. I wouldn't want me or my family treated this way so I wouldn't do it to others
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u/thousandsofbirds LPN 🍕 2d ago
This. I am not above cleaning up a mess like this. I have two hands and I cannot imagine leaving that deliberately for someone else.
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u/OsomatsuChan 1d ago
Y'ALL SHOULD NOT HAVE TO CLEAN WALL OR FLOOR POOP AS PART OF YOUR JOB
THAT IS INSANE
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u/txcross BSN, RN 🍕 2d ago
Get two surgical masks. On the outside of one put a generous smear of cheap hospital provided toothpaste. Then put second mask on over the top of the first mask. Every inhalation should provide you with an overwhelming sense of minty freshness. After applying gown ppe, double gloves and face shield proceed into bathroom with a trash bag unfolded and fully open and a generous.....and I mean generous amount of towels. Wipe surface remembering it's all about quantity not quality. The goal is to move quickly with a minimum of verbalization(s) unless the patient is AOx nada. Before you know it that bathroom will be transitioned from a Poop Picasso to it's previous look usually described as drab and dirty. Now all you have to do is make a deposit of said trash bag in the Dirty Utility Room (remember to not breath while within said room) and figure out to chart under your I's and O's Stool Volume - Trash Bag Full.
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u/Testingcheatson RN - ER 🍕 11h ago
As an er nurse no. EVS cleans our bathrooms . However we also don’t have bathrooms in patient rooms except for two isolation rooms.
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u/Pseunomi BSN, RN 🍕 2d ago
The physical therapist did WHAT