subject: Consumer Care Tips For Your Cnas - Bathing [print this page] Assisting clients at bath time is half of the duty of a nursing assistant. Do the CNAs at your workplace apprehend how vital this routine task is to their purchasers? Do they use bathtub time as an chance to observe their purchasers closely? By sharing the following data and tips at your next CNA inservice meeting, you will give your aides a new outlook on personal care.
The Joys of Bathing
Imagine this: You've got had a rough day at work. You are feeling sweaty and tired. You are looking forward to taking a pleasant hot relaxing shower. Currently, imagine how it might feel if instead of being able to simply hop in the shower, your soundness needed you to:
? Take your garments off in front of a stranger.
? Hold onto grab bars because you were afraid of falling in the shower.
? Raise for facilitate laundry the non-public areas of your body.
? Stand and shiver while anticipating somebody to bring you a towel.
Suddenly, the thought of a nice hot shower doesn't appear thus appealing, will it? Your clients used to be in a position to require care of their own bathing needs. Currently, many of them want your help. And, they in all probability are not happy about that! Being enthusiastic about others for bathing most likely makes them feel:
? Recent and useless.
? Ashamed.
? Scared concerning what else they could have to give up doing for themselves.
Bathing purchasers needs patience, strength, compassion and skill. Keep reading to be told ways to form bathing a safer, additional economical process for you and your clients.
8 Advantages of Bathing
Bathing is very important because it:
1. Cleanses the body by removing dirt and dead skin cells.
2. Promotes comfort by cooling and refreshing the skin and relaxing the client.
3. Controls body odor by removing bacteria and germs from the skin.
4. Prevents infection.
5. Provides an opportunity for clients to maneuver their muscles and joints.
6. Stimulates circulation.
7. Helps stop skin breakdown.
8. Offers you a chance to communicate with the client and to watch his or her body for changes.
Making Observations at Bathtub Time
Bath time offers you a terrific opportunity to look at your shoppers for physical changes. Keep an eye out for problems and report any changes right away.
? Check the hair and scalp for head lice. (Lice will happen to anyone-regardless of how young or recent, dirty or clean, rich or poor.) Look for white lice eggs (known as "nits"). They appear like small bits of dandruff, however don't wash or flake off. Instead, they stick firmly to strands of hair.
? As you comb or wash your shopper's hair, observe the scalp for scaling, crusting, irritation, bruises, bleeding, lumps or giant areas of missing hair.
? Look over the whole body, making note of any areas of redness, rashes, bed sores, moles or alternative changes in the skin.
? Check the whole body for puffiness or swelling, broken skin, redness, bruises or bleeding.
? Report any unusual body odors. A strange odor could be a signal of an illness.
? Watch out for clients who appear to sweat an excessive amount of, too very little or who tend to sweat a ton at night. There are medical conditions that may cause sweating problems. (After all, it can be life-threatening if a person does not sweat at all.)
? Look for white or yellow areas on finger and toe nails. Your shopper could have a nail fungus.
? Check for itching, cracked skin between the toes or on the soles of the feet. These are signs of infections like "athlete's foot".
? Stay up for black warts on the soles of the feet.
Bathtub Time Tips
Let your supervisor recognize if you're feeling a bath is ordered too usually or too seldom for one amongst your clients. Additionally, be sure to report if your consumer needs a totally different quite bath. For instance, a shopper who is getting stronger might be able to modify from a sponge tub to a shower. Or, a client who is obtaining weaker might would like to stop taking tub baths.
Take your purchasers' suggestions and feelings into consideration. As a lot of as potential, continue the identical bathing routines that your clients had before they required your help.
Keep in mind that slowing the pace of the bathing process could enable older individuals to try to to additional for themselves. If you rush them, you will be robbing them of the chance to stay semi-independent.
If attainable, raise a physical or occupational therapist to teach you techniques for making bath time safer for a specific client.
Praise your purchasers when they participate in their own personal care. As an example, "Your arm appears stronger today. You were in a position to wash your back by yourself." or "Your hair looks lovely. You did a great job brushing it."
Safety Problems
The best danger during a toilet comes when clients get in and out of the bathtub or shower. The danger of falling is high! As you assist clients out and in of the tub or shower, you're in danger for falling, too. Most of those "double" falls happen:
? At the tip of the bath when the consumer is tired and/or relaxed.
? If a shopper's wellbeing has worsened.
? Whereas transferring a consumer out of a bath- as a result of the client's body, the bathtub and the ground are wet and slippery.
Your shoppers might be physically passionate about you for help at tub time. For example, a shopper with arthritis might not be ready to turn the water faucets on and off. A shopper might also be psychologically dependent on you. For example, she could be afraid to require a bathtub alone for fear of falling.
If you work in clients' homes-and have access to a cellular phone-think about keeping it in the lavatory throughout bath time. You will be ready to decision for help if you and/or the shopper falls down.
Keep the toilet well-lit throughout bath time. Create sure it's well-ventilated, too, therefore that the room doesn't become too hot. (You-and your consumer-might become faint within the heat.)
Keep in mind that older people are a lot of sensitive to heat and cold. Take a look at the temperature of the water before your elderly purchasers get into the tub or shower. If you utilize a tub thermometer, it ought to scan between one hundred and five and one hundred ten degrees F. Once reading the thermometer, check the water on the within of your wrist...and think about asking your shopper to do the same.
