The reality of patient bodily waste management: Nurse perceptions of current practice & staff safety

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate nurse knowledge about the risks of exposure to patient bodily waste, nurse perceptions about procedures and reporting, and current levels of satisfaction with how risks of exposure to patient waste are managed. Patient bodily waste management impacts healthcare workers and healthcare organizations. For nurses and other healthcare workers, the risk of exposure to pathogens can have adverse health effects, increase stress, and reduce satisfaction with their job, potentially leading to issues related to retention. Evidence suggests that proper training and using devices to reduce exposure risks and improve shorter bedside toileting, may reduce stress, and improve work satisfaction. Reducing risk of increased healthcare associated infections of patients and healthcare workers may have a positive impact on the organization with reduced cost of care.
Methods: A survey focused on nurses’ knowledge about their risk of exposure, nurse understanding of procedures and incident reporting, and morale and satisfaction with their job was conducted. Results. The findings suggest that there were conflicting responses related to the acknowledgement of risk, reporting incidents, and the use of personal protective equipment.
Results: The findings suggest that there were conflicting responses related to the acknowledgement of risk, reporting incidents, and the use of personal protective equipment.
Conclusions: Organizations benefit from addressing these concerns to improve morale and satisfaction, nurse retention, healthcare worker dignity, and the quality of patient care.

Keywords

Nursing / Risk of exposure / Patient bodily waste / Personal protective equipment / Satisfaction / Morale / Quality of care

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Cleanis, Inc. for providing the funding for this study. The topic of nurse and healthcare worker safety and patient quality of care is always important, but this specific topic is under researched.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS

Conceptualization, D.H. and R.X.S.; methodology, D.H. and R.X.S.; validation, R.X.S and A.K. formal analysis, R.X.S and A.K. investigation, D.H. and R.X.S.; resources, D.H. and R.X.S.; data curation, D.H., A.K. and R.X.S.; writing— original draft preparation, D.H., A.K. and R.X.S.; writing— review and editing, D.H. and R.X.S.; visualization, D.H., A.K. and R.X.S.; supervision, D.H. and R.X.S.; project administration, D.H. and R.X.S.; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

ETHICAL STATEMENT

Informed patient consent was not required because no patient clinical or identity data was collected, and no patient interventions were completed during the course of study. Therefore ethical review board approval was not required and waived.

FUNDING

Funding was provided by Cleanis, Inc.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

The author declares that there is no conflicts of interest.

ETHICS APPROVAL

The Publication Ethics Committee of the Sciedu Press. The journal’s policies adhere to the Core Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW

Not commissioned; externally double-blind peer reviewed.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

DATA SHARING STATEMENT

No additional data are available.

OPEN ACCESS

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

COPYRIGHTS

Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.

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