I have to report one of my care workers.

[quiltfairy]

I have a shower aid worker who is to be at my house when I take a shower because I have fallen getting out of my shower a couple of times . Anyway she usually does the dishes while I am in the shower. Wednesday after I got dressed I went into the kitchen to see that the drain plug had not been pulled or so I thought, so I reach in to pull the plug and all I got was a handful of dog hair and coffee grounds. After cleaning out the drain I asked my shower aid worker how the hair and coffee grounds got in the sink. She said she did not know how, so I looked at every container that had had coffee grounds in it and none of them had been washed. I checked my coffee pot to see if she had cleaned the filter; no, that was not it; the bag had fallen down in my trash can and that is when I discovered that she had cleaned out my garbage can in the kitchen sink.

 

When she left I cleaned my kitchen sink with cleaning fluids and boiling hot water and then I proceeded to clean all of the dishes again with about half a cup of cleaning fluids in the dish water. I thought about just plain throwing out the dishes but my budget says no. I was a little sick to my stomach for awhile.

 

I am calling her service on Monday and reporting her; she is a aid to several people that have a weakened immune system and she could actually kill someone with actions like she did with me.

[Joelf]

Hi Quiltfairy,

 

Yuk.....how unpleasant to think of your rubbish bin being cleaned and washed out in your sink!! No wonder you were feeling disgusted with your shower aid worker. Unfortunately, it does make you wonder how many times she's done this before and you hadn't realised.

 

It will be interesting to hear the reaction of her service agency on Monday, when you tell them in no uncertain terms how you feel!   

[Amanda Thorpe]

Sorry Quiltfairy, that's just disgusting. Having said that, people are so different that some people think that level of um...er cleanliness is okay! Some people do, as the saying goes, live like pigs and they're allowed to in their own home not the home of someone else! 

 

I hope you get a positive response and a new worker, keep us posted.

 

Take care.

[quiltfairy]

Now I am really angry! I have become good friends with my neighbor and  she also has the same worker come to her house. She had surgery in January, wound up with 3 extremely bad infections in the incision and she almost died from the infection. She wound up with a wound vacuum assisted closure to get the infection out and  what she described to me was horrendous  and she told me today that the care worker also washed her trash cans out in the kitchen sink. Oh my goodness, I now know why she was so ill and why she keeps getting so ill. She has diabetes which she needs to be living in a clean environment without the possibility of getting e-coli infection.

 

Sorry about the rambling; I am just so upset right now.

[Joelf]

Hi Quiltfairy,

 

I can understand how cross you're feeling!

 

Perhaps your neighbour should report this care worker as well, so that the service agency are in no doubt about her lackadaisical attitude to hygiene and cleanliness, especially as she is dealing with vulnerable people.

[Amanda Thorpe]

Quiltfairy, two heads and all that...can you raise the concerns on behalf of your neighbour as well? The more evidence you have the better but I appreciate this may be the last thing you want to have to do. It's exhausting for us to just keep ticking over so anything on top of that can feel Everest-like in proportion so please remember to take it steady. Remember as well that emotional upsets, like being angry, drain our battery and very quickly.

 

Please keep us informed.

 

 

 

Take care.

[Shelley Ensz]

Hi Quiltfairy,

 

I'm sorry this has occurred and it will be good for you to get it adjusted for the future.  I'm not horribly surprised by it, though. There don't seem to be many standards (if any) for training cleaners in most positions.

 

I've been surprised to watch even hospital housekeepers at work, using techniques that really raised my eyebrows! Ah, and I just found an article to back up my personal observations: Hospitals Reap Rewards for Focusing on Quality Cleaning.  A scary quote, "The lack of training and focus on cleaning standards combined with the pressure to clean quickly sets hospitals up for not only poor patient satisfaction scores, but cross-contamination and an increased risk for hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), Babcock added."

 

So you may want to be concerned at home, and downright frightened in most hospitals.

 

[quiltfairy]

I talked with the case worker today that had washed the trash can in the sink, in my belief it is always better to go straight to the source. She stated she will not do it again and then tried to make me sound bad, but I got my point across to her I think. But Wednesday my nurse will be here and I will also let her know about it. I hope this helps the situation. Thank all of you for your great support.