ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Cleaning staff at a Swansea Hospital are being upskilled to take on tasks that have traditionally been carried out by nurses.

And the pilot scheme has resulted in a faster turnaround of beds, while nurses now have more time to spend on clinical duties.

Nursing staff at Morriston Hospital are usually tasked with cleaning the beds, mattresses, patient lockers and other patient care equipment. The trial involved giving the hospital's domestic team specialist training to teach them how to clean and decontaminate equipment traditionally cleaned by nursing staff.

Once they had been trained they were then asked to clean all ward surfaces including beds, mattresses, patient lockers, chairs, pumps, oxygen and suction units.

Deputy head of nursing at the hospital Rhiannon Jones says a great deal of nurses' time is traditionally taken up with cleaning patients' equipment.

"When nurses undertake cleaning tasks they are not spending the same amount of time with patients delivering hands-on essential basic care, such as feeding and supporting with the essential activities of daily living," she said.

Deputy head of support services at Morriston Hospital Rob Daniel said the team worked in conjunction with infection control colleagues to ensure the standards of cleaning remained high. "We have recorded improved general cleanliness of the ward area," he said.

"During the trial our beds would become ready within 20-30 minutes whereas before it would have taken over an hour. So the new practice has improved patient flow and has allowed the nursing team to concentrate on their core functions in terms of patient care."