I’m being asked to change a patient while he is in the air in a Hoyer lift. They have cut the butt out of all of his pants and want me to lift him and change him while he’s in the air. I say no way. But everyone here insists. It seems so unsafe and against everything I’ve learned. Not to mention how would he get properly cleaned up?
Has anyone ever heard of this? It has basically blown my mind and I’m thinking I have to quit this job because I don’t want to do something that seems so unsafe. Help!
I would demonstrate the proper way to do the change in bed and see if they are agreeable to it. Try to gently explain to them (so they don't get defensive) that it is much easier and safer to use the bed.
If this is in a private home then sometimes necessity is the mother of invention, while I can't quite picture how this would work sometimes people use these kinds of hacks because they do work for them. Open backed wheelchair pants and toileting slings are both fairly common. I'm guessing that a tab brief is being used and that this is to do a quick change for someone who spends their day sitting up in a chair or wheelchair and that a thorough cleaning is done morning and night and if there is a bowel movement. Have they demonstrated this to you?
If this is in a facility I wonder if this is a time saving method invented by front line workers that senior staff are not aware of. Since you sound prepared to walk you have nothing to lose - definitely kick this up the chain of command in writing, all the way to your state's regulating body if nothing changes.