NH won't give resident a shower. Any advice?

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UncleDave Asked January 2016

NH won't give resident a shower. Any advice?

At a caregivers support group one of the participants asked for help with a Nursing Home problem. A woman was in a nursing home with ALZ and was not being bathed (showered) for days. The woman was refusing to take a shower and fighting every effort to help her shower.
The staff wanted to medicate the woman (which is illegal) to manage the refusal and shouting. As I understand it the NH administration said they had no choice but to allow the woman go unwashed (showered).
The participant is the health care proxy for the woman.

How would you recommend solving the standoff?

Skilled Nursing Facility

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score 1 · Answer 1

"The staff" want to medicate the woman? Is the staff concerned about the woman's hygiene ( lack of which can lead to infections, exacerbate bedsores) and would like for her to be prescribed meds to address her agitation and perhaps her delusions that she's being harmed .? That seems like it might be a good idea.

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score 1 · Answer 2

There are a lot of posts on this topic, including one by Maggie Marshall in which she describes creating a bathing routine as a pampering routine.

My suggestion has always been to use no rinse products, wash one part of the body at a time, even on different days, and make it a special ritual so that the elder looks forward to it.

You might get some ideas from these several posts:

https://www.agingcare.com/search.aspx?searchterm=showers%2c+no+rinse+products

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NH won't give resident a shower. Any advice?

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