Nurses cleaning toilets and mopping floors

Nurses are being forced to clean toilets and mop hospital floors on top of their patient care duties, a new survey has found.

More than half of NHS nurses believed cleaning services for their ward were inadequate, 
while around a fifth said their 
hospital trust had made cuts to cleaning services in the last 
year.

The survey of 1,000 nurses and health assistants revealed a third had cleaned toilets or mopped floors in the last year.

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Some also reported cleaning corridors, computers, nursing stations and offices, according to the Nursing Times, which conducted the survey.

Two fifths of nurses said they had cleaned a bed area or single room which had been used by an infectious patient, while 81 per cent had cleaned up after the release of a non-infectious patient.

Almost three quarters said they had not received training for these cleaning practices.

Meanwhile, 37 per cent of nurses admitted their trust would not close a bed to patients even though it had not been cleaned properly.

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