Nursing at the County...Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

As a student nurse at the county hospital, I spent many an evening and night performing skills that I had learned in class.

One night on a med-surg floor I was taking care of Mrs. Myers, my paralyzed patient who was sweet and talkative. She rested in this huge bed that was a giant metal frame filled with microbeads. The tiny beads continuously swirled beneath her with the help of the force of air being pumped in at the base. Between the beads and the patient was a soft fabric covering . The bed was designed to help prevent bedsores for patients who were not mobile.

When it was time for Mrs. Myers bedbath, I pulled the rolling table over the bed to hold my basin. One of my fellow student nurses stopped by and offered to help with the final step of my care, the linen change.

As we prepared to change the under sheet, we were shocked to see two cockroaches jump from the over-bed table into the bed! The other SN and I looked at each other with wide eyes and then immediately started sweeping our hands quickly over the bed, hoping to find the critters and knock them out of the bed.

Thankfully, Mrs. Myer was oblivious to what was happening. She remained relaxed and chatted away.

Rubbing our hands wildly over the beads, we smiled and nodded, acknowledging her discussion.

Finally, we saw the nasty critters and swept simultaneously at them at threw them into the air. They landed on the floor and ran out the door.

We quickly excused ourselves, closed the door of the patient room, and went out into the hall…

After getting over our shock and disgust, we laughed at the crazy place we worked. Thank goodness Mrs. Myer never was aware of her bedmates.