Smell of Urine in Care Homes

[copsham]

Hello All, There has been lots of comments recently about urine smells in care homes. I know it is not necessary to have more than an occasional, passing whiff!! I have been visiting my mother regularly for a year, in a nursing home, in a unit with 14 others. There have been very occasional whiffs which is not pleasant but nothing more.

My grandson aged 8 visits both of his great grandmothers in different homes. Of Nanny X who lives in a different county he says "it always stinks there" of my mothers home he said "it doesn,t stink there in fact some times it smells really nice. I like going there" This to me shows how important the whole matter is!

This should be one of the factors considered when choosing a care home as it seems to reflect the quality of care provided.

 

[steffie60]

My mother recently went to respite in a lovely CH which did not smell of urine however when I walked into my mother's room I could smell an unpleasant odour, she had no stoma pouch on. So I set to and cleaned her up, put on fresh clothing and took away the old for washing. The following day I was able to bring her home with me where we work to the rhythm of her body time clock.

I know CHs must work to a better routine but some still fail in basic hygiene. Mum will go back to the same CH next time I need a holiday, they do care and I will highlight the problems of her stoma but it still grieves me to have to leave her in care which is so different from here.

Your grandson sounds like a good sensible chap.

 

[Saffie]

This should be one of the factors considered when choosing a care home as it seems to reflect the quality of care provided.

It certainly should be considered as I'm sure it would deter people from opting for a home which smelt badly and does show a certain disregard for the impression it wants to give to people and a lack of pride. I'm not so sure about it reflecting the care given though.

It's a simple matter for homes to have deodourisers in the ceilings and for these to be maintained regularly but that has nothing to do with the carers or nurses if in a nursing home.It is more a management issue and even then is probably something decided by the owners.

My husband's nursing home does not smell and I know they have deodourisers in the ceilings which are maintained regularly. There is no urine smell and the worst I have to face is the slight leftover whiff of what was for lunch!

 

[Florriep]

When we were looking for a care home, one place we visited had a stand in manager who was obviously very unimpressed by the home. She went out of her way to very pointedly say a good care home shouldn't smell of urine, most residents should be dressed appropropriately for the time of day, should being wearing matching slippers or shoes and have clean hair. None of that applied there - in fact when the door was first opened the pong was enough to make you reel backwards. The manager took us back to the lounge at the end of the tour as if to emphasise her point. Needless to say we didn't take up that place and since then its been in the local paper for providing poor care. I know there are some days when smells and dishevelled dress are unavoidable - but in a good home that seems to be an exception. So I agree, smells do seem to be a good indicator of how the place is run.

 

[Saffie]

We visited a home that looked lovely on the outside - a beautiful manor in beautiful grounds. When we walked up the corridor to see a room, the smell of bleach was horrendous, it burned our noses and throats. We left as soon as we could. There were other signs that it wasn't a particularly well-run home though as well.

 

[Slippers]

It is important to check what is outside the window. Every Care home has refuse bins and the lorry has to park with the engine running to empty them. Sometimes windows are situated next to where the lorry parks so the fumes are forced into the room.

Sometimes external parking is near the windows and if vehicles are reversed in the exhaust is adjacent to the window. In winter drivers rev their engines to warm them and the fumes go inside the nearby room.

Sometimes a home has an external smoking area and the wind can blow the smoke towards nearby windows so do walk around outside.

Most rooms contain a basin that may look clean but have you picked up the plug and looked at the mould on the underside of it?

Most basins have an overflow at the back, have you knelt down to eye level wit the overflow and looked inside? If you remember the room has been cleaned for your visit you might understand this is the cleanest it will be.

Air Freshner does mask the fumes and mould but your eyes can identify warnings.

There is a product called urine neutraliser that can be wiped on contaminated surfaces to remove the odour so a good home would use that and be more pleasant for everyone.

 

[irishmanc]

The Irish government produces a checklist for use when you're visiting nursing homes and one of the questions is: does it have any particular odours? It's something that I wouldn't necessarily have thought about looking out for but it does say something about how the place is run. As others have said, there is no reason for there to be a smell of anything in particular and that's how it should be.

 

[jaymor]

YThere are nine men on my husbands floor and seven are doubly incontinent and the other two men are heading that way. All men are toileted every two hours and when accidents happen they are taken straight away to be cleaned up whilst another carer comes with cleaning materials and within five minutes chair and floor are cleaned.

The only smell I come across in the home is when I go to the laundry to track down a piece of missing clothing and as I open the door of the laundry that damp warm smell is there, it reminds me of being at my Grannies house on washing Monday when the steam was rising from the copper in the corner of the kitchen.

My friend is a retired nurse who worked in the geriatric ward of our cottage hospital and when we were looking for a care home for my husband she said smells are not necessary, fresh urine has no smell, stale urine makes your eyes water.

We visited one such home with a very bad urine smell when looking and several with that drifting whiff every so often.

 

[nitram]

"...All men are toileted every two years..."

???????

 

[Beate]

LOL, can you imagine? She probably meant every two hours. ☺️

 

[jaymor]

Yes I did. I have amended it, thank you for pointing it out.

 

[Rageddy Anne]

Every two years? That's a generous Government waiting time...

 

[Petrina]

One issue I have repeatedly taken up with the management at Dad's home is that I don't think he's drinking enough.

One giveaway is the smell of his urine. He sometimes urinates when I am there and the smell hits me, as does the smell in his bathroom if I go in there in between his visits. If I help him change his incontinence pants, the smell is also strong.

I appreciate that sometimes some medications and foods affect urine smells, but I think that the concentration of it is also relevant. It is easy for staff in a care home not to want to give residents much to drink in the hopes of having to change them less often but I believe that the opposite is true in that stronger urine is more irritating and therefore can lead to a greater urgency to empty the bladder.

My gut feeling, therefore, is that a smell of urine can be a sign not only of poor hygiene but of inadequate fluids being given to residents.

 

[Trisha4]

One issue I have repeatedly taken up with the management at Dad's home is that I don't think he's drinking enough.

One giveaway is the smell of his urine. He sometimes urinates when I am there and the smell hits me, as does the smell in his bathroom if I go in there in between his visits. If I help him change his incontinence pants, the smell is also strong.

I appreciate that sometimes some medications and foods affect urine smells, but I think that the concentration of it is also relevant. It is easy for staff in a care home not to want to give residents much to drink in the hopes of having to change them less often but I believe that the opposite is true in that stronger urine is more irritating and therefore can lead to a greater urgency to empty the bladder.

My gut feeling, therefore, is that a smell of urine can be a sign not only of poor hygiene but of inadequate fluids being given to residents.

I think that it is highly possible that an inadequate amount of fluids are being given for whatever reason. My friend's father was taken into hospital from a CH with dehydration. With them, I think they just couldn't be bothered with the work involved.



Sent from my iPhone using Talking Point mobile app

 

[nitram]

"...I think that it is highly possible that an inadequate amount of fluids are being given for whatever reason..."

"After accounting for age, gender, mode of admission and dementia, the adjusted results found care home residents were around five times more likely to be admitted with hypernatraemia than people who lived in their own homes (adjusted OR 5.32, 95% CI: 3.85-7.37).
Care home residents were also about twice as likely to die while in hospital (adjusted OR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.59-2.45)."

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/01Janua...e-residents-more-likely-to-be-dehydrated.aspx

 

[pizzahut123]

My mum is in a care home and when she first went there it always smelt clean no it smells in corridors of urine it's gone down hill

 

[northumbrian_k]

Hi @pizzahut123 and welcome to Dementia Talking Point our supportive and friendly community. Thankyou for taking time to contribute to this thread. Unfortunately it is several years since this thread was active (previous post was in January 2015) so this may limit the likelihood of any responses.

Please do keep reading and posting responses to threads. Perhaps you may wish to start a thread of your own if you have any issues or questions, or need to let off steam. You'll find empathy and understanding here.

 

[canary]

Hi @pizzahut123
I would speak to the manager about your concerns.
They may be having staffing problems at the moment.
Hopefully it will be temporary.

 

[Twig2757.]

Hello All, There has been lots of comments recently about urine smells in care homes. I know it is not necessary to have more than an occasional, passing whiff!! I have been visiting my mother regularly for a year, in a nursing home, in a unit with 14 others. There have been very occasional whiffs which is not pleasant but nothing more.

My grandson aged 8 visits both of his great grandmothers in different homes. Of Nanny X who lives in a different county he says "it always stinks there" of my mothers home he said "it doesn,t stink there in fact some times it smells really nice. I like going there" This to me shows how important the whole matter is!

This should be one of the factors considered when choosing a care home as it seems to reflect the quality of care provided.

We first visited my sister last nite since she went to live in the home it was reeking of urine it made me want to vomitt when we first went into the long hall where their rooms are should it be like that.

 

[Bunpoots]

Hi @Twig2757.

Welcome to the forum.

The first time I visited my dad in his carehome there was a horrible smell in the corridor near his room but when I visited again it wasn’t there at all. I can only assume that someone had just had an accident as I arrived.

Hopefully, if the home looks spotless, it’ll smell much sweeter next time you go.