Vanderbilt Medical Center has come up with an absurd way to deal with budget cuts - by having nurses clean patients' room in addition to their already busy work load. In addition to their regular care duties, nurses will now be responsible for stripping bed linens, removing the trash, and mopping the floor after seeing patients.

Forcing this new duty on nurses will harm morale, which can lead to decresed patient satisfaction. In addition, this new task may be exposing patients to potential harm. Bed linens and trash cans typically contain bodily fluids. Forcing nurses to clean these areas could lead to cross contamination, a potential hazard to patients.

Nurses are not janitors. Tell Vanderbilt Medical Center to stop treating nurses like janitors.