Keep the basics easy to reach
The useful wash kit is the one you can actually get to.
For most people that means:
- Toothbrush and toothpaste.
- Deodorant.
- Hairbrush or comb.
- Hair ties if you have long hair.
- Simple face/body washing products you already tolerate well.
- Shower gel, shampoo and conditioner if you use them.
Keep the things you use every day near the top rather than burying them under seven emergency miniatures you have not opened since 2014.
A hanging wash bag earns its keep
Shared ward bathrooms are not known for luxurious shelving.
There may be one damp ledge, nowhere obvious to put clothes and a sink that appears designed to splash exactly the thing you wanted to keep dry.
A wash bag that hangs from a hook or rail keeps everything together and off the floor.
It is one of those objects that seems unnecessarily specific until you have balanced a toothbrush on a radiator for the third time.
A bedside wash still counts
Some days getting to the bathroom is too much faff, too tiring or simply not possible when you want it.
Being able to freshen up at the bed can make a huge difference.
Use whatever your ward says is suitable and whatever products you normally tolerate. The point is not to recreate a shower with seventeen wipes. It is to make the day feel less stale.
Face, hands, teeth, deodorant, hair. Five minutes can reset your mood more than seems reasonable.
Hair becomes an entire subplot
Long hair and hospital are not natural allies.
Pack hair ties. Pack more than one.
Between us we have improvised with elastic bands and even socks when the proper hair ties vanished. Pack more than one and save yourself the creativity.
Dry shampoo can be useful for some people between proper washes, but strong scent is worth thinking about in a shared bay. If you use it, pick something restrained and use it considerately. We have a preferred one in our recommendations because the less-scented, easier-to-use details matter more in hospital than they do in the bathroom aisle.
A brush or comb you can comfortably manage matters more than anything fancy.
The bath sheet argument
The small white hospital towel is a very familiar sight. In our experience it can be spectacularly inadequate for the fairly ordinary job of getting from shower to bed with your dignity still attached.
It may technically be a towel. It may also feel as though it was issued for drying one forearm.
If you have room and somebody can bring it in, your own bath sheet is one of our strongest unglamorous recommendations. Being able to wrap yourself up properly after a shower can be the difference between feeling grubby and exposed and feeling vaguely human again.
Label it. Anything that resembles hospital laundry has a sporting chance of joining hospital laundry.
We also tend to prefer darker towels and pillowcases for hospital and recovery. Blood, wound ooze and other body fluids are simply part of being ill sometimes; darker fabrics are more forgiving, less visually upsetting in the moment and less likely to leave you staring at a permanent reminder afterwards.
Smell travels through curtains
Strong fragrance can feel completely different when you are nauseous, headachey, on treatment or simply stuck six feet from the person using it.
Keep perfume, highly scented creams, deodorants and body sprays restrained.
This is not about banning nice smells. It is about remembering a curtain is not a sealed room and everybody around you is having their own rough or particular day.
Privacy is part of washing too
You are allowed to ask for the curtain to be pulled.
You are allowed to ask for a moment before somebody comes back in.
You are allowed to say you would rather wash or dress a particular part of yourself if you can do it safely.
If you need help, ask. If you want to do something yourself, say that too.
Nobody can read your mind and dignity is often protected by one very ordinary sentence.
Make the most of a proper shower when you get one
If you are having a shower, get everything ready first.
Bath sheet. Clean clothes. Wash bag. Shower gel, shampoo and conditioner. Slippers or safe footwear. Whatever staff have told you needs to stay dry or be handled in a particular way.
If you need help or are not sure whether showering is okay for you, ask the ward. If a cannula, line or dressing is the issue, ask specifically whether it can safely be protected for a shower and whether there is a suitable cover or method for your situation. Do not improvise around lines, dressings or equipment yourself.
And yes, afterwards you may feel as though you have completed a minor endurance event.
Still worth it.
This is practical guidance, not medical advice. Hospitals, wards and individual needs vary, so use what helps and ignore what doesn’t. Ask the healthcare team about anything involving lines, dressings, wounds, mobility or what is safe for you to do.
Printed from thesicklist.co.uk/guides/washing-showering-in-hospital