International Nurses Day 2024: supporting carers and those in need of care with SCHELL

She’s considered the pioneer of modern nursing and she also authored one of the founding documents in nursing theory. For this, Florence Nightingale is still honoured to this very day, with her birthday on 12 May being celebrated worldwide as a day of action since 1965. Traditionally, activities on this day are organised by the International Council of Nurses (ICN). Many areas in hospital hygiene have benefited from Nightingale’s achievements in the collection of data, and the preparation and analysis of statistics. In 2024, this global day of action bears the slogan ‘Our Nurses. Our Future. The economic power of care.’ In choosing this slogan, the ICN is highlighting economic aspects of nursing, and pointing to how strategic investments in support for carers can offer significant economic and social advantages.

Products from SCHELL are used each and every day within healthcare and in nursing facilities. Where SCHELL’s solutions are on hand for nursing staff, they offer a high level of practical use – whether by optimising user hygiene in sanitary facilities, providing anti-scalding protection or safeguarding drinking water hygiene.

By looking to the future, this year’s day of action shows how important it is to become active and introduce the necessary strategic measures. According to the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the number of people requiring care in Germany will increase by 37 percent by the year 2055: their number is therefore set to grow to around 6.8 million over the next 30 years. Actions taken to account for this development are a direct investment in our future. Such measures can include equipping sanitary facilities with products and services that contribute in particular to the health of those in need of care – to relieve the load on nursing staff.

Many SCHELL fittings are equipped with the innovative ThermoProtect technology for reliable anti-scalding protection – like the VITUS VW-E-T and XERIS E-T wash basin taps, for example. The water temperature here can only rise to a maximum of 38 °C. The flow of water also stops automatically if the cold water line fails.

ThermoProtect technology is also utilised for the MODUS single-lever mixers. The MODUS single-lever mixer can also be supplied with an especially easy to use loop handle, which is ideally suited for use by people with limited mobility. The MODUS shower thermostat with ThermoProtect technology is available in the same series.
In the shower, anti-scalding protection is even more important, because it reduces the risk of a fall caused by someone trying to get out of the way of a jet of excessively hot water. The MODUS shower thermostat also features IsoBody technology: this provides protection against burns as the housing does not heat up but remains virtually at ambient temperature. Products for nursing wet rooms include SCHELL hand showers, SCHELL shower kits with wall brackets in a choice of two lengths, and the SCHELL MODUS all-in-one set, consisting of the MODUS MD-T, a shower kit with wall bracket, a hose and a triple-jet SCHELL hand shower.

For more information about the features offered by the MODUS series, please see our MODUS brochure (PDF download).

While drinking water hygiene is always an important topic, it becomes especially critical within the nursing environment. Maintaining drinking water hygiene ensures that dangerous bacteria such as Legionella cannot spread excessively within the building’s drinking water installation. This is decisive in relation to user health, since the pneumonitis caused by Legionella bacteria particularly affects people with a weakened immune system, according to information provided by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Nursing patients typically belong to this vulnerable group of individuals.
Building operators are responsible for ensuring that drinking water is kept at a high quality within buildings. Facility management teams must ensure that an adequate exchange of water takes place at least every 72 hours.
Electronic SCHELL fittings with an option for carrying out stagnation flushes can help maintain drinking water quality.

Electronic fittings with networking capability can also be integrated into the SWS Water Management System, so as to trigger stagnation flushes at individual, scheduled times or, when used with temperature sensors, to do so based on temperature readings.
In addition, multiple fittings can also be grouped together to achieve the concurrencies that are necessary to create the required turbulent flows. The MONTUS Flow H WC cistern module is another building block within the SWS system.

To set up stagnation flushes, MONTUS Flow H can be controlled using the SCHELL SWS Water Management System or the SCHELL Single Control Flow SSC Bluetooth® module. This allows the configuration of automated stagnation flushes at specific points in time. The narrow frame format of the MONTUS Flow H also allows it to be combined with the SCHELL high-load mounting modules, to which folding support handles and other nursing equipment can be attached. To find out more about using MONTUS Flow H with the SCHELL SWS Water Management System, please see this article.

The slogan for International Nursing Day 2024 calls on us to take a look at the future, and to make strategic investments that provide meaningful help to nursing staff and their patients. In buildings where people in need of care are resident, fittings should be installed that have a positive effect on the various aspects needed, such as optimised user hygiene, anti-scalding protection and support for maintaining drinking water quality. SCHELL also offers solutions that improve anti-scalding protection in sanitary facilities. Many other products and solutions from SCHELL also help facility managers in care homes and residential facilities ensure the responsible, hygienic and economical operation of their installations – first and foremost sensor fittings with contactless operation when combined with SCHELL’s SWS Water Management System. By installing solutions from SCHELL, operators of sanitary facilities on (semi-)public and commercial healthcare premises can take an economically and strategically prudent approach to the future of nursing.