Students will handle the linen chores for 300

By GARY MOYERS 
Staff Writer 

According to the manual used by nurses’ aide students at the Central Kentucky Technical College, there are 23 steps to making an unoccupied bed with flat linen. 

When those steps are multiplied by 300, simple bed making becomes a monumental undertaking. 

“We think it will take us anywhere from three to four hours,” said Melanie Sallee, director of practical nursing at CKTC.

Sallee’s students, approximately 30 health professional and surgical technology students, volunteered to make approximately 300 beds at Centre College where visiting members of bands will be housed. 

On June 16 they’ll go back to strip the beds, a process Sallee calls “easier than making them.” 

The volunteers will work through a program coordinated by Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center, which will provide the linens. 

“They will transport the linens to the college site, with direction from Ann Young and Kaye Drake,” said Peggy Butler, a professor at CKTC. “It is my understanding that a Girl Scout troop will work with us, delivering the linens from the delivery vehicles to the rooms. Then our students will make the beds in every room.” 

Butler said part of the students’ curriculum includes community service, and the volunteer work for the festival counts toward that requirement. 

A positive spin

Butler said while bed-making is a small service, its one that helps put a positive spin on visiting band members stay in Danville. 

“We want them to leave here with a good feeling about their visit here,” she said. “Making sure they have clean, attractive beds to sleep in is one way we can help.”

Bed-making is an essential skill learned early in a health professional’s career, according to Sallee. 

“It’s one of the first things we teach, and there really are 23 steps to making an unoccupied bed,” she said. “Most facilities have gone to fitted sheets these days, so it’s becoming a lost art, but nursing professionals are still taught the proper way to do it.” 

The steps involve items such as making sure the open end of the pillowcase faces away from the door of the room; stitching on the top sheet should face up while stitching on the bottom sheet should face down (away from the sleeper), and the seam of the pillowcase should be at the top of the pillow, “so it doesn’t rub your chin,” said Sallee.

“There is an art to making a bed,” said Sallee. “It’s a chore that few people give a lot of thought, but doing it the wrong way can leave a poor impression. And the key to the whole thing is getting the bottom linen on straight. If your foundation is wrong, the bed will be wrong.” 

This year is the first for the students to provide the linen service, but Butler said she hopes to expand the school’s involvement in the future. 

“We have extended an offer for our health professionals to assist at the first aid tents in the future,” she said. “We think it would be great practical experience, and it’s another way we can provide a community service.”