Do you think about...

[Florence NightinFAIL]

Where pts hands have been?

We're always helping them to transfer, get up, change etc. I noticed that a lot of the pts with mobility issues who have beside commodes or urinals do not have means of washing their hands. The sink is too far for them to reach and the majority of them do not have sanitizer at the bedside. That's what I'm crazy about. It's gross - they go to the bathroom or use the urinal (obviously touching their genitals and maybe having urine spill/spray) and then they call you and touch you as your are helping them, touch the side rails, the beside table, the chairs, then eat with those hands etc. I'm always running to the supply room and handing them sanitizer.

I can't wash my hands enough. And if I really think about it - it makes you want to shower in bleach.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of other instances I'm coming in contact with grossness/germs throughout the day.

Care to share?

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Geez - I don't want to think about it!:eek:

[poopprincess]

My favorite is when I go into their room and they pooped and stuck their hand in it because they 'weren't sure if they had gone or not.' I really do earn my user name. lol

Usually I don't worry about it. I always wear gloves when touching any of the patients. I work with a lot of respiratory patients who are incontinent and have a ton of infected wounds. I'm more concerned with my own hands than theirs. :)

[lalopop86]

I think about it every time I walk into a pt's room. I wear gloves to do EVERYTHING when I go in there. Touching the bed rails especially grosses me out. As well as pt's long fingernails that look like they haven't been cleaned in 2 weeks. What is under there? Do not want to know.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I have accepted that I live in a world full of germs. I have also accepted that I work in a place that is probably the home of the biggest, baddest germs in the world. But I have never had C-diff, MRSA, VRE, or a UTI of any kind.

While I will admit wearing someone elses' urine and feces, (yuk) is truly disgusting, it will not kill me. I can't avoid it. It's part of the job description.

[CompleteUnknown]

I don't wear gloves unless I think I'm going to come into contact with body fluids. Germs are everywhere and handwashing along with our intact skin does a very good job of protecting us. I don't think too much about what might be on the bedrail, I'd go crazy if I did.

I don't wear gloves when I visit friends, push the trolley at the supermarket, accept my change, hold the escalator railing, shake hands with people, use the pen on the counter at the bank, or any of the many other times during an average day when I have no idea whether something is clean or not.

[Nursingluv101]

I try to wear gloves with every one seems wrong, but I do. Also, sometimes i don't wear gloves and then I feel something wet and, I just scream in head.

[Dramqueenie1]

OK this is my issue with this 'problem' When a pt using the urinal it would be nice if they use hand sanitizer. But my grandparents lived to be 80+ years and they never used 'sanitizer'. MRSA and diseases like it are developed from using too much sanitizer. Now I use good ol fashioned soap and water frequently. I also use the foam cleaner coming in and out of rooms. But when I am in the real world I let it all go. If something is dirty don't touch it. But if we all disinfect ourselves we are only killing of the bugs that kill off the really bad bugs. I just hope that all this 'protection' doesn't end up killing all of us in the end.

[Hygiene Queen]

We make it a point to tell each other, "FYI... Mr. So-and-So just had his finger up his nose/in his ear/up his bum/etc..." just to give a heads-up to beware...

Yes, we think about it all the time.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Recently I am getting more and more concerned about shaking people's hands in general life, not just in the hospital!

I carry hand sanitizer and use it frequently.

[0402]

Honestly, riding the Metro to my "nice, clean job" as a Marine Reservist at the Pentagon scares me the most. Curtains in pt rooms come in 2nd, though. I feel like I have an appropriate guard up at work and follow standard precautions, of course, and anything else required by pt condition, but on the Metro? They let anyone on those trains, and I never get to see any medical hx on them...... =)

[ShayRN]

After taking a patient to the bathroom or emptying a urinal, I just go into the bathroom and get two washrags, one with soap and one without. I don't even ask, I just had it to them and say "here, this is so you can wash your hands." You would not believe how much people appreciate that, I don't know if they are afraid to ask, or if they never thought to do it that way.

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

MRSA and diseases like it are developed from using too much sanitizer.

Not true.

MRSA and diseases like it are simply evolution in action.

"Sorry, family members, I am going to make sure your beloved family member gets a UTI so I don't inadvertently develop an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria."

Nah. Not going that way.

(Incidentally, if "good old soap and water" are effective against bacteria, they would simply contribute to the development of "soap and water" resistant strains.)