MSDS and hand lotion

Nurses General Nursing

Published

At our staff meeting yesterday we were told that hand lotions can no longer be kept in our report room unless we have the corresponding information stored in our MSDS binder. Just how ridiculous are the rules and regs becoming? We have no scrub sink in our nurses' station, as it is, cannot have even a bottled water anywhere at the desk which therefore makes keeping ourselves properly hydrated a big issue and now our hand lotion is a hazardous material? The nursing shortage is being created by regs just like this because here's one more nurse who's just about had enough :angryfire

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
Well, I know this isn't the answer that anyone wants to here... but...

1) Find a lotion or two that everyone likes.

2) Buy alot of it.

3) Print out MSDS for that lotion and insert.

4) *grumble* at innane ideas and enjoy the fact that you've gotten around the system

There ya go. =)

Yea.......uh huh...right. NOT!! :nono: Give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile. DON'T give in to the "jail terms" on the job. We are NOT prisoners, but last time I checked I was still a "free to do what I want to do as long as I'm not harming someone else" American citizen. :twocents: Is this America or Communist China we're living in? I'm starting to get confused here. :rolleyes:

Don't laugh but I did work at a place that instructed nurses on what type of panties to wear. I actually sat in a staff meeting and was lectured on the proper type of undies. I thought I was being as approiate as the presenter when I asked: 1. How this improved patient care? 2. Was the panty police going to be assigned daily or was it an honor system? :saint:

Specializes in NICU.

Doesn't this all come down to infection control??? Granted, I work in an ICU, not a LTC facility, but isn't is supposed to be the same everywhere? We're not supposed to bring in our own soap, so why should we be able to bring in our own lotion? I don't see how it's much different than hospital-provided soap or the new antibacterial hand gels.

Our unit recently went to a hospital-provided lotion. We trialed a couple different ones and were supposed to evaluate them. I know I filled out the forms, and the lotion I preferred was actually what we ordered. :) Many of my coworkers are complaining because the lotion is "awful" and they want to use their own stuff. Usually it's people with sensitive skin who want to use Aveeno, or people who like Bath and Body Works stinky lotions - which we're not supposed to use anyways. Many of the people I've talked to who hate the hospital lotion admit they didn't bother filling out the evaluation forms when we were trialling the possible lotions.

Like another poster mentioned, many hand lotions have ingredients in them that break down latex gloves - and it's not always going to be as obvious as the word "petroleum" on the ingredient list. There are so many chemical names for things that are oil-based, so you really don't know for sure if your lotion is okay to use. Plus, some of the lotions that provide barriers (like those "water resistant" or "silicone glove" formulas) may prevent effective handwashing because might be trapping germs on your hands since they stay behind after you wash.

It's also an infection control issue with having food or drinks, even water bottles, anywhere near a patient care area. This doesn't mean that you have to be dehydrated. We're busy at work too, but there are a lot of ways to get a drink without taking a huge break all the time. I keep my water bottle in my locker, and every two hours or so I'll run to the locker room, use the bathroom, and drink a whole bottle of water. It only takes about five minutes.

Maybe I'm just being a goody-goody, but I just don't understand why rules about hospital-based hand lotion and having drinks in patient care areas are human-rights violations.

Specializes in ER (new), Respitory/Med Surg floor.
Don't laugh but I did work at a place that instructed nurses on what type of panties to wear. I actually sat in a staff meeting and was lectured on the proper type of undies. I thought I was being as approiate as the presenter when I asked: 1. How this improved patient care? 2. Was the panty police going to be assigned daily or was it an honor system? :saint:

I didn't have an inservice but was told the dress code in nursing school to not show off underwear/panties and definitely not black thongs with white pants! AH!!! Meaning they had to specifically state that! But then someone must have done it!

Don't laugh but I did work at a place that instructed nurses on what type of panties to wear. I actually sat in a staff meeting and was lectured on the proper type of undies. I thought I was being as approiate as the presenter when I asked: 1. How this improved patient care? 2. Was the panty police going to be assigned daily or was it an honor system? :saint:

Well, now I have heard it all.

Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

I guess if it "all comes down to infection control" they'll be wanting to tell us what kind of soap we shower with before coming to work, what kind of shampoo is compatible with the air we're breathing at work, and what kind of laundry detergent we can wash our socks in. How ridiculous are we going to allow it to become? At some point, we have to do a reality check and realize that no bacteria whatsoever is imcompatible with life. There are some things we must simply accept as fact; some bacteria would be included in that.

Think about it. If we washed our hands after every time we touched anything (pen, chart paper, computer keyboard, telephone, door knob, call light cancellation button, yada, yada, yada) we'd never get anything done. Somewhere, there must some minds that have some sense.

Specializes in NICU.
I guess if it "all comes down to infection control" they'll be wanting to tell us what kind of soap we shower with before coming to work, what kind of shampoo is compatible with the air we're breathing at work, and what kind of laundry detergent we can wash our socks in. How ridiculous are we going to allow it to become? At some point, we have to do a reality check and realize that no bacteria whatsoever is imcompatible with life. There are some things we must simply accept as fact; some bacteria would be included in that.

Think about it. If we washed our hands after every time we touched anything (pen, chart paper, computer keyboard, telephone, door knob, call light cancellation button, yada, yada, yada) we'd never get anything done. Somewhere, there must some minds that have some sense.

But your hands DO come into contact with patients - your hair and body and feet DON'T. That's why they can regulate what hand soap and lotion we use.

I think I am just very biased about this whole ID issue. I work in the NICU, and we DO wash our hands after touching just about everything - especially things like the phone or computer. We don't touch a baby unless we've just washed our hands. If you touch one baby's bedside chart, you must wash your hands before touching another baby's chart. Basically, we have to wash our hands whenever we are entering or leaving each baby's little bedside area, which is comparable to an adult patient's room. I once tried to count how many times I washed my hands in a 12-hour shift...and stopped when I hit 100.

Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

While I completely respect the need for handwashing, I think it's really impossible to comply as they might want you to do. For example, when you are working with a sick babe, how do you manage to wash your hands between the time when you open the isolette (when using one of the covered ones) and when you then care for the baby? Or if using one of the open ones, how do you manage to wash your hands between the time when you lower one of the sides and when you care for the baby?

You just cannot wash your hands after each and every time you touch anything. Otherwise that's all you'd be doing. Just using a towel from the dispenser to dry your hands (since the towels are not sterile) requires you wash before you touch anything else again.

Specializes in NICU.
While I completely respect the need for handwashing, I think it's really impossible to comply as they might want you to do. For example, when you are working with a sick babe, how do you manage to wash your hands between the time when you open the isolette (when using one of the covered ones) and when you then care for the baby? Or if using one of the open ones, how do you manage to wash your hands between the time when you lower one of the sides and when you care for the baby?

I said that we have to wash our hands between touching different babies' bedsides, not when we're within one baby's area. Of course you can touch the things in that baby's area and touch the baby as well. I mean that if I'm in the middle of caring for one baby, and another's alarm goes off, I have to wash my hands before even touching the other baby's monitor to silence the alarm, whether I'm going to be touching the actual baby or not. Or when we use the computers, phones, copy machines - those things aren't within a baby's bedside and are used by many people, so we do wash our hands after using something like that.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

We usually have eucerin in our unit, we don't use the fragrant ones because it isn't good for the little ones. We can also use Aveeno if you don't like Eucerin. We can also have drinks, but they have to be in a container with lids, not at the bedside. We can have them on the cart in the front of the room or on the counter of an unoccupied bedspace. The way our unit is set up, thankyou stupid person that designed it, our locker rooms are on another unit and our lunch room is down a corridor. So they finally allowed us to have lidded water bottles in the unit. Parents may also bring a lidded bottle for ice water.

I believe the MSDS requirement for lotion may be an OSHA issue. Our clinic recently underwent a consult with state OSH reps and they said that lotion that is available to all employees must have an MSDS form. They did say that if the employee has their own in thier desk or other personal area out of reach of any other employee then an MSDS is not required. That was just one of a long list of rediculous regulations...

I don't wash my hands very often- before you freak out- lol, let me tell you what I do.

I keep a bottle of alcohol hand gel with me at all times, and use it between each pt contact. I clean off the bottle several times a day using the gel. I also use alcohol wipes to clean my pens, etc. several times a day.

The alcohol gel works so well for me, that I don't need to use lotion at work anymore.

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