Do you have an inner police officer living in your brain? Does it wake up and tell you when you should wash your hands or wear gloves? Are you able to sanitize your hands immediately after shaking hands with somebody, or do you wait until you are out of site, for fear of appearing rude?
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I know we have numerous articles and threads on Infection Control and hand washing but it appears to me that the minority of healthcare workers actually are not washing their hands as often as they should.
A sad fact is although we maybe washing our hands, there are other people out there who do not wash their hands.
Now in my mind's eye, I can see you all gasp and feel indignant at my written words but stop for a minute and consider this statement; Do you always and I mean always sanitize or wash your hands after every interaction with the patient, after leaving their room, after touching door handles, after shaking hands with relatives?
I have this inner Police Woman (PW) living in my brain, she reminds me of the main character in the book 'The Host' who has an alien living in her body taking over her brain, my inner Police Woman wakes up when I go to violate the hand washing policy and says to me 'GO wash your hands' or even "Put on your Gloves'
My Inner PW will also be actively awake when using public bathroom facilities and I go to leave!
The shouting in my head often causes me to stop in my tracks, to consider my options.
PW will say to me "Did the last person who touched the bathroom door actually wash their hands?" Or did they just shake and walk?"
Visions of nastiness come to my mind with these words filling me with horror! So I either sanitize my hands after leaving the bathroom or I will open the door with the paper towel I have just dried my hands with.
Now I know you are thinking to yourself this Gal is crazy, she is OCD but I can assure you I am not! I am just becoming more acutely aware that I do not want transfer from other people's poor hygiene.
In my new role I have become increasingly aware of how we are often oblivious to when we should cleanse our hands, now don't get me wrong we are washing our hands but we are not washing them as often as we should, or more importantly when we should.
Just stand and watch people in your working environment for 5 minutes, contemplate what they are doing and consider if they should or should not sanitize their hands before or after the task they are performing? Watch them touch their hair, their face, their mouth then they shake somebodies hand, touch the door, touch the pen, lean on the door and retouch their face.
Now imagine that the relative whose hand you just shook, has just been to the bathroom, not washed his hands and opened the bathroom door where only 7 out of the previous 10 people who used the bathroom actually washed their hands. It is starting to sound like a horror story, isn't it? Then because we don't want to appear rude to the visitor we don't rush to wash or sanitize our hands immediately as you fear you will offend them, so you stand and talk with the visitor and then touch your face unconsciously. After leaving the room you then sanitize your hands because this is an acceptable time to wash, visitors and patients expect it.
I guarantee if you stand and watch others you will quickly see how we contaminate each other, our environment and our patients. I also guarantee you will see lots of good hand hygiene practice but you will also see the errors we all make. It will only take 5 mins of your time, and you will learn more by watching than reading this silly article!
