Help with hand hygiene

The school I work at is a beautiful brand new school. Luckily, everything is automatic from the toilet flushing to the sinks and paper towel dispensers. In efforts to help prevent the flu and other viruses the PTO just purchased water bottles for every student (which has its + and - ) and put Purell hand sanitizers up around the building. I know that last year most teachers kept small bottles in their room while others were worried about similar happenings, and out of 1300+ students we only had one kid get the sanitizer in their mouth by accident. She rinsed her mouth, and besides the bad taste was just fine.

So we have yet to see if these measures help or not. I'll let you know.

Anybody using Purell, or similar? It is available in each of the classrooms -we have the same style faucets
Any evidence that shows this to be an effective practice? in addition to regular handwashing - even abbreviated handwashing it is effective. Should not replace handwashing
Any problems with this practice? no. but kids need to realize that it doesn't totally replace handwashing
The school nurse is concerned that the kids- high school kids- will lick their hands with alcohol on them. 1-Is this is as silly as I think it is? 2-So what if they do? This comes up from time to time. Yes, the alcohol is hand sanitized is ETOH. you would get the same results from rudding vodka on your hands -but i have rarely seen it as a problem in a school setting. The taste is so foul that anyone daring to try it barely gets a lick in. On the other hand, it's a big problem in detox centers where their residents will suffer through anything for a buzz. One little lick of hands will not a buzz make. If they are put somewhenre that they can be somewhat monitored then there should be no issue
Any other thoughts on this issue?

We actually has an incident 2 years ago when a K+ student drank some instant sanitizer-fortunately it was only a small amount. After checking with Poison Control (and notifying parents), we just monitored the student all morning. I agree with the previous post-it should be someplace that it can be monitored. The problem that may arise is with students who have their own little bottles of sanitizer in their backpacks/lunchboxes. With H1N1, good luck to any district that tries to tell parents that they cannot send their children to school with their own sanitizer.

We have automatic faucets in out bathrooms. Not sure what to say about your high school, you'll never convince them to re-do the bathrooms. As far as hand sanitizer, it was considered putting them in the hall. I wasn't so much concerned about the kids (high school age) ingesting it as I was them flinging it at each other, getting it in each others eyes and slopping up the floor and making it slippery. Our teachers keep it in the room. We also allow the kids to carry their own small bottles from home.

In my school, each teacher has the students bring a large bottle of hand sanitizer at the beginning of the year. I noticed the teachers standing outside the bathroom at bathroom break holding a bottle of hand sanitizer and giving a squirt to each child as they came out of the bathroom. I like this idea because it assures that each child is using it.

On the lighter side of H1N1 precautions and hand sanitizer use, the five year old next door came over (in his pjs) to say goodnight tonight, to our dog and the cats and told us in thorough detail how to use sanitizer even when you aren't at school... He's in K4 because he just turned five at the end of summer. You mustn't lick your hands or fingers after squirting it out, you never ever let your baby brother suck your fingers after using it, you always use it after going potty and not before. If you help your three year old brother use it because your mom is busy, you don't get the bottle from the kitchen and have a sanitizer fight. We're also up-to-date now on who barfed today and who was put in time out.

Kathy
sharpeimom