Are Alcohol Rubs done any more? Are they considered safe?

[visionary123]

I noticed a nursing school that used within the description for their LPN program that nurses would be trained in doing "alcohol rubs" (along with vital signs, feeding patients, taking vital signs and so on). I thought I heard somewhere that alcohol rubs are not typically done any more, and that if you do one on someone with a fever, they can have a seizure. For example, if you look at the following site, it even states that an alcohol rub on a child can cause alcohol poisoning. (http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-true-that-rubbing-alcohol-helps-bring-down-a-childs-fe_10310184.bc)

What do you all think? Do you still see alcohol rubs being done? I am a new nurse - just trying to learn - not judge :). Thank you!

[MunoRN, RN]

It's what is usually referred to as a "folk treatment." Not all folk treatments are bad, some have made their way into modern medicine. Applying rubbing alcohol however pretty well characterizes what can be bad about folk treatments; it doesn't achieve it's goal all that well (applying damp cloth works just as well), but it can cause significant harm including coma and death (applying rubbing alcohol over large portions of the body make it impossible to avoid the fumes, and it's absorbed transdermally).

[visionary123]

That's what I was thinking, MunoRN. That is why I was surprised to see it on a nursing school's website as something they teach...

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Not much for evidence-based practice, are they?

NO, what MunoRN said. It's dangerous. If we want to lower someone's temp, we can sponge w/ cool water and let it evaporate, we can give Tylenol, we can give them ice packs, turn down the room temp, heck we (well, the MD) can insert a cooling line and we can hook them up to an Alsius if the situation is extreme....

But we never, ever bathe them in rubbing alcohol.