Dry, Cracked Hands

[jackieh1791]

Can everyone please tell me what they use for dry, cracked hands. All that washing and sanitizer is brutal. Preferably all natural products.

[klone, MSN, RN]

If you wash good, a sanitizer should not be necessary...it is not the procedure at our hospital.

I very, very rarely use sanitizer...I either wash my hands or use gloves.

And what do you do after you remove your gloves? You're supposed to clean your hands every time you remove your gloves, even if you didn't get "dirty."

What about when you pop into a patient's room really quick, and then leave the room? Do you wash your hands EVERY TIME? What about after you put away a lunch tray?

There are lots of scenarios in which hand sanitizer is appropriate. I believe research has shown that all staff has CLEANER hands if hand sanitizer is available throughout the hospital.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Ask about getting hand sanitizers that are more gentle to the hands. We have bottles of hand sanitizer at each and every patient door. Ours has a moisturizer in it that seems not to bother most people's hands, even those with skin problems. Also, you might want to see your doctor about getting a really good cream/balm for your problem hands. My husband's PCP actually developed a line of products that are all natural and great for people with eczema and psoriasis that really work! Sometimes, you need extra help that regular OTC products just can't help.

I wish you the best.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

does your employer give you a hard time about this? i would love to use my own soap but we are only allowed to use hospital supplied soaps and lotions while working.

what they don't know won't hurt you. i haven't gone so far as to bring my own soap, but i do keep a tube of the body shops's hemp hand cream in my pocket.

[RNforLongTime]

I use Curel Original Formula. Keep a bottle at the nurses station at all times, love it! No infection control nurse so no need to worry.

. My hands are horrible! Especially my cuticles around both thumbs! I wonder if it's the soap at the hospital where I work because I did NOT have this problem at my former job.

[Kitty Hawk, ADN, RN]

I've tried a bunch and the best I've tried is Royale Bee Healing Hand Cream. It has shea butter, beeswax and sesame oil as the primary ingredients. There's also cotton seed oil, mango seed butter and sunflower seed oil.

My hands look as good as they did when I had a desk job. And they were starting to look bad before I found this stuff.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

And what do you do after you remove your gloves? You're supposed to clean your hands every time you remove your gloves, even if you didn't get "dirty."

What about when you pop into a patient's room really quick, and then leave the room? Do you wash your hands EVERY TIME? What about after you put away a lunch tray?

There are lots of scenarios in which hand sanitizer is appropriate. I believe research has shown that all staff has CLEANER hands if hand sanitizer is available throughout the hospital.

I work with infants, so there are no lunch trays or popping into a patient's room.

I wash my hands upon entering a room and our NICU protocol is that I cannot touch an infant without using gloves, even for feedings, barring a bona fide emergency....and that is when I use hand sanitizer. I also use hand sanitizer when I leave the restroom, even though I wash my hands, obviously, when I leave....just seems cleaner.

I wash my hands, don my gloves, assess my infant, change the diaper, remove gloves, wash my hands again, don new gloves, and then start the feeding, remove gloves...wash my hands again before I go onto the next infant.