"Ask me if my hands are clean"

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Worked last Thursday and what do I walk into? Hundreds (no joke) of yellow stickers with a big smiley face saying "ask me if my hands are clean".

Am I five years old? Do I need to be reminded? I use alcohol in between pts and wash my hands when I arrive on the floor, before I leave the floor, before and after the br and before and after eating. Also wash after taking care of a pt with c diff or MRSA.

It looks tacky. So I went around and ripped them off walls and computers. I'm curious to see if they'll reappear. My coworkers won't tell, they hate the things too but they don't want to be held responsible if found out.

So, for now, we are sticker free! But the next step will probably be a button we wear that says "ask me if my hands are clean".

(Ducking after I say this) We need this where I work. Maybe not the stickers and posters, but something. I'm forever watching CNAs and a few other nurses come out of the rooms after doing care and nada. Just pulling of the gloves and putting on new ones. 12 or so yrs ago when I started it was a battle to get them to use gloves. Times have changed.

I think for the most part we are all offended because we know we wash our hands and can't imagine someone not washing their hands, but it happens.

I'd love to see a sticker "Ask me if we have enough staff? Ask me if you will get your meds tonite on time? Ask me if we will have your meds or treatment supplies? Ask me if we are having turkey again? Or "Don't ask me what that smell is!"

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med-surg,sa,breast & cervical ca.
This is so ridiculous. See I am a rear end, hence I have had 6 jobs in the past 10 years but I swear I would have stickers made up and placed in administration saying, "Ask me if I have defrauded medicare today".

Lolol! :rotfl:Yea, I could definately apply that one all over at my place of work on a daily basis-Ha!

~MsP

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Plastic Surgery, ER.

We have buttons at my hospital that say "Ask me if I washed my hands!"

I understand the rationale behind it, but geez, it's still tacky!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We dont have stickers in our floor but we do have intermittent handwashing supervision in the floor.The person comes arround and ask you your name,i dont know what they write down in their paper.Well,it doesnt bother me so long as i know i am doing the right thing and praticing safely.Azor

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in floor to ICU.
Medicare will stop reimbursing hospitals within the next few years for certain hospital acquired infections.

I was briefed on this subject by someone in our Education Dept. I am holding my breath as to the trickle down effect it will have on floor nursing.

Dating myself here but I recall in elementary school being taught dental health. They gave us some sort of tablets to chew. It hi lighted the crud on your teeth that was leftover from hasty brushing. Don't they have something that makes bacteria glow under black lights? I foresee it now, we will wash with Glow Soap and the patients will come to the hospitals armed with their own personal black lights.... :idea:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg/Peds/O.R./Legal/cardiology.

For admin. buttons: "Ask me why your nurse doesn't have time..."

Up Vote Up Vote ×
For admin. buttons: "Ask me why your nurse doesn't have time..."

There ya go.

:yeahthat:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

YEAH. Every single door of our ED has a sign plastered to it.

It's a picture of green hands, with the words, "Code Green" written across the top. This all on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper, laminated. It's to remind staff to wash their hands with the green alcohol hand wash before entering and upon leaving pt rooms.

JCAHO was delighted at the idea, tres impressed. And in addition to the signs, we as co-workers are supposed to remind each other by saying "CODE GREEN!" to each other when someone doesn't squirt themselves with the alcohol stuff either on their way in or out of a pt room. Key words: "Supposed To." I don't have time to be on handwash patrol, and given the fact that my hands feel like they're about to fall off ALREADY due to alcohol handwash + cold weather, I've been using soap and water (my preferred cleansing method) more lately.

Obnoxious and childish as they both may be, I think I'd rather have the Code Green signs than a bunch of "Ask me if my hands are clean" signs... LOL.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neuro, Critical Care.

we have signs-they say: it is ok to ask your healthcare professional if they have washed their hands..

then there is this little blurb about handwashing. not as bad as stickers but the whole customer service aspect of healthcare is getting on my nerves. When we occasionally d/c pts from the ICU we are now required to do f/u customer satisfaction calls...two RNs on our floor do it...irritating.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.
we have signs-they say: it is ok to ask your healthcare professional if they have washed their hands..

Now see, that wouldn't bother me. I'm not quite awake enough yet to pinpoint the difference, but the stickers/buttons irk me in a way that this does not.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC/SNF, Psychiatric, Pharmaceutical.
we have signs-they say: it is ok to ask your healthcare professional if they have washed their hands..

then there is this little blurb about handwashing. not as bad as stickers but the whole customer service aspect of healthcare is getting on my nerves. When we occasionally d/c pts from the ICU we are now required to do f/u customer satisfaction calls...two RNs on our floor do it...irritating.

Hmm... I worked at an adolescent psych facility some months ago, and when we DC'd patients, we were supposed to make sure they filled out their "customer satisfaction survey", even if they were simply being transferred from residential care to the acute psych hospital on the same grounds. How satisfied are you supposed to be with a place in which you were involuntarily confined and placed in holds?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Hmm... I worked at an adolescent psych facility some months ago, and when we DC'd patients, we were supposed to make sure they filled out their "customer satisfaction survey", even if they were simply being transferred from residential care to the acute psych hospital on the same grounds. How satisfied are you supposed to be with a place in which you were involuntarily confined and placed in holds?

Maybe corrections nurses will soon be asking their "clients" to fill out similar a survey when the are paroled or their senteces are completed.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment