Today, administrators launched a handwashing campaign, part of which includes having patient care staff wear giant buttons that say, "Ask me if I washed my hands!" Patients are encouraged to ask this of their nurse/CNA/etc. every time s/he walks into their room. Every time.
I find this incredibly insulting both to my intelligence and to my professional practice as an RN. I cannot imagine what patients must be thinking: does it imply that we don't know enough to wash our hands? What else do they need to be checking up on, if we can't be trusted to have washed our hands after patient contact?
I understand that the aim is to decrease the spread of microorganisms. We all learned that in Nursing Fundamentals. I've listened to all the inservices on handwashing, antimicrobial foam and gel, and standard precautions ad nauseum. But this is way over the top. I don't ask my mechanic if he remembered to put all the parts back in my car and I don't ask my accountant if she used a calculator to figure out my taxes. I don't think I should be asked over and over if I'm doing my job, either.
We've had a hard enough time trying to be recognized as professionals without this nonsense. If I wanted to wear giant silly buttons at work I'd be waiting tables at TGI Fridays.
I told one of the administrators I'd consider wearing one if all the docs had to wear them, too. It's been a long time since I've seen some of them lather up before performing a bare-handed dressing change.
:angryfire How demeaning and how stupid! I cannot believe they would do that to you guys. I've seen the signs hanging on the walls in the doctor's office that say something to the effect of "help us to remember to wash our hands..." but the button is outrageous. McDonalds workers aren't even subjected to the humiliation of wearing that button...and nothing against fast food workers, but even before I was in nursing school, I never thought twice about whether or not a nurse's hands were clean, but I did wonder about those food handlers sometimes.
I hope you stand up for your professionalism. You made a good point when you said that if you have to wear the button so should the doc. I'm so angry from reading this!
Agreed. Did I mention the admins handing out the buttons were accompanied by a person costumed as a 9-foot hand? The 'fingertips' were actually brushing the ceiling as he walked around the unit. Yep.
I would have been asking outloud "i wonder if that costume is knocking the dust off of the ceiling vents??"
(Still would have been fun to dress up as a 9 foot hand lol.)
Agreed. Did I mention the admins handing out the buttons were accompanied by a person costumed as a 9-foot hand? The 'fingertips' were actually brushing the ceiling as he walked around the unit. Yep.
OMG that is hilarious. Reminds me of the movie Office Space. How cheesy!
I wonder what schmuck they talked into dressing up like a big hand???
They probably thought it was cute.....You all should have got out a bunch of hand sanitizer and attacked the "big hand" :rotfl:
Probably some poor guy working for a temp agency. Years back, my son took a day stint at a grocery store dressed as Fred Flintstone for a promo. He had a blast with the kids following him around all day!
How demenaing. Did your administrators wump their heads or something. Obviously you learned how to wash your hands in nursing schools. This is stupid. Sounds like something my administration would do.
Today, administrators launched a handwashing campaign, part of which includes having patient care staff wear giant buttons that say, "Ask me if I washed my hands!" Patients are encouraged to ask this of their nurse/CNA/etc. every time s/he walks into their room. Every time.
I find this incredibly insulting both to my intelligence and to my professional practice as an RN. I cannot imagine what patients must be thinking: does it imply that we don't know enough to wash our hands? What else do they need to be checking up on, if we can't be trusted to have washed our hands after patient contact?
I understand that the aim is to decrease the spread of microorganisms. We all learned that in Nursing Fundamentals. I've listened to all the inservices on handwashing, antimicrobial foam and gel, and standard precautions ad nauseum. But this is way over the top. I don't ask my mechanic if he remembered to put all the parts back in my car and I don't ask my accountant if she used a calculator to figure out my taxes. I don't think I should be asked over and over if I'm doing my job, either.
We've had a hard enough time trying to be recognized as professionals without this nonsense. If I wanted to wear giant silly buttons at work I'd be waiting tables at TGI Fridays.
I told one of the administrators I'd consider wearing one if all the docs had to wear them, too. It's been a long time since I've seen some of them lather up before performing a bare-handed dressing change.
Considering that a friend of mine, who is not a nurse, was infected with MRSA infection, while in the hospital. I do not consider this button an insult. Neither the RNs, LPNs, residents or attending consistently washed their hands, prior to examining her, emptying her foley, etc, etc. I can understand why the administration is promoting this button, since the rate of hospital caused infections keeps rising, perhaps it would help to cut down the the rate of infection.
Agreed. Did I mention the admins handing out the buttons were accompanied by a person costumed as a 9-foot hand? The 'fingertips' were actually brushing the ceiling as he walked around the unit. Yep.
LOL! BTW, I don't think Jchao would approve of a 9-ft finger being within 18 inches of the ceiling!
That is so wrong. :chuckle (sorry I think it is funny too) Like somebody would really say:"No I did not wash them. Did you want me to wash them for you?" It is just stupid.
i would refuse to wear a button like this. i agree with others. it is demeaning. of course they would never consider subjecting doctors or residents to this. bet the brains that came up with this are not wearing these buttons. a giant hand?????? that's as bad as the two "clowns" (yep, folks dressed as clowns) that were running around a facility i worked at, i never did understand the purpose of that.
how about us asking the visitors who bring the 2-6 snotty nosed kids that run wildily up and down the hall pawing everything if they've washed their hands.
how about enforcing the visitation policy of 2 per patient and backing up the nurses on this one.
how about br facilities for visitors on each unit so that they are not using the patient's br, and including signs to remind them to wash their hands.
how about the sinks/brs being supplied with paper towels, soap, and tp so i'm not running high and low looking for these things every time i wash my hands.
how about sterile drsg trays (at my facility they do not have them), i've seen doctors and nurses using the "clean" gloves from the boxes to do wound packings (i will only use sterile ones).
i could go on and on on this one.
i wash my before and after each patient, each procedure, before and after gloving, etc, they are raw, i will not wash my hands for performance purposes.
Having to wear a button like that makes nurses appear incompetant, which is very insulting. If I had to wear it, I would wear it on my bum to show that the people behind this idea could kiss my ---.
I think the hand mascot is just more evidence that whoever thought of this campaign is an idiot. A 9 foot hand, lol! I wonder if you could have manipulated the costume so that a certain finger was extended.
Today, administrators launched a handwashing campaign, part of which includes having patient care staff wear giant buttons that say, "Ask me if I washed my hands!" Patients are encouraged to ask this of their nurse/CNA/etc. every time s/he walks into their room. Every time.
I find this incredibly insulting both to my intelligence and to my professional practice as an RN. I cannot imagine what patients must be thinking: does it imply that we don't know enough to wash our hands? What else do they need to be checking up on, if we can't be trusted to have washed our hands after patient contact?
I understand that the aim is to decrease the spread of microorganisms. We all learned that in Nursing Fundamentals. I've listened to all the inservices on handwashing, antimicrobial foam and gel, and standard precautions ad nauseum. But this is way over the top. I don't ask my mechanic if he remembered to put all the parts back in my car and I don't ask my accountant if she used a calculator to figure out my taxes. I don't think I should be asked over and over if I'm doing my job, either.
We've had a hard enough time trying to be recognized as professionals without this nonsense. If I wanted to wear giant silly buttons at work I'd be waiting tables at TGI Fridays.
I told one of the administrators I'd consider wearing one if all the docs had to wear them, too. It's been a long time since I've seen some of them lather up before performing a bare-handed dressing change.
Rediculous!
I've read numerous articles which state that doctors wash their hands far less frequently than nurses do. Here are some links so you can print them out and give them to your admin:
A study of the hand washing habits of staff in an Irish intensive care unit found that doctors washed their hands less than other health professionals and were the least responsive to a hygiene campaign aimed at tackling this problem.
Doctors cleansed their hands 57% of the times that they should have. They cleansed hands most often when a hand-rub solution was easily available. They did not wash hands as often when they had busy workloads with many patient interactions and when they performed activities with high risks for spreading infections. These activities required cleansing hands immediately before examining patients or between examining different body sites on the same patient. Medical students and internists (internal medicine doctors) washed hands most often, whereas anesthesiologists, critical care physicians, and surgeons washed hands least often. Doctors who valued hand hygiene and considered themselves role models washed hands often. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/318/7185/686
I really think these idiots that dream up these things have been cooped up in an office way too long! A few years back our hosital system came up with a campain to showcase how caring and compassionate our staff was and they made up a button for us to wear that said, "You deserve to be treated this way!" Needless to say this didn't last long either.
nicuRN2007
240 Posts
:angryfire How demeaning and how stupid! I cannot believe they would do that to you guys. I've seen the signs hanging on the walls in the doctor's office that say something to the effect of "help us to remember to wash our hands..." but the button is outrageous. McDonalds workers aren't even subjected to the humiliation of wearing that button...and nothing against fast food workers, but even before I was in nursing school, I never thought twice about whether or not a nurse's hands were clean, but I did wonder about those food handlers sometimes.
I hope you stand up for your professionalism. You made a good point when you said that if you have to wear the button so should the doc. I'm so angry from reading this!