Staff pretending to use empty hand sanitizer in MRSA room.

[FireStarterRN]

I had a MRSA patient, and really nice woman yesterday. The hand sanitizer was empty in her room, so as I headed over to the sink, she said "Oh yeah, it's empty, I know because I was using it myself". I was busy, so didn't immediately get around to call housekeeping to put a full one there. Next time I was in the room I did the same thing, and she reminded it me it was empty. She was a good natured woman of 60.

She informed me that she had observed more than one staff member pretend to sanitize their hands and not go to the sink to wash when the dispenser was empty, not realizing that the patient was on to them.

I found that pretty disconcerting. She was a MRSA patient!!!

[NicoleERRN, RN]

Besides PRETENDING to sanitize your hands in front of patients... how gross to not clean your hands for yourself???:confused: EWWWWWW!!!

i can't go in or leave a room without a scrub! Forget about looking "good" for patients i want MY hands clean for ME and others!!!

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

As a traveler, I might do inpt dialysis in several facilities in one day. I'm not an employee of the hospital, and may not have had any orientation to the facility. It might be nocs, and there may be no housekeeping on duty.

Also, when doing in-room bedside dialysis, the dialysis machine must be hooked up to the pt's sink, so there's no access to it to for anyone to wash their hands.

On top of that, I can't leave the pt while the tx is in progress.

So here is what I do for my own hand hygeine-

I bought several of these small, personal size hand sanitizers- they clip right on to your scrub top.

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I bring a big 40 oz refill size jug of hand sanitizer with me in my work bag.

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My pts often see me using my big alcohol bottle to refill my little one, and they ask me about it. I tell them "I go through four bottles of alcohol a day. But don't worry- four of the little ones, not four of the big ones."

:biere::cheers:

PS. I also bring Clorox wipes with me to clean the immediate area around the pt, and to clean my alcohol bottles. Before I leave each facility, I clean my shoes with the wipes, as well.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

if that's what it takes, i'm all for it.

it ticks me off when a hcw doesn't wash their hands.

i read somewhere, that approx 50% of nosocomial infections are spread through contaminated hands.

that's a huge burden to be passing onto a vulnerable, pt population.

whatever it takes...

leslie

I think proper staffing and reasonable work loads is what it will take.

Years ago, I read an article which said that nurses wash their hands much more often and more thoroughly than docs do.

[al7139, ASN, RN]

Hi,

I am a new nurse that works on a tele/med unit. We see all kinds of medical issues, including MRSA and C-Diff patients. What really irks me is seeing the MDs go into a room that has a pt on isolation precautions without gowning and gloving up. They are going to do a physical on an infected pt, yet they use their own stethoscope, don't cover their clothes, and don't sanitize or wash their hands before going on to the next pt. And we wonder why MRSA is such a problem in hospitals! We are an older hospital and don't have the largest or most convenient room set ups like some of the newer hospitals, but I always will make a point to gown and glove for an iso room, even if its to just give an oral med. We set the example for the patient ("Why is this MRSA such a big deal? The Dr. doesnt get all covered up when they see me?" or "What do you mean I cant' leave my room? So and so doesn't even wash their hands before leaving the room."), and if we don't take it seriously, the pt won't. Yes, it's an inconvenience to get into a gown and gloves to enter an iso room, but we are keeping ourselves and other pts safe when we do.

There has been alot of media coverage about hospital acquired infections lately. The MDs and other health care workers are being blamed for the rampant spread of this problem. I had a pt recently whose wife was at the bedside 24-7. Every other staff member who worked with them told me how much of a pain she was. I went into the room to introduce myself (I used the sanitizer outside of the room (which she saw)). All she wanted was for us to wash our hands in the sink before doing anything. To me thats not being difficult, but being safe. I don't think she was a pain at all, and she told me that I was the first person (including the docs) that didn't have an attitude about it. We rely too much on the sanitizers and not enough on taking the time to use proper handwashing techniques.

On another note why wouldn't you want to wash your hands in a hospital? I had another pt recently that had two daughters who were RN's. I had to rotate the IV one day while one of them was there. We got to talking, and she told me that many years ago, nurses did not use gloves when drawing blood or inserting IVs. She had just visited an old coworker who is dying as a result of that from an illness acquired from not using PPE. I am exposed to germs every day when I work. Think about all the pts you care for who could have something you don't know about.

Protect yourself first, and you will also protect your patients.

Amy

[fultzymom]

How nice! I hope that you brought it to someone's attention and let them know that the patient also knew! That is disguisting! I hate it when people here walk out of a patient's room without washing their hands! YUCK!!

[DianeM47]

I like the motion detector suggestion! And a big whooping alarm.....!! Not washing hands with a MRSA patient is criminal!

[TrudyRN]

:rotfl:

like from DM neuropathy, cervical radiculopathy, Raynaud's, etc.

[leslymill]

I think proper staffing and reasonable work loads is what it will take.

Years ago, I read an article which said that nurses wash their hands much more often and more thoroughly than docs do.[/quote

Yeah I read a research finding that said the very same thing, but also added some interesting findings.

CNAs, in general, washed their hands more than both nurses and doctors. They found this finding odd.

The ones with the least knowledge about known pathogens feared them the most and the ones with the most knowledge didn't.

[Sabby_NC]

Groan...

And we wonder why this happens!

Laziness springs to my mind, heck it is not beyond me to change a dispenser etc.. If I knew where they were kept I would change the steekin' thing myself...

Shame the pt was doing infection control eh?

[TrudyRN]

Something else - I try not to immediately conclude the worst about people. I like to keep an open mind and do some confirmation, some investigation before reaching a conclusion. I am repeatedly dismayed by people, including my fellow nurses, who always seem to immediately think the worst of others.

Remember: Things aren't always what they seem to be.

Laziness, cynicism, bitterness, jealousy, lack of information, fear - these are very often responsible for people reaching wrong conclusions.

[MQ Edna]

You know what scary... Where I work, hand sanitizer is like gold. We always run out and people get mad if you take "their" hand sanitizer. So... washing a hands is a must. But I bring my own... but I still prefer to wash my hands the old fashioned way.

[ShyGecko]

At our hospital, we are required to wash our hands with 4% CHG soap and water with an MRSA pt. Otherwise we are allowed to use hand sanitizer (enough to rub vigorously for 15 seconds and have your hands STILL wet), but they prefer we wash our hands, since all the pt floors have CHG soap in each of the rooms. I prefer to wash my hands anyway b/c I hate the overly fragranced hand sanitizer that we have in our hospital. It gives me a headache.