You know what I mean... you're just trying to hand them a Hydrocodone when you see three weeks of funk all over their nails, and you say a quick, silent prayer that you can make a clean hand-off... after all, who wears gloves to hand out pills??? Well, I do now with some of my "regulars" LOL! You know how it goes. You have that little pill cup in your hand, and you hold it out, they reach for it, and their fingers enclose the tips of your fingers as they retrieve the cup from your hand. And it's the sweaty, vomiting, snotting, filthy, blind diabetic who cried out to me "hold my hand!" as I stared at my ungloved paws.
And this morning, my back hurts because I was bent over my tub last night washing my hair. I couldn't get in the tub WITH my hair. This lady came in with her two kids, they're all badly infested with scabies for weeks, they already know so because a pharmacist told them so, and sure enough that pharmacist was right. So, I thought I'd kept a good distance. I even dodged the 6 year old as he changed chairs to sit RIGHT by my left thigh. But then, just as I was leaving the bedside, my assessment complete, the mom said "Oh, I just love your hair!" and even though I KNEW what was coming, I couldn't dodge it fast enough... she reached out and Touched My Hair with her Scabies Hands!! *shiver shiver heebeejeebee dance*
Why is it that the clean ones manage to keep their hands to themselves, but the dirtiest, smelliest ones are the ones who just have to touch you in some way?? Blecht.
Don't get me wrong, I realize it's a hazard where I work. We're the hospital where all the indigents go, and I wouldn't have that any other way. I love the traumas, I love the homeless drunks, I love our psych patients, I really do LOVE the population we serve. I just wish the dirty hands didn't make their way to my hair or arms quite so much :barf01:
LOL, I once had a patient who would want to hug me, ONLY after she played in her poop or rolled her poop into balls and hurled it across the room. Now I deal with poop everyday, but I would not want to touch myself, even if my hands were covered in my own poop.
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
We had a pt who liked to um pleasure himself and finish in his hands, pick his nose, blow his nose in his hands despite us giving him a kleenex. All the time. And he would reach out his hands to other people so they would hold his hand. He was very demented. My DON told me we were to hold his hands when he reached them out and we were not allowed to wear gloves. :no: I told her she was free to do whatever she wanted, but I'd only touch his hands with gloves on or not at all. :eek:
I never saw her holding his hands. Ew. :rolleyes:
When I was in nursing school, one instructor told us: "Never wear gloves when you're dealing with a colostomy bag. It'll make the patient feel uncomfortable that you don't want to touch their feces and their feelings will be hurt."
When I was in nursing school, one instructor told us: "Never wear gloves when you're dealing with a colostomy bag. It'll make the patient feel uncomfortable that you don't want to touch their feces and their feelings will be hurt."
OMG---no one in class took that advice.
Ummmm my feelings would not be hurt if you didn't want to touch my poop lol.
:lol2:
:no: I told her she was free to do whatever she wanted, but I'd only touch his hands with gloves on or not at all. 
:eek:
:rolleyes:
Isabelle49
849 Posts
Maybe they just crave the human touch! So sad.