Saturday, March 14, 2009

Hand Hygiene and the People Who Refuse to Practice It


I was one of those weird kids who actually liked to bathe and was almost obsessed with washing my hands before eating or after using the bathroom. Because I think I’m perfect (kidding!), I just assumed that everyone else follows the same standard of hygiene that I do. However, the more time I spend in the ER observing people, the more I realize that a vast majority of people are either completely ignorant or completely filthy. I helped plenty of people to the washroom and they hand to be reminded to wash their hands after they had a (probable) C. diff filled BM. And then there were those charming folk that just flat out refused. The same people got highly offended when I refused to touch them without a pair of gloves on. I even tried the whole health teaching approach with a woman my age – she looked at me like I was telling her that I would be using leeches to treat her. When she was done staring at me with her mouth agape, she retorted by saying, “well I didn’t get any pee on my hand so what’s the point of washing and ruining my manicure?” Hearing that made me die a little on the inside. Yet another patient had to be told that if he didn’t wash his hands after wiping himself, he would literally be eating his own shit at dinner time. I shouldn’t be having to have that talk with a 40 something year old self professed business man. With hand hygiene eschewing patients running around the hospital, it’s no wonder that hospitals are such dirty places!

4 comments:

Marz's Bar said...

its not only hospitals. Everyone is filthy everywhere. Its the most disgusting thing when you're at any public place and you see some schmuck in the washroom not washing their hands. I just dont understand why people wont do it, its so disgusting and its COMMON SENSE!

Anonymous said...

Not just the public bahtroom where you see people not washing their hands, but even at my place of work and then to have to associate with them afterwards. Yuk!

Just a little snarky said...

I've been reading about 25 different medical blogs for 7+ months, and never once, after writing about all these stories about crazy patients, have medical personnel wondered where all these somewhat high-functioning mentally ill people are coming from. Doesn't anyone ever wonder?

Jason said...

Really effective info, lots of thanks for the article.
juegos de colorear gratis | Juegos De Dinosaurios de palea | Juegos De Cosina