I wash my hands so much that I should own stock in Softsoap and Purell, LOL! My family, especially my Dad, thinks I'm a total germophobe. He tells me that I'm "Howard Hughes JR." all the time and he swears up and down that I'm doing nothing but killing my immune system. I know there have been studies done in the recent past about constant handwashing and creating superbugs, but I'm still washing my hands! Oh, and the automatic sensors on the sinks are a good idea provided they actually work. It grosses me out when I go to places like Wal-Mart and see LOTS of people leaving the restroom (even small kids) without washing. But I really can't blame them. IF the sink works the water flow is more of a light sprinkle, the water stays cold throughout the washing, and the sink is so shallow that I almost always end up touching the bottom or sides of it and have to re-wash! Very annoying!

cdnurse says ...

I believe that hand washing is not taught in nursing school any longer. I am amazed at how many times I have seen nurses and nursing students leave tghe bathroom without washing hands. If they do that, i  know they are not washing hands between patients. 

In my nursing school, hand washing is stressed repeatedly.  In our clinical rotation if we are caught not washing our hands both before patient care and after on 2 separate occassions, we recieve no credit for the course and fail!!  So yes, it is still taught in nursing school :)

I wash my hands constantly. I am definetly a germaphobic. I wipe my unit each time I am a work and more on the phones and computers. I alcohol wipe each time I change a piggyback, before bolus is given. One of my pet pees, when a cleaning lady in changing my patients garbage when he is eating.

Noscomial infection is to be taken seriously. There are a few hospitals here in Illinois that have security cameras, making sure that you do wash your hands frequently. Frictions is the key word when washing your hands.

I wash my hands soo much, that they were starting to look bad.  So I use a hand moisturizer every few times I was my hands to keep them moist.  because if you don't do this your hands will age about 10 years in 2 years and your skin will crack, and this will just be an entryway to more germs.

at my hospital they tell use to use the hand sanitizer (that is outside of each pt. room and inside the pt. room) i work in ICU. and they say that you do not have to wash you hands until they are 'visibly" soiled. but I wash them all the time and I use the hand sanitizer. and to be honest sometimes, i wash them and dry them and than use the sanitizer (now that is called "paraniod") with all of the Big Germs around I will soon be OCD about handwashing and will need therapy....lol lmao.

 at my hospital the ICU nurse do everything (no PCA's) and i change gloves several times when I am cleaning "poop",  I am a serial glove changer to.....lol

cdnurse says ...

I believe that hand washing is not taught in nursing school any longer. I am amazed at how many times I have seen nurses and nursing students leave tghe bathroom without washing hands. If they do that, i  know they are not washing hands between patients. 

I guess it depends on the school. I am currently in the actual PNE program at Oakland Community College in Michigan. Washing your hands properly before/after patient care or when perceived to be less then medically aeseptic is pounded in the heads of the students. Hence I now have to use lotion to keep my hands from cracking and when I dont use lotion I tend use alot more gloves.

I think truly its the mind set of the nurses. If nurses or student nurses are not thinking about routes of transmission they need to get back into the mind set of a true nurse or a student nurse in a good nursing school.

I myself have seen nurses not wash their hands properly after using the restroom. Sadly, enough a particular nurse had some fifteen years of experience or so they say. Either way I think people fall into a comfort zone. Where they go through the motions and forget the whole reason why we do what we do.

-Gerard

I know that nursing students are pushed in the beginning to wash, wash, wash but @ some point tey tend to let it go by the way side.  Too bad but handwashing could save alot of money in the long run with passing on germs to patients as well as your family members.

Nurses and hospital staff RAP about using Cal Stat and the importance of hand-washing. Check out this creative and hilarious video here on NursingLink.

when I enter the pts room, beteeen glove changes, when doing a procedure and before leaving the room, and also before I eat or drink anything.   I truly believe that nurses who have bad cuticles, they are probably good washers!    But then again, they could have exema.  Dear Lord, always wear gloves when transfusing blood.   I've seen the same nurse transfuse without gloves on, looking over at the pump <they used pumps for transfusing> and by george the pump had bloody fingerprints.  Holy bloody fingerprints Batman!  Normally I nonchalantly toss a pair of gloves to the person who might be there with me, but I got grumped at and dirty looks with that same person..........so now I let her smear blood it that's what she wants to do.  I also make a note of it and tell the charge nurse.    Looks freaking nasty and unprofessional.

I have washed and scrubbed my hands so much over the past 32 years that not only do I have dry hands, I have dry fingernails!  I do night shift monitoring for hand washing on our unit and I must say-our bunch is good.  I work OB and we come in contact with so many "things"  that sometimes you feel you not only need to wash your hands, but take a shower.  

Work doesn't scare me as bad as public restrooms, have you ever noticed how many women go to the bathroom and don't wash their hands before leaving, yuck.  I hate to even touch the doors with a paper towel.  I think all public restrooms should have doors that push open with out having to touch a handle or even automatic doors.

I do wash my hands after every patient care. I dont want to risk my patient's health, myself and my family, too especially.

Be scared of Nosocomial infection!

I work in NICU...We wash until our hands fall off and then we tell everybody else to.....I've been out of work

since January and still I go through soap like crazy....It's a nurse thing that doesn't hurt if it stops infections from spreading.

:)   ...........Victoria

Well,am an infection control nurse,we do random MRSA screening for nurses once in  3 months .and some times suprisingly,to rule out MRSA,we are very strict with hand washing that too with proper technic,and after undergoing a detailed researce ,we do understand the pressure and responsibities that we nurses have ,that is why we kept a hand sanatiser bottle at each patient bed side,and everyday we reinforce the nurses,docters ,housekeeping staff,and the personal care taker of the patient,in that way we are happy to say that we kept an check for the transmission of these deadlly bugs.