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By
Diane Forrest, RN
The very first thing they teach you in nursing school is
how to wash your hands. You may be
thinking by the time you are in college you should have already learned
this. Well there is a certain technique
to washing your hands at the hospital.
They even have special sinks that you operate with your leg or
foot. Hand washing it the first line of
defense in preventing the spread of germs.
You have to turn on warm water, pump out the soap, vigorously rub your
hands together up to your arms for at least a minute, then rinse with your
hands pointed down so that the soapy water doesn’t run back up to your
arms. Then use a paper towel to dry, and
another towel to turn off the sink. You
wash when you enter a room, and before leaving the room.
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Scrub nurses have an even more complicated
technique. They must wash for 3 minutes,
from fingers to elbows, using a scrub brush.
Along with the brush there is a file to clean under the
fingernails. Gloves are applied
immediately after washing and drying, sometimes sterile gloves, sometimes just
"clean" gloves will do.
If you have been in a hospital lately you might see these
cans fastened to the wall outside patient's rooms. These cans contain a hand cleaning foam that
don't require water, and it dries on your hands. While some people may like this, I find that
it dries the skin. You want to make sure
your hands are lubricated with lotion because drying will cause cracks in the
skin and allow bacteria to move in.
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From the time a child is able to reach the sink, they
should be taught how to wash their hands. Of course they should be helped with
hand washing before they can do it on their own. Hands should be washed after using the
bathroom, before eating or preparing food, after playing and anytime during the
day when the hands come in contact with unclean items.
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This week is National Hand washing Awareness Week. Try to make a conscious effort to wash your
hands during the day, and if you aren’t able to wash your hands, keep them out
of your eyes and off of food before you are able to properly wash them, or
carry little bottles of hand sanitizer with you. And remember, one of the most important
measures for preventing the spread of germs is effective hand washing.
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