Nursing's "Dirty" Little Secret

I read with a great deal of amusement that Medicare is going to start refusing to pay for hospital acquired infections, which has sent shock waves through the medical community. as many as 10 to 25% (and some surveys say even more -- up to 40%) of everyone that enters a hospital will leave with an "Nosocomial" infection-- an infection they contracted in the hospital that they did not have before entering.

And it happens a lot. A LOT.

The reason I mention this at all is I got waylaid yesterday by that Performance Improvement guy. He seemed shocked that I was so "vociferous" about washing -my -damned -hands!

Well, frankly, I'm astonished that more people don't get sick, considering as little as most nurses wash their hands. Nurses know the Acronyms MRSA (Methcillin Resistant Staph Aureus), C-Diff (Clostridium Difficile), and VRE (Vancomycin Resistant E-coli) -- as well as that they were created by the overuse of antibiotics (MRSA and VRE in the hsopital setting, and C-Diff in Livestock.) Yet few realize (or WANT to realize) that every one of these organisms is vulnerable to two simple items readily available to every nurse every day:

Soap - and - Water.

I shower every night when I get home. I shower every morning before going to work. I wash my hands after any patient contact, before eating, and after the restroom. I've even been contaminated by MRSA before -- and got rid of the bug very simply.

Soap - and - Water.

I watched one nurse this afternoon wash her hands a total of three times the entire day. The sad part is, she was the only one I saw (besides myself) that washed her hands more than once the entire day! The main sink in the Nursing Station was DRY every time I came to wash my hands -- which means I was the only one using it all day.

So Medicare won't pay for hospital-acquired infections anymore?

Good for them. Maybe hospitals will finally get serious about employees washing their hands.

Eeeeewwwwwwwwww~

~~JD~~