A few thoughts on “Infection Control”
Do you remember the days when someone who “decontaminated” their hands in disinfectant twenty times a day or more was considered to have the psychiatric condition of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?
Do you ever wonder what are the consequences of repeatedly removing your normal skin flaura? Does it perhaps predispose to colonisation by pathogens. Might it increase the risk of infection to your patients, and you?
What do you suppose, bacteriologically, goes on in the warm, moist, unventilated, anaerobic environment inside those rubber gloves on your hands?
What confidence can you have in an infection control nurse who can not answer these questions, and appears not to understand the difference between a commensal and a pathogen?
Just wondering.
Do you remember the days when someone who “decontaminated” their hands in disinfectant twenty times a day or more was considered to have the psychiatric condition of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?
ReplyDelete- Yes, what became of that I wonder?
Do you ever wonder what are the consequences of repeatedly removing your normal skin flaura? Does it perhaps predispose to colonisation by pathogens. Might it increase the risk of infection to your patients, and you?
- Don't know about colonisation but I end up with damn sore hands.
What do you suppose, bacteriologically, goes on in the warm, moist, unventilated, anaerobic environment inside those rubber gloves on your hands?
- I hate to think.
What confidence can you have in an infection control nurse who can not answer these questions, and appears not to understand the difference between a commensal and a pathogen?
- Surely s/he knew the difference.......? That's basic.
"What confidence can you have in an infection control nurse who can not answer these questions" - surely what really matters is whether or not hospital acquired infections are going up or down?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to say that rates ARE falling in the NHS - in my opinion infection control nurses (who have replaced midwives as a figure of hate in the minds of some) can take some credit for this trend?
the a&e charge nurse
I can remember the bad old days when you didn't wear and change gloves between every patient. You wore them only when you obviously should - for dressing wounds and cleaning body waste, etc. You automatically washed hands (with soap and water) when you knew they were contaminated and hadn't worn gloves. You could 'feel' that they needed washing - with soap and water!
ReplyDeleteWearing gloves for every intervention has made us lazy, as we presume our hands are still clean. We have gotten out of the habit of cleaning same with humble soap and water when, and only when the need arises, as we can no longer 'feel' when they are contaminated.
We touch surfaces with our contaminated gloves as we can't 'feel' the contamination - whereas in the bad old days - we would have walked straight to the sink and washed our hands.
That's my considered opinion - for what it is worth!
Anna :o]
Anna,
ReplyDeleteI go further back than that. During my training it was accepted that if you required gloves to clean faeces etc. you would never make a nurse. Gloves were only for sterile procedures.
A&E Charge Nurse,
I agree (although nothing replaces midwives as a figure of hate) but why is there so much petty mindedness.
It is well documented that doctors are the worst offenders and the least likely to comply with handwashing procedures and trying to tell a consultant on his ward round that he has not cleaned his hands between patients leads to abuse and requires a very strong person to stand up to them, which unfortunately most nurses aren't.
For an infection control nurse to not know the difference between a commensal and a pathogen is frankly appalling, if true.