At most hospitals these days, they seem to have an alcohol hand sanitizer (or as my daughter calls it, Hanitizer) dispensor outside the rooms. When you enter or leave the room, you're expect to give your hands a squirt of sanitizer.
Obviously, I want my hands to be sanitized, both before and after seeing the patient. But at the same time, why do these dispensors dispense so much alcohol?
I guess I have small hands, which means that the dispensor fills my entire palm with liquid that I then have to spend the next several minutes rubbing into my hands to dry off. Usually at the point someone in the room wants to shake hands with me, I have to apologize for my hands being wet (and cold, usually).
Lately, I've taken to just putting my hand under the dispensor and yanking it out before I can get the entire dose of alcohol. It's still a huge amount.
On bad days I just put my mouth under it and drink. Saves going to the bar between patients.
ReplyDelete+1 for alcohol conservation, Grump.
ReplyDeleteFunny :P Sound infuriating, but to be honest that's still way better than not having it, which is the case in most public hospital here in SA. We mostly have to make do with water and soap or sometimes an alcoholic hand spray - which seldom lasts since our patients tend to steal it.
ReplyDeleteP.S: I linked to your blog about your book a few times recently when I wrote about books and stuff. I may not be able to purchase it anytime soon, but I still thought it was worth sharing :)
too bad our hospital uses the foaming kind. try to drink that and you're going to get tested for rabies.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I have the opposite issue. Must be my giant man hands.
ReplyDeleteWas visiting my grandmother in CCU last week (she's okay now) and was amazed by how much alcohol is in that little dispenser and how much it smells! I kept thinking that everyone had a flask in their pocket until I used it myself.
ReplyDeleteGrumpy: My patients never think of that... instead they drink a bottle of our mouthwash, which unfortunately contains mostly sorbitol.
ReplyDeletebarefootmeds: Thanks! :)
OMDG: Actually, when I complained about it at work recently, a nurse said, "You must have small hands like me!" And thereafter commenced like twenty minutes of everyone comparing hand size.
Funny thing you mention this: I've recently moved from an hospital to another and, while my previous hospital had this green sanitizer solution, the one I'm currently at has a blue solution which, as I've found out today the hard way, it gets your labcoat and clothes dirty...
ReplyDeleteSo if you jerk you hand back does the rest of the sanitizer goes where? On the floor?
ReplyDeleteand the funniest part is the studies that show alcohol isn't the great be all and end all
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5116a1.htm
ME: There's a little platform that juts out under where the alcohol squirts, which I suppose is there to catch leaking alcohol, so excess alcohol is caught there.
ReplyDelete