Tuesday, January 29, 2008

the definition of insanity

this morning there were more graduate and post-graduate degrees gathered around a king arthur sized conference table to discuss the implications of MRSA. this is a highly contagious and transmittable illness with more consonants than a polish dictionary. for the super nerds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin-resistant_Staphylococcus_aureus will give you as much information as it takes to learn how to pronounce the bloody word.

our job, as supervisors/RN's/medical directors/OT's/respiratory therapists was to figure out a way to ensure that direct care staff were following our tediously scripted and re-scripted policies and procedures regarding handwashing and wearing PPE (personal protective "equipment", more commonly recognized as "gloves" and "gowns").

"well, over on our residential house we tend to have a lot of ringworm, lice, scabies, runny noses and leaky bottoms" (i talk to keep myself awake).

president of QI for the agency: "so when YOU wipe a resident's nose, you obviously go and wash your hands right away."

"uhm. well, how am i supposed to build up any immunity to bacteria if i do that?"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I shall never moan about my job again.

mansuetude said...

just reading this... i am going to wash. : )

Anonymous said...

MRSA is not about washing of hands.. thats like closing the gate after the horse has bolted.
MRSA is about a bug[staph aureus] that has developed a resistance to methicillin and the FACT is that the reason why... is because medics (over) prescribe antibiotics ad libitum .. And washing of hands etc will do nothing to 'eliminate' the problem..

Disa said...

tell that to the QI/handwashing nazi that gave me the hairy eyeball when i told her i don't wash my hands after nose blowing. or come to one of our meetings where we get to talk about this for OVER AN HOUR!