Friday, June 26, 2015

WILTIMS #303: Now that's what I call soap!

Amusingly, the day after I whined about the basic nature of our hand washing instruction, we were taught how to scrub in for surgery. If you never thought someone could have an anxiety attack just practicing washing their hands, you'd be wrong.

TIL: The scrub procedure for our hospital:
  • Wash your hands normally (wet, lather, apply friction for a good 30 seconds, rinse, dry with paper towel)
  • Open your pre-soaped sponge and fingernail pick set
  • Wet your hands
  • Use the fingernail pick to clean under your fingernails
  • Discard fingernail pick and pick up the pre-soaped sponge
  • Quickly lather the soap and spread the suds from your hands to your elbows
  • Now return to the fingers and, using the bristled side of the sponge, scrub ten times on each of the four sides of each finger, thumb, palm, lower arm and the two inches above the elbow
    • Be sure to move distally to proximally from the fingers on both hands to the palms of both hands, etc
    • This must take at least three full minutes or you will be asked to do it again
  • Discard the sponge
  • Rinse each arm, one at a time, starting from the fingers to the elbow making sure to always have the angle of the arm such that water only drops in the direction from the hands to the elbows
  • Keep your arms in that same position and back into the OR, butt first, where a nurse will give you a sterile towel to dry first one hand and then the other, being sure to only use one side of the towel and not use the same area on that side
I never thought I'd need clarification on how to use a towel to dry my hands, but I actually needed it today. It's still seven months from when I start my surgery rotation, and there's no way I'm going to remember every part of this procedure. Thankfully surgical teams are known for their kindness and patience...

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