Thoughtless Practitioners

I want to tell you something that disgusts me.  I am sick and tired of health care practitioners wearing gloves to protect themselves without any thought to their patient’s safety.  You know how we use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and to open a door when in a restroom in order to keep pathogens off our hands?  Well, why can’t doctors, nurses, and the like also use a paper towel in order to protect their gloves from the pathogens and biofilm lurking on objects when they move lights, open drawers, and the like when they are with patients? For at least twenty-five years, I have wondered this.  They do not even bat an eye touching things and then placing that gloved hand in some orifice of their patient only to touch the light or move something else and then put their glove back in that orifice.  One infectious disease specialist touched the light and then even put his finger in the center of the staph infection on my arm and then he touched the light again.  If you are thinking their average disinfectants are capable of killing biofilm, you’re wrong.  Biofilm can be defeated, but the average practitioner and custodial staff do not even know about it.

It’s time they protected their patients!

Vent over.