[humanser] Question about cane sanitation for hospital use
Annely Rose
annely53r at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 17 18:23:27 UTC 2015
Hi,
I'm following this thread and it is very thought provoking. I am recalling that when my late husband was in the hospital with a staff infection in his nasal passages, as they called it, all of us had to wear protective gear, but the nurse brought in the medication cart and I'm not aware that anyone wiped it down afterward. also, there was furniture in the room and other equipment. I carried my cane in and no one said anything. Even a doctor came in and didn't have a gown on or any facial mask. go figure. Maybe this hospital wasn't as strict or should I say they were careless. And where did my husband get this infection? He was home with us 2 days before and a day in ICU before they diagnosed it and none of the family came down with it. The ICU staff didn't wear anything protective. Makes you wonder. And if you get sick, they say that there are staff germs everywhere, even on our skin. Our canes go everywhere with us and who knows what the
tips come in contact with on a daily basis. I try to wipe mine clean, but many times forget. When I fold it up, I never put it in my purse and try not to touch it either on my skin or on my clothes. And, of course, I never put it on a table anywhere. If I set it on a chair in a restaurant, I'll leave the tip hanging over the edge.
Annely
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 8/17/15, Michael Abell via humanser <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
Subject: Re: [humanser] Question about cane sanitation for hospital use
To: "'Human Services Division Mailing List'" <humanser at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "Michael Abell" <bigdog4744 at gmail.com>
Date: Monday, August 17, 2015, 12:18 PM
Hello,
These are all fantastic and thought
provoking answers! I am taken by
the new
frontiers that we are blazing through.
I have special canes for occasions. What
about a cane that would be
used for just
such purposes. You could remove any porous material
(grips,
tips . and elastic) even going to a
solid cane. This would make it easy to
sanitize and you could limit its use for these
purposes.
J D brings up very salient
points about instruments and devices. I
would ask the hospital staff what they do with
their devices. I am also
waiting to hear
what our dear friend Dr. Chapel has to say on this
subject!
Mary?
Regards,
Michael "Big Dog" Abell
Helping individuals to find
their eyes in the dark.
(480) 369-0805
-----Original Message-----
From: humanser [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Ginny Duff
via humanser
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 9:06 AM
To: humanser at nfbnet.org
Cc: Ginny Duff
Subject: Re:
[humanser] Question about cane sanitation for hospital
use
I work in a hospital
although being in psychiatry, I rarely have to worry
about this issue. I agree that the
cane is essential. Its one thing to
leave it outside the room when you are just
visiting but it would be a
completely
different matter if you were working there.
I'd be just as concerned
about the tip and the handle. If you touch
something with your gloves then you have
transferred anything contaminated
to the
handle and then once you take the gloves off your hands are
in direct
contact with the
handle. Of course when you fold the cane up you
then
touch the whole thing.
You could contact the head of
infection control and let them mull that over.
What to do
with the cane would be analogous to what staff do with a
walker
or medical equipment that is taken
out of the room later. They must wipe
that equipment down with something that would
work on your cane. Alcohol
swabs are a
bit too small.
Ginny
Dr. V. Duff
Clinical Director,
West End ACT Team,
St. Joseph's Heatlh
Centre , Toronto
Staff Psychiatrist, Complex
Mental Illness, CAMH Lecturer, University of
Toronto
Tel: 416.530.6000, ext 3101
FAX: 416.530.6363
Sent from my iPad
> On Aug 17, 2015, at 11:43
AM, JD Townsend via humanser
<humanser at nfbnet.org>
wrote:
>
>
> Hello Kaiti & All:
>
> Interesting
question. I do work in a hospital and precautions are
> always an issue.
>
> My questions are:
> Do
other staff wear street shoes or cover them with booties?
> Do other staff wear full body coverings or
are pants exposed?
>
> Alcohol wipes are always present in
hospitals. A clean wipe of my
> white
cane would provide much better protection than the exposure
to
> my shoes or pants and much better
protection than nursing clipboards or
exposed hair.
>
> According to my best knowledge, your white
cane is considered a
> prosthesis, like
a prostetic leg and as such there ought be no problem
> if it is kept as clean as one of those
devices.
>
> If shoe
booties are called for, just use one for your cane tip.
>
> I would be more
concerned about your music insterments - players and
> the like, and your cell 'phone.
>
>
> JD Townsend LCSW
>
Helping the light dependent to see.
>
Daytona Beach, Earth, Sol System
>
>
>
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