[nabs-l] Sanitizing canes for use in hospitals
Elizabeth Mohnke
lizmohnke at hotmail.com
Sun Aug 23 23:36:33 UTC 2015
Hello Kaiti,
Thank you for providing this explanation of how music therapy is beneficial
in the pre-op and post-op settings. I can definitely understand how music
therapy can be useful in the pre-op setting, but I fail to understand how it
is useful in the post-op setting. If most people are like me, any additional
noise while waking up from surgery would not be welcomed regardless of how
soothing it may be. If you are interested in working with people after
surgery, I would also encourage you to consider working in a rehabilitation
facility or in patients homes after they are released from the hospital as
this is where the real recovery from surgery generally takes place.
Here is a brief description of my experience in a hospital setting. In 2011
I was seriously injured in an accident, and I spent a week in a hospital out
of state before I was allowed to come back home. Since my accident, I have
had two different out-patient orthopedic surgeries performed in 2013 and
2014. The hospital where I live is a simple bus ride, and I do my best to
visit people I know when they are in the hospital. My most recent visit was
to visit someone who received an in- patient orthopedic surgery about three
months ago.
I also have experience visiting a cancer patient during various
hospitalizations between 2008 and 2013. During the summer of 2013, I would
visit this person every other day until the patient was transferred to a
hospital that was further away. The level of care this person received
ranged from a simple private room for neutropenic patients with stable
conditions to one of the highest levels of the intensive care unit at a
major notable university hospital.
While there was always some kind of protocol I had to follow when visiting
this individual, these protocols never included doing anything with my
cane. However, after reading your post, I can understand how washing or
sterilizing my cane would have been helpful for this situation, and I will
do my best to remember this when visiting hospital patients with compromised
immune systems in the future. Hopefully I have provided you with enough
information regarding my experience in a hospital setting without annoying
everyone else on the email list. Again, I would be more than happy to
explain my experience in more detail privately if you feel this would be
helpful for you as a music therapist interested in working in a hospital
setting.
Warm regards,
Elizabeth
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti Shelton
via nabs-l
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2015 2:23 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Sanitizing canes for use in hospitals
Elizabeth,
I'll put this on the list just so others might better understand the purpose
of working in the preop/postop setting as an MT and why the issue is
important there, however I may be contacting you off-list because until
recently I had very little experience in hospitals that I remembered. Most
of my personal experiences happened as a toddler and I only vaguely remember
my last eye surgery I had at age 4.
Music Therapy is growing within hospitals, and has especially been
recognized for its helpfulness in pediatric hospitals. In the preop setting
it can be used to help a child (or an adult if warranted) relax. A trained
music therapist knows how to use music to distract a patient from their pain
or decrease their anxiety. This can be done by having the patient listen to
soothing music with or without verbal instruction for relaxation, using the
music to change aspects of the physiology like to bring down a fast heart
rate/steady breathing, or to distract a child while nurses are starting an
IV or performing other tasks. In postop it can be used to address pain or
to help a patient remain calm if they tend to be anxious/upset. While I've
seen more literature on use in preop situations, I am interested in the
possibility of doing postop work, too.
On 8/15/15, Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hello Kaiti,
>
> Can you please explain how you see yourself working as a music
> therapist in the pre-op and post-op setting? As someone who has
> first-hand experience with the pre-op and post-op experience as it
> relates to having surgical procedures, I do not understand how a music
> therapist would work in this type of setting.
>
> However, working in the pre-op and post-op setting is completely
> different than working in any type of intensive care unit. The type of
> scrubs used for these two settings are different and are made out of
> different types of materials. If you are looking for something
> disposal to use for your cane, I would suggest contacting the national
> office to enquire about obtaining the long plastic bags they use when
> shipping canes. I believe something like this would work for your
> situation.
>
> I would be more than happy to share my specific experience being in a
> hospital as well as visiting people in the hospital off list as I do
> not believe it would be appropriate to share this information on the
> email list.
>
> I hope this leads you in the right direction in finding a solution to
> your specific situation.
>
> Warm regards,
> Elizabeth
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti
> Shelton via nabs-l
> Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2015 6:00 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Sanitizing canes for use in hospitals
>
> Hi all,
>
> I think that in certain situations you would put on booties with
> scrubs for full protection, but it is specific. I just feel like I
> need to be prepared for any situation in my career, especially if I
> work in preop and postop like I would like to do.
>
> Changing the cane tips would be to prevent tracking unwanted
> substances that might spill onto the floor to other places. E.G,
> blood, spilled meds, vomit or other liquids. It would be an extra
> step because the cane tip would be most likely to touch these things
> on the floor, I would think.
>
> The biggest challenge would be getting disposable things in mass
> quantities so I am prepared to have a stock of them. If I get them
> made with a cloth of some sort like scrubs it wouldn't be hard to ask
> someone who makes medical stuff to sew them propperly for cheap, but
> the disposable ones would be more of a challenge. I'd need something
> that's at least 56 inches long to go over my cane.
>
> On 8/13/15, Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Hello Kaiti,
>>
>> I have never thought of sanitizing my cane when visiting someone in
>> the hospital before. If you could find some kind of plastic tubing, I
>> think that would probably work. If I remember correctly, the scrubs I
>> have seen people throw away in ICU units are plastic like aprons that
>> tie in the back. So I think your plastic tubing should work just fine.
>>
>> However, I am a bit confused about changing out cane tips though. I
>> would consider this to be the same as changing one's shoes when
>> visiting different patients in different rooms. From what I can
>> recall, I have never seen this as any kind of protocol when working
>> with high risk patients before. If anything, I would think you would
>> want to sterilize the part of the cane that you touch rather than the
>> part that touches the floor as this would be the part of the cane
>> that would most likely come in contact with the patient.
>>
>> I have visited someone in ICU several times, and this was never
>> really an issue. However, I can also understand your concern. I would
>> think the Lysol wipes would be sufficient for most situations. For
>> the times when the Lysol wipes are not sufficient, some kind of
>> plastic tubing you can throw away when you are done visiting the
>> patient should work just
> fine.
>>
>> I hope this helps you with your situation.
>>
>> Warm regards,
>> Elizabeth
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti
>> Shelton via nabs-l
>> Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 10:35 PM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Sanitizing canes for use in hospitals
>>
>> Hi, Jamie,
>>
>> This was sort of what I was thinking about. It would definitely work
>> in most situations. The only tricky part will be figuring out
>> something for those very risky situations. I know some units have
>> scrubs that are washed, while ones on intensive care units are just
>> thrown away to minimize spread of germs in the wash rooms. I think
>> then getting some sort of plastic tubing might work, possibly?
>>
>> I do like the idea of keeping a few cane tips around, or possibly
>> getting scrub-like covers made for the tip. I haven't decided how
>> feasible it will be for me to switch tips if I need to do my job
>> quickly, but it's an option.
>> The other idea I have since come up with is to just keep multiple
>> canes around so I have one that stays home from the hospital or at
>> least away from any of the patients, one that I keep on-hand for
>> everyday cases and those with minimal protection required (like the
>> little sheet cover), and a third kept somewhere else that I would
>> just use for special cases with high risk of contamination and I
>> would clean thurroughly immediately after each use.
>>
>> I'm still looking for someone who has experience in this, but so far
>> no one seems to be or know of an authority on the issue. This has
>> given me ideas, though, and it probably won't be hard to have covers
>> made. If I have several of them ready to go, I can change them out
>> each
> day.
>>
>> On 8/13/15, Jamie Principato via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> One thing you could do is make a sanitary sheath for your cane out
>>> of the same material as the scrubs and head/shoe coverings you
>>> already use in sterile environments. It would be like a cloth tube
>>> that you slide your cane into tip first and tie off at the top of
>>> the handle with a
>> drawstring.
>>> You'll need to wash it and store it somewhere clean like you would
>>> your scrubs, but it would be more convenient than washing the entire
>>> cane by hand. You might also consider keeping a clean tip that you
>>> only ever use in sterile environments and swapping out tips before
>>> washing
>> your hands.
>>>
>>> -Jamie
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Aug 13, 2015, at 6:08 PM, Kaiti Shelton via nabs-l
>>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> I'm hoping to work in a hospital for my job, and recently was there
>>>> to visit an ill relative. It occured to me while I was putting on
>>>> gloves and a gown that in some situations I will need to clean my
>>>> cane as well. Music therapists do work in isolated areas on
>>>> occasion, and also may work in preop or postop. In this case, I
>>>> was visiting someone who had an infection that could be contageous.
>>>> The idea of washing my hands and scrubbing up, but not sanitizing
>>>> my cane, then washing up afterwards and touching the cane again
>>>> kind of grossed me out. Not only could it track in germs from the
>>>> outside to the sick person in the room, but it also could transfer
>>>> anything the person has back to me.
>>>>
>>>> I already do sanitize my cane because I work a lot with kids and/or
>>>> elderly people, but in this situation Lysol wipes won't always be
>>>> sufficient. Has anyone had experience with this? I'm just asking
>>>> around and will try the human services division as well. I've also
>>>> asked an Orientation and Mobility Speciailist if he's ever seen
>>>> this done.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Kaiti Shelton
>>>> University of Dayton-Music Therapy
>>>> President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present
>>>> Secretary, The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts
>>>> Division
>>>> 2015-2016
>>>>
>>>> "You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back!"
>>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Kaiti Shelton
>> University of Dayton-Music Therapy
>> President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present Secretary,
>> The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division
>> 2015-2016
>>
>> "You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back!"
>>
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>
>
> --
> Kaiti Shelton
> University of Dayton-Music Therapy
> President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present Secretary,
> The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division
> 2015-2016
>
> "You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back!"
>
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--
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton-Music Therapy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present Secretary, The
National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division 2015-2016
"You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back!"
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