Oct 18, 2007
Blog Kindergarten: A Bossy Tutorial. Hand Washing.
Hand washing wasn’t invented until 1846 when Oliver Wendell Holmes and his buddy Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that physicians were inadvertently aiding the spread of disease from one patient to another. This prompted Holmes and Semmelweis to publish an assertion that all healthcare workers should learn and practice proper hand-washing procedures.
Then came Louis Pasteur with his germ theory and Joseph Lister with his Listerine antisepsis, which brings us to 1986 when the Centers for Disease Control issued their Guidelines for Hand Washing and Hospital Environmental Control:
Wet hands with clean running water. Apply soap. Wash the hands for 10-15 seconds maintaining vigorous mechanical friction all over the lathered surfaces of the hands. Rinse well and dry with a paper towel or clean cloth.
Most expert opinion suggests it is not about using anti-bacterial soap—it’s about applying friction. And by expert opinion Bossy is not just talking about her husband. She’s also talking about her father. Because those two guys know everyone knows friction plus plain soap pulls the dirt and germs free from the skin.
But don’t forget: 10-15 seconds of vigorous rubbing is probably more time than you normally dedicate. To your hands. Because that’s like one… two…
three… four… Bossy has so much to do today… five… and it’s noon and she’s still in her Pancake Boob shirt… six… seven… Did someone say ‘Pancake Boobs?’… eight … Hi Bobo… nineteneleventwelvethirteenfourteenfifteen.
Learn About The Concept Of Social Handwashing Versus The More Controversial Disinfection.
“Social Handwashing!” I was sure that was going to describe the phenomenon where you’re in a hurry in a public restroom and you haven’t peed on your hands or touched anything nasty, and so you run the water but don’t really bother to get your hands wet if no one’s looking because there are no paper towels and those blowy things take forever–but to the people in the stalls, it sounds like you actually washed your hands before you left.
Not that I’ve ever done that.
I remember seeing on Oprah [at least I think it was Oprah. It could have been some silly morning show] that you should sing “Happy Birthday to You” [in your head, otherwise people will think you're strange(r)] as you wash your hands. And that will be enough time.
I see what I’ve been doing wrong! I need to be washing with “soup”.
“…everyone knows friction plus plain soup pulls the dirt and germs free from the skin.”
Or you could sing this (to the tune of B-I-N-G-O) as you wash and, when you’re done with the song, the germs are dead:
I wash my hands before I eat.
There are no germs on me.
G-E-R-M-S, G-E-R-M-S, G-E-R-M-S,
There are no germs on me.
I stay away from friends with colds.
There are no germs on me.
G-E-R-M-(x), G-E-R-M-(x), G-E-R-M-(x),
There are no germs on me.
I always clean my cuts and scrapes.
There are no germs on me.
G-E-R-(x)-(x), G-E-R-(x)-(x), G-E-R-(x)-(x),
There are no germs on me.
I wash my hands on bathroom breaks.
There are no germs on me.
G-E-(x)-(x)-(x), G-E-(x)-(x)-(x), G-E-(x)-(x)-(x),
There are no germs on me.
I never put things in my mouth.
There are no germs on me.
G-(x)-(x)-(x)-(x), G-(x)-(x)-(x)-(x), G-(x)-(x)-(x)-(x),
There are no germs on me.
I keep my body healthy so–
There are no germs on me.
(x)-(x)-(x)-(x)-(x), (x)-(x)-(x)-(x)-(x), (x)-(x)-(x)-(x)-(x),
There are no germs on me.
Stolen from: http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/germs.html
You should also brush your teeth for 2 whole minutes, but that probably has no impact on killer staph.
I hate killer staph.
Friction, vigorous rubbing…am I in a mood or is this post as dirty as the hands it describes washing. I’m pretty sure it’s me.
I was wearing my own version of the pancake boob shirt (my banana boob tank) last night and my daughter laughed at me. Spontaneously burst into giggles when she saw my sad mammaries.
Vigorous Rubbing. Or a scouring pad. Either one will work.
It also helps to recite an exorcism while you wash to kill the evil spirits.
The worst offenders (in my humble observation) of failure to wash hands properly in restrooms seem to be elderly women…are they so worried that they may lose pressure moments of life, that they can no longer bare to spend a minute washing the old lady urine from their finger tips?
Good Granny set an example for the young and impressionable; I beg of you….either that or keep your damned hands off the fresh peaches in the supermarket.
Both hospitals I’ve worked at gave an infection control lecture during orientation, and both of the nurses that gave those lectures mentioned the A-B-C rule. You’re supposed to sing the ABC’s while you wash your paws, fingertips to (just above) your wrist. Now, whether you sing silently or out loud is up to you. (I am usually always up for a rousing alphabet chorus, but I digress.) And make sure to get under your nails – those suckers are like germ hot tubs.
There’s a sign in out Bob Evan’s that says you should wash your hands for a complete verse of “Old Macdonald”. I brought this tidbit of information to work and now the common question after someone comes back from the bathroom is “what animal did you do?”
And that is why I don’t like to touch the bathroom handle at work w/o a paper towel first. I hear some of those nasty chicks leave the restroom without even washing their hands! YUCK!
THANK YOU for telling others that it’s not just about anti-bacterial soap which — in my opinion — is just making bacteria stronger. Besides, scrubbing is much more fun IF you know what I mean.
My friend who is a nurse was forced to put her hands under blacklight after each hand-washing. (While she was in school.) She learned all about the nooks and crannies of the knuckles where germs like to hide. Also, one has a tendency to use the dominant hand for the friction, leaving the dominant hand slightly less washed. I think 2007 is the year of friction!
Guess what? At our hospital they wash babies within 2-3 hours of their birth with ANTIBACTERIAL soap!!! That is just so wrong! I’ll bet they sing when they do, so maybe that makes it better!
I prefer keening while handwashing. If I remember to bring my kazoo, that can be fun, too.
A nurse once told me that they are taught to sing their ABCs in their head.
So here’s Kenny – at the bathroom sink – singing his ABC’s and saying, “Is M enough? I’m TIRED of washing my hands!”
you had me at vigorous rubbing
I am supposed to be using soup? Damn – maybe that’s why I am having such a hard time controlling my Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Dammit.
Chicken noodle? Tomato? Are there any others? I’m feeling ill now.
I love Pancake Boob Shirt.
If we think a society that feeds (quite literally) off of fast food is going to take a whole 20 seconds to wash their hands and 2 whole minutes to brush their teeth, you’re kidding yourselves. Moral of the story: keep that paper towel to let yourself out of the restroom and encourage your kids to become dentists!
I have flora in my bowel? That sounds so pretty! Well, except for the “bowel” part…
Hmmmm, handwashing could turn into a whole concert. ABC, Old McDonald, Happy birthday, and the Germ song-a veritable medley of cleanliness.
biddy loves friction…er…clean hands…
Word got out that a coworker of ours did not wash her hands after using the restroom (someone saw her). Ever after, her contributions to potlucks were pretty much left untouched. So, if you bring something to a potluck and it isn’t received …enthusiastically… either you are an awful cook or your secret’s out. And thank you Bossy for the tutorial. Who knows how many lives you saved today?
The palms of my hands get lots of friction, although there’s not usually any soap involved.
I am a psychotic, anal handwasher since my kid entered school. Because kid + school = germs I don’t want making me sick. So I stand there in the bathroom at work looking like I’m getting ready for surgery while everyone else does that precursory hand-wetting thing and gets on their merry way. Suckers!
Oh, and I sing to myself as I wash, too. Two happy birthdays worth of washing, thanks very much. But I think I’ll start doing Old MacDonald. Maybe I’ll hang up a sign so other people can share the love and stop being suckers.
BOSSY. are you working for the CDC?
This? This is why I do NOT use public restrooms (unless I’ve had too many cups of coffee and all the planters around the mall are occupied).
I can be rather vocal when I see someone leaving the sink area without using soap. One of these days someone is going to beat me up with their unwashed hands and get me all germy.
New entrepreneurial idea: sell little plastic bubbles equipped with nursery room songs for new wave germaphobes. Any angel funders out there?
Oh! Bossy changed “soup” to “soap”! You use SOAP! Got it.
We teach the kids at school to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice or ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ once when washing their hands.
AG works in medicine. AG washes hands slightly differently. AG is fancy that way.
And Deb is correct with the new entrepreneurial plan. There are a lot of misinformed and/or hypochondriacs that would buy that stuff.
I actually do sing the happy birthday song to myself when I’m washing my hands. And I never touch the door handles at public places without a paper towel. ‘Cause some of those girls are nasty!
My toothbrush has a two minute timer. Do you know how much you can do in those two minutes while brushing? I turn on my monitor, turn on lights, open curtains. All while impeccably cleaning my teeth.
OMG, it was the “pancake boob shirt” reference that got me. What can I say, I’m farking owe-ld (at least, my boobs are). I am currently expecting reports on whether the floors need dusting from either one of them. I’m betting on the right one, myself. It seems to be deflating at an accelerated rate.
However. This is all WAY TMI. But I just thought you might like to know that my Great-Grandfather (I wouldn’t dreeeam of calling him my Great-Grandpa, he wasn’t that kinda guy) went to Vienna to study The Germ Theory when it was The New Thang. Then he came back and opened a hospital. For women. Women who were…up the pole. Enciente. In the Family Way.
I just wish I could be sure he didn’t put good midwives out of business. I’m way too PC for my own good.
Now. Where were we?
Hmmmm.
I’ll be sure to wash my mouth copiously with an aqueous solution of ethanol, infused with malt and hops.
Yup, that feels much better.
Wow I’ll bet those jokers from the Center for Disease Control are load of fun to party with. Nothing says party animal more than instuctions to maintain “vigorous mechanical friction all over the lathered surfaces”
You know what….? You wash in the public bathroom & then touch the sink handles to turn the water off. Touch to get a paper towel to dry. Then touch the door to leave. Germs are everywhere!!!!!!
I carry antibacterial spray and try to keep our hands clean if we are getting ready to eat or touch anything we need to be clean for.
What do people with only one hand use for friction? Can they cut their handwashing time in half?????
take it from this old former preschool teacher — row row row your boat works just as well as the Germs song — and is much easier to remember…
everybody sing! with friction!
oh, so a splash of bleach won’t work? Crap.
You said Ignaz Semmelweis! I LOVES me some Ignaz Semmelweis! No really, I’m serious. He brings tears to my eyes. A hero, he was. I shall scrub my hands in his honor.
Boob Pancakes. Aren’t they part of the Grand Slam Breakfast at IHOP. (double entendre totally intended)
erin -
What is the sound of one hand washing?
Ruth Dynamite has just wrapped herself in saran wrap.
Enabler! Now I have to go wash my hands again.
Wash them? Why? I didn’t pee on them. And they’re not going anywhere because I’ve learned to keep my hands to myself. As opposed to letting them wander around loose, I guess. Anyway, I liked the friction and rubbing and lathering parts, so maybe I’ll try this.
Funny, Payton just asked me this morning how long soap has been around. While he was washing his hands.
You’re so funny!
Why is everyone talking about getting pee on their hands? That is not the problem. Pee is sterile.
It’s the fecal matter that the person before you left on the little stall lock thingie, the flusher, the door handle. All of which you just touched.
Wash your hands whether you peed on them or not. Hell, wash them with pee. Just wash them.
when my son was in the NICU we were instructed to go directly to the washing station when entering the area, and to scrub our hands for a full 30 seconds…up to our elbows! man, that 30 seconds felt like 5 minutes!
I’m with Cece – it just takes one filthy eejit touching the door handle to ruin it for everyone.
Oh geez – 52 comments and I still press ‘leave comment’. Why? You probably never make it down this far, but I just wanted to say hi. Hi!
I carry those little bottles of hand sanitizer in my handbag. Cos when you think about it, before someone washes their hand, they handle the tap. Even ourselves! So washing your hand and then handling the tap is not really…well, you get what I mean.
So i whip out the sanitizer. Woo hoo.
“and Joseph Lister with his Listerine antisepsis,”
Interesting fact: Listerine was once sold as a cure of gonorrhea. Do s’pose washing ones hands and mouth out with it, could have been the ‘cure’?
(It was also sold as a floor cleaning product. Can’t make the connection there, but it seems to be a multi-purpose product!)
Forget handwashing – you’ve got me all freaked out about what my boobs are going to look like after this pregnancy. I may WANT to contract sepsis and end it all.
Hi,
Just found your blog….yikes…I’m going to go scrub and scrub my whole body!!!!
Interesting!!!
Along with the many other things I have learned that don’t change as people age: the random ‘forgetting’ to wash their hands (Who just forgets??) also nose pickers.
Bleh.
I’ve actually made myself ill now.
Hey–
have to write a paper on infection control and found this. I’m 50/50. I wash my hands frequently at work, but the WORLD is a nasty place and humans have survived for a few million or so years. Yeah, some have died; but if you’re here, you’ve come from survivor stock. I don’t suggest licking the gutter or anything, but I think that if we made it to the 21st century without our line dying out, “normal” precautions are probably okay (ICU is different; people there are fragile–obviously). So wash your hands a couple of times a day, you’ll probably live if you touch a door that someone who didn’t wash their hands touched. Some people are hypocrites, don’t wash their hands, but use their shoulder to leave, then touch the pharmacy counter (or cart or some other surface) that you touch next and viola! you still touched the next “germy” surface. If you think about it too much, you’ll be the next Monk (see USA channel if you missed this reference; it’s hilarious!)
In my infection control class, a statistic was given on nose picking; 50% of us are nose pickers. The other 50% are liars. LOL!