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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
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Scrubbing in at the rest stop.
During a recent highway pit stop, I
washed my hands at one of those sinks where the faucet was operat-
ed by a motion detector that turns the water on. It's a great idea for
public restrooms. I wondered if it had ever been put to use in surgical
scrub sinks: that might make things easier. As I finished rinsing, the
water was still running and I noticed that my right leg jumped up, as if
by reflex, searching for the place where I'd normally turn the water
off. Lord knows what OR I thought I was going into.
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Got to keep all that hair covered.
It's winter in Connecticut, which is
like winter everywhere else, only more so, since it's in New England.
One morning, after pulling a knit hat onto my head and over my ears,
I felt this mandatory urge to put on a second hat, since the first one
was not a blue bouffant.
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A new non-latex alternative?
Wearing any kind of gloves evokes even
more automatic behavior. At Christmas I received some nice, extra-
long leather gloves that cover my wrists. As soon as I tried on the first
one, the right-hand glove, I realized I was donning it like sterile latex.
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Elbow grease.
When I'm cleaning up in the kitchen, I find myself
wiping down surfaces with Clorox wipes pretty much as thoroughly
as I do with those sanitizing wipes at work. You never know when
surveyors might be watching.
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Orderly attire.
Any nurse worth her salt knows the importance of
organization. About 99% of the OR nurses I've worked with routinely
set out their prepping and back table supplies in order of usage to
make sure they won't skip a step when getting a patient ready for
cut time. I do the same thing with clothing, laying them out in the
order in which I plan to put them on. (And don't even get me started
on how hoarding habits cross over from work to home.) OSM
Ms. Watkins can be reached at
pwatk ins12@comcast.net
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