There are natural oils and emollients in our skin that trap and destroy things and we make sure to not only strip tgat away but to create small breakdown in the skin.

Again I’m not saying handwashing isn’t important but it goes too far. It’s just a coincidence I’m sure that the rise in nosocomial (hospital acquired) infections as well as serious contagious outbreaks like c-diff have risen in direct correlation to the draconian handwashing policies.

It’s funny that c diff was essentially unheard of 40 years ago and now it’s a serious problem. It’s typical ignorance of scientists that think they know everything. We learned that washing your hands prevented infection. Sure that was when I was when we Rilke were delivering babies es and wouldn’t was their hands between deliveries or likely after using the bathroom. When we started washing our hands the infant mortality rate dropped. Perfect. Well it that worked than if we wash our hands even more then it will prevent other diseases. Balance people. More isn’t always better.

I’m hey want you to wash your hands before you walk in a room, after you walk into a room, before you put gloves on, after you put gloves on etc etc. we would have no time for patient care. We would spend half of our shift washing our hands till they were cracked and bleeding.

The public is conditioned to this ridiculous expectation. Just like the hand sanitizer craze. The immune system is like a muscle. You don’t exercise it and it becomes weak and ineffective. Isolating ourselves from everything and trying to live in a sterile environment is NOT healthy.

RN with 35 years in healthcare.