"even doctors"? there's plenty of research (and simple observation!) that
shows that doctors are infinitely worse (to the point of danger) at
cleansing their hands; just that few doctors actually touch patients these
days.

It's also true research shows that nurses don't wash their hands as often as
they ought - but they are getting better, and - charles obviously hasn't
noticed - they do wear gloves for much patient contact these days.

Worth saying that patients themselves are often reponsible for their own
infections, either being unco-operative with regular washes, inserting dirty
digits into clean dressings, and generally fiddling about with items they
probably should leave well alone (yes, it happens).

Most infections are froma patient's own flora and fauna; it's now becoming
apparent that even MRSA is brought into hospital much more than was
realised.

But, having set the record a little straighter, this conversation would be
much more useful if it moved from blame to more positive approaches on
preventing unnecessary deaths. That's the only way to bring the numbers
down.

Like safe staffing levels, less shared equipment, controlled visiting,
decent food, care contracts and zero tolerance in some cases ... over to
you.

No, you don't.

Either you see her change gloves or you tell her that
she isn't allowed to touch you.  Same for the doc and
anyone else.  If they do, yell at the top of your lungs
and demand an incident report.

NB: one of the more egregious practices today is that
workers "glove up" before seeing patients -- and don't
change gloves *between* patients.

+-------- D. C. Sessions <dcs@lumbercartel.com> ---------+