I read a headline recently, that stated, because of the coronavirus, handshaking may become a thing of the past. Not such a bad idea, from a health care professionals point of view.
When one stops to think, before shaking someone’s hand, where that hand has been, and what it has touched, and when, if at all, was the last time it was washed, it can make one phobic.
In an earlier post, I wrote about a saying I used to repeat, ad nauseum, I am sure, that “if you are not sure if you touched something, wash your hands. If you think you touched something, wash your hands. If you know you touched something, wash your hands”. In my former profession, as a surgical nurse, it was imperative that we washed our hands frequently. It is part of, what we call, having a “surgical conscious”. If you do not develop a surgical conscious, you will not be a very good patient care advocate. In fact, it puts your patient, at a time of the physical stress of having surgery, at a huge risk for post operative infection. Who needs that while trying to re cooperante? No one.
We used to see photos, from our nurse educator, showing how a handprint was left on a patients abdomen, by a health care professional that had just examined another patient. which had a different viral infection than the CoVid 19 virus that we are currently experiencing. That health care “professional” did not wash their hands before examining the second patient. The “handprint” was the actual infection manifested on the second patients skin.
If you do not understand how viruses, and bacteria, spread, as this coronavirus is doing, if you cannot get your brain to understand it, get on YouTube, or wherever venue you watch movies, and watch the 2011 HBO movie called “Contagion”, starring Matt Damon, and Kate Winslett. It will show you just how easily all of this happened.