Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Dust aka Dead Skin

Ever get that sun beam shinning through the window which suddenly illuminates all the little dust particles in the air making a perfectly shaped column slicing through your living room. We all know those dust particles are made up of dried skin, pollen, dust mites, their feces and various other household products.

It has also been shown that sunshine coming in a patients room makes them happier and they recover quicker, even if it is only for a few hours a day. Really aren't we all happier with a little sunshine?

So how does this relate? While helping with a patient the other day who was stubborn about ambulating two days after heart surgery, but it was time for him to move. A co-worker who would not take no for an answer got him up as he complained while squeezing his heart shaped pillow to his chest.

Being the good assistant and trying to make the patient feel better I said I would grab him some clean sheets, as I ripped the old ones off the bed. As they flew off and traveled through the air a plume of dust, aka dead skin illuminated in the sunlight of the patients window. Not wanting to breath in what I was seeing I did the old nurses trick of holding my breathe and walking away towards imaginary clean air, but there really is no such thing in a hospital. I really can't imagine how many things we breath in during a shift at work.



2 comments:

Cartoon Characters said...

worse than that - the last hospital i worked in had black mold in the walls. They also used a aerosolled cleaner that caused me breathing problems....and refused to change it. I still have breathing problems as a result.

NPO said...

As a travel nurse I noticed plant operations or maintainence, whatever you want to call them, do not do a good job with air quality or changing filters. You don't have to look hard to see dirty intake and exhaust ducts all over the place.