that is good advice, but the problem is even if im taking a break right now, i work as a pharmacy tech, and i dont think id be able to wash my hands after touching things each time
i feel like that since you are separated by a counter, for the most part, then you have a barrier between you and the customer HOWEVER since a lot of times sick persons are visiting the pharmacy for medicine, it's probably not a bad idea to shower when you get home from work
i work in a grocery store in the produce department, and i'm just generally in the habit of showering as soon as i get home because of sweating from physical activity, esp in summer
for people that work in food related departments, these are the general rules we're given for hand washing - after touching trash or picking up things on the floor - after handling money - after sneezing, coughing, touching your face - after using the bathroom or coming back from break - before touching food (or probably medicine, in your case)
a lot of cashiers and front end people are just wearing gloves as a general rule and changing frequently since they can't just run and wash their hands anytime the want like other departments can
they've also installed plexiglass sneeze shields in front of every register, to help prevent the spread of airborne particles, and have an extra barrier there
the good thing in our pharmacy is that we have a sink so i can go wash my hands back there, but we also sometimes get lines of patients where i physically cannot leave the front
I'm an obsessive hand washer, though, but it really pays off because I rarely get sick these days! Plus, I keep up with all my vaccinations and whatnot
But it really is like, not rubbing your eyes and touching your face UNTIL you've washed your hands, because that seems like the easiest vector for infections
But also, just, make sure when you sneeze or cough to do it in your elbow or shoulder, or whatever (I try to do it where I'm wearing fabric, depending on length of sneeze) so I'm not sneezing directly on my skin and also not blasting my germs into the ether
Yeah, when we did our food safety training, we were told that your cell phone carries more pathogens than money, according to studies, and it's probably because we use them while in the bathroom
I'm a bit more stringent on this because my roommate told me that he doesn't wash his hands after using the bathroom, and I... seriously doubt he's changed his habits much, even amid the current health crisis
it really is... and I know for a fact my roommate wasn't washing his hands before he even told me because when I moved in, there was no soap or hand towels in the bathroom before I bought any....
he had the nerve to accuse me of getting him sick last year when that new strain of cold was going around and I ended up with an upper respiratory infection that required antibiotics to deal with.... even though he's had a low-key cough near constantly since I moved in two years ago
luckily I got my pneumonia vaccine a month prior to that, and my flu shot about a week after (I was gonna get it right before I got sick with that cold)
What I've been doing, as a grocery worker: -Wearing vinyl and/or nitrile gloves -Wearing a surgical mask -Putting my work smock in a plastic bag when I take it off at work -Changing clothes not covered by my smock when I get home (shirt, pants) and putting those, the smock and the surgical mask into my laundry (already separate from my family's laundry)
I'm minded of the conversation in the movie "Contagion", where the CDC facility janitor is grumbling to Laurence Fishburne's character about how his wife is making him use their garage as an airlock, and Lauraunce Fishburne tells him "She isn't wrong."
Lotions Keith
: Yes! had a phone conversation with my doctor (was supposed to go in for my annual physical, but that got rebejiggered), in which she asked me what I measures I had to protect myself at work.
I work in a specialty pharmacy, and on top of washing hands frequently/wearing gloves when handling any meds, I've been dousing anything I regularly touch with isopropyl alcohol
- after touching trash or picking up things on the floor
- after handling money
- after sneezing, coughing, touching your face
- after using the bathroom or coming back from break
- before touching food (or probably medicine, in your case)
also the other techs just let me stay in the front all the time b/c they dont care but ive brought that up to my boss-Wearing vinyl and/or nitrile gloves
-Wearing a surgical mask
-Putting my work smock in a plastic bag when I take it off at work
-Changing clothes not covered by my smock when I get home (shirt, pants) and putting those, the smock and the surgical mask into my laundry (already separate from my family's laundry)