Is Your Handshake As Dangerous As Smoking?

[lighthouse33]

Is Your Handshake As Dangerous As Smoking?

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/05/20/is-your-handshake-as-dangerous-as-smoking/

My favorite part of the article is:

They recommend we develop an alternate greeting that doesn?t involve touching. And one that won?t insult someone.

A text? A phone call? A megaphone hello from down the hallway?

It all makes me wonder, if no contact is allowed, how am I supposed to do an exam?
I mean, that involves actually touch someone to figure out what?s wrong. Perhaps I?m supposed to use a glove attached to the end of an 8 foot long stick. From the hallway.

Now that?s insulting.

[Velcro]

That was the first thing I was going to comment.  Ok, so eliminate the handshake but yet still they are touching the patients while examining them?  Isn't that kind of defeating the whole purpose?

My Docs always wash their hands upon entering and hand sanitize upon exit.  Assuming they do this each time, they are washing before touching each patient and then sanitizing before touching the door handle, etc. 

[litliwlowa]

Wow...more and more it would appear that an essential human need: TOUCH (part of nurturing actually) is being in effect demonized.

The doctor makes an excellent point - how is he supposed to examine patients?

A doctor can't very well FEEL lymph nodes without touching for example. That can't be done from across the room with an 8-ft pole
with a glove attached at the end.

This persistent trend of dehumanizing on multiple levels is deplorable.

[MarieB]

I agree with previous comments.  Your doctor often has to touch you anyway so why not a warm handshake. 

I found the original article in JAMA and one point they make is that health care professionals have only 40% compliance with the hand sanitizing policies in health care settings (they may mean only hospitals, not clear), including not washing for the required length of time to effectively kill all microbes; so I can see where a hospital type facility might encourage touch free policies.  IMHO hospitals are the place to go if you're healthy and WANT to get sick.   

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1873637
 

[litliwlowa]

I agree with previous comments.  Your doctor often has to touch you anyway so why not a warm handshake. 

I found the original article in JAMA and one point they make is that health care professionals have only 40% compliance with the hand sanitizing policies in health care settings (they may mean only hospitals, not clear), including not washing for the required length of time to effectively kill all microbes; so I can see where a hospital type facility might encourage touch free policies.  IMHO hospitals are the place to go if you're healthy and WANT to get sick.   

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1873637

Dern right about hospitals. I got my FIRST hospital induced infection when I delivered my first child. And it sure didn't come from hand shaking.

But the article? I have noticed a definite paradigm shift with "some" doctors (none I currently have as I made sure to lose the "some" doctors) who's idea of an exam is chatter away yet don't examine.

But I can also see where the "handshake" thing can easily spread to every day life. Geesh the article even alludes to that, referring to the handshake as a social greeting.

It's been rumoured that oh what's his name? Trump - that's it! I've heard he never shakes hands with anyone because of "germs".

Case in point - some people are clueless about a simple thing about washing hands. One would think it requires no thought at all to simply wash one's hands like after coughing, or working on a project or handling money (which by the way is literally filthy loaded with germs and bacteria) or after toileting or at a minimum before handling food.

It's bad enough the content of the article as it pertains to health care professionals, but it's not that far a stretch to see how that can be expanded to everyday life either. To the extreme meaning.

Frankly, I am more concerned about the sanitation of medical instruments than I am my doctor(s) shaking my hand.

But still, I find the article problematic. To a certain degree, we come in contact with various bacteria all the time. Can't very well avoid it at all times. Not sure it's even healthy to try to avoid all possible bacterias at all times.

Yes the handshake thing has me bugged. Just another thing to distance the doctor/patient relationship in my view.

[Velcro]

I'd say we take our life into our own hands worth using a public restroom!