That is NOT in my job description!

[Andara Bledin]

No, just no. I will only do that for my husband or one of my children, but not for anyone else. I'm sorry, but I could not bring myself to do that.

I wouldn't even do that for my husband. Yeah, I'm way too easily squicked by some things. Things that ooze are one of the things I just cannot handle.

Although I had no problems sticking a needle in him, when he rotated his insulin shots to places he couldn't reach.

Go figure.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

Although I had no problems sticking a needle in him, when he rotated his insulin shots to places he couldn't reach.

Go figure.

Payback?

[Seshat]

She didn't wear gloves, and she didn't wash her hands before or after.

Can anyone say 'massive liability issue'? I can!

I'll handle most minor medical issues for family or close friends. I'll help out in a true emergency.

But I can trust family and close friends to accept that getting me to handle these things is at their own risk - they won't sue, they won't blame me if I take reasonable precautions but something gets infected anyway. (And yes, I'm liberal with the betadine. There are two things in my house anyone can use anytime: sunscreen and betadine.)

I also won't let the risk of being sued stop me from saving someone's life, or preventing them from being maimed. So a true emergency - yeah, I'm helping out. Even if my actions are calling emergency and organising bystanders to do helpful stuff will someone better capable or qualified handles the direct first aid.

But I won't do non-emergency health care for a stranger. I'll direct the stranger to a nurse practitioner, doctor or pharmacy. They have liability insurance, qualifications, and the facilities for proper sterilisation. I don't. The best sterilisation tools I have are my 'medical' vegetable steamer* and betadine: they have autoclaves.


* Cheapest steriliser I've found. If you look at the 'microwave sterilisers' for baby bottles, they're exactly the same as microwave vegetable steamers, except that the basket inside the steamer is shaped to hold bottles, not veggies. So buy a vegetable steamer, label it clearly so you don't use it for cooking, and steam-sterilise medical gear. Instructions for steam sterilisation are found on baby bottle steamers.
This is NOT a substitute for keeping wrapped packages of sterile gauze, of course. This is for your medical scissors, splinter probes, and suchlike.

[GingerBiscuit]

I will not touch a strangers wounds or dressings. I just won't.
1: I am not a nurse, or medically trained. I could quite possibly make it worse.
2: I don't want to go near a strangers blood or pus or anything like that. If I don't want to for the love of my life, then why should I for someone I don't know?
3: I don't know if you have any communicable diseases.
4: you don't know if I have any communicable diseases.

[Nayeli_Sabia]

In this day and age of AIDS, HIV, Hep, and various other deadly communicable diseases, I don't touch strangers blood. Maybe if you're dieing on the side of the road.... but to remove a post surgery bandage? HECK NO.

[redmountaingoldfish]

Can anyone say 'massive liability issue'?

MASSIVE LIABILITY ISSUE!!

I give 3 to 1 odds that your hotel will be sued over this. Any takers?

[Andara Bledin]

I give 3 to 1 odds that your hotel will be sued over this. Any takers?

I actually don't think the hotel will be sued over this.

However, that is not a call I (if I were a desk clerk) would be authorized or willing to make, so I wouldn't do it anyway.

^-.-^

[greensinestro]

This goes back to when customers not only would ask a favor like this, but they also had to give vivid details about how they got into this predicament. You have some that had to describe down to detail about how their ingrown toenail started to cause gangrene of the ankle, or one that has to tell about their colon cancer, and how it's now causing a bloody discharge. Or, those women out there who have breast cancer, but how it has spread to all other private areas, describing to you in detail the exact name of the body parts the cancer has visited.

Part of my job description is establishing rapport with my customers, but I don't think they meant knowing everything you could find out about them.

[counterjockey]

I can't say I've had to deal with something like that at my job. For better or worse my store's just a few blocks from the local hospital, and you can't swing a dead catheter without hitting a doctor's office in the neighborhood.

Occasionally you get a fun cleanup job at the restrooms, though. Drunks are pretty good for hurling, occasional blood, and more commonly having bad aim. This is why we keep a supply of gloves (layered twice usually) and quaternary ammonia. No tyvek monkey suits or respirators, which on more than one occasion I've wished I'd had when I cleaned out the ol' bogs.

Janitor, pathologist, just some of the many hats I wear to work...