I’m dedicating this week’s post to my mother, Mary Prehn, RN (1926-2004), who traveled throughout the world with my Dad during his US Navy officer’s career. We five kids were extremely lucky to see the world in the company of a nurse and her gentleman.

Circle Safety helps organizations plan and write infectious disease threat response documents.  But some of the strategies I personally use to avoid colds, tummy bugs, and flu (vectors of droplet, airborne, and contact transmission) were first taught to me by my mother.

As “Navy Juniors” traveling the world, we knew that regular immunizations were part of the drill.  As then, so now…  I just got my seasonal flu shot and I’m waiting for the H1N1 vaccine series to be released.  In the safety profession, as in my mother’s nursing profession, we know that planning and prevention are the best strategies.

So, our offices have taken in a new supply of tissues and hand sanitizers (check to make sure yours are at least 60% alcohol-based).  Several of us have started using personal coffee or water cups, cleaning them, and storing them in our desks so we longer just grab one off the kitchen shelf (who cleaned this last, and how thoroughly?). The latest guidance from CDC is posted over the kitchen sink. 

Infection control goes beyond the office environment.  I carry hand sanitizer in my car, ready to use when I finish on-site auditing (think about all the hands shaken, all the PPE equipment picked up to inspect, all the handrails used).  I also remind myself of a rule learned while volunteering on my rescue squad – never contemplatively chew on the end of the pen or pencil  – you may have just used it to point out a laceration on your patient’s face.  Same holds true in a workplace where we tend to call attention to hazards with the end of the pen before logging it in on our inspection notes.  Oh yes, and my Mom always said, “Please keep your hands out of your mouth”…

She also indoctrinated all of us in proper handwashing techniques, using soap and water or just water and friction if soap was not available.  It was family practice to wash before meals, after using the toilet, after we had been running around in very public places, if we were sick and sneezy, and before we went to bed.  She showed us how to walk from the sink in public toilets to the door and use a paper towel to turn the handle, avoiding immediate recontamination of our hands.  We always threw away tissues and paper towels in a sanitary fashion and never littered. And we always recycled, although it wasn’t called that back then.

She told us about her mother living through the 1918-1919 “Spanish Flu” and other great epidemiological tales such as Typhoid Mary (1900-1915) and the 1859 cholera outbreak in London that was due to the now infamous Pump Handle.  I see now how her early training and stories have helped guide me.  Thanks, Mother.