Diligence: The Importance of Washing Hands

I am merely through the introduction of this book, and I have amassed a vast new wealth of knowledge about the field of medicine. Atul Gawande, the author of this book, focuses on a few main virtues that anyone thinking about being a doctor needs to have: diligence, "doing right", and ingenuity. He looks at each one separately and gives stories of when these each of these was needed.

The first of these stories is simply on the issue of washing hands. Of course, it is necessary for anyone coming into contact with humans to wash their hands... but as Dr. Gawande points out in this twenty page chapter, it's not so simple. He cites alarming statistics of how many people die each year due to negligence from doctors and nurses in the operating room. And even after hearing these numbers, medical personnel are still very uncommitted to the simple, yet crucial act. His hospital has been adorned with laminated signs posting the threats of infectious, contagious bacteria found on peoples' hands, as well as medical instruments. Sinks have been installed in every corner, along with sanitary glove dispensers, gowns, etc. But even with all of these drastic measures, diligence is not being exhibited by doctors and nurses enough to drive down the number of infection-caused deaths in hospitals across America.

Many organizations have launched multi million dollar foundations to try and spread awareness of the importance of washing hands in hospitals... but Gawande is skeptical at best, or maybe it's just exasperation I think. He mentions the story of an ancient doctor living in Vienna, who tried to figure out why exactly newborns who were born at the hospital were around twenty percent more likely to die because of infections as opposed to the one percent chance of dying if they were born at home. The only variable in this situation were the doctors, whom he deemed the culprits. He began preaching the importance of sterilization and hand washing but was faced with offended doctors and a team of nurses revolting against his new ideals. He was quickly labeled as a lunatic and dismissed from the hospital. Gawande thinks this guy was on the right track... maybe it does take someone insanely obsessed with this issue to get people to follow it.