Hand washing in a time of virus

[fewmet]

Hi, I've just started back running educational events with groups in the woods again and have had to make some adjustments to operating procedures to be Covid Secure. I use a tippy tap for hands free water pouring but struggled to find a good solution for hands free soap dispensing. I came up with a design and have made a photo tutorial. Apologies to mods for the external link - It is on my blog so can't embed it here. If not OK then let me know and I will delete. Hopefully some of you might find it useful.

Make a Covid proof, foot operated, soap dispenser for Forest School.

Returning to running training or forest school sessions after lockdown requires a few adaptations to the informal, pre-covid way of doing things. Reading reams of conflicting government advice and writing new risk benefit assessments and operating procedures takes quite a lot of time and mental ener

richardirvine.co.uk

 

[Woody girl]

That's pretty nifty.
Well done.

 

[MrEd]

I dont think hands free soap dispensing is needed to be honest, as you are washing your hands after touching. All hands that touch the top of it are dirty anyway - even if we didn’t have covid - with communicable viruses and bacteria. However, great lateral thinking

So unless people are touching the top and then not washing their hands there is not a route of contamination there surely? We aren’t using handsfree soap dispensers in my hospital.

Hands free taps is a good idea as there is a potential contamination source when turning the tap off. This can be mitigated by handsfree taps or alcohol gel after the hands are dried.

What are you using for drying? Paper towels or something? As a normal towel is a well known source of cross contamination.

 

[MrEd]

Had a thought that the above post I wrote might be taken as criticism and it’s not meant like that at all. You got to do what you feel you need to be safe, and that threshold will be different for every person.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

hehe. I like that a lot

 

[fewmet]

Had a thought that the above post I wrote might be taken as criticism and it’s not meant like that at all. You got to do what you feel you need to be safe, and that threshold will be different for every person.

No problem. thanks for the comment - you are right - it is a solution to a practical problem that doesn't exist! My reason for making (apart from that it was fun) was psychological. I had 9 new people visiting the site. Their course had been delayed for 4 months and I didn't know them in advance so wanted to give reassurance that I was being beyond compliant. As you say, some people have higher levels of anxiety about sharing / touching things since Covid so I didn't want anyone to skip handwashing because they didn't like the look of a soap bar on a rope or a shared bottle.

As for drying - I encourage people to air dry hands during summer months - they will bring their own hand towel in a re- sealable bag in the winter.

 

[Paul_B]

Don't worry about it it's needed. The very fact large liquid soap manufacturers sell hands free soap dispensers show that there is a demand for it even if it isn't needed. I've had a few frustrating discussions with someone about this. Which IMHO makes it a needed solution for those who can't see in a logical way how washing works.

If nothing else it shows you're thinking about good hygiene and handling COVID situation. Often confidence in your clients is worth a bit of extra effort.

 

[MrEd]

Don't worry about it it's needed. The very fact large liquid soap manufacturers sell hands free soap dispensers show that there is a demand for it even if it isn't needed. I've had a few frustrating discussions with someone about this. Which IMHO makes it a needed solution for those who can't see in a logical way how washing works.

If nothing else it shows you're thinking about good hygiene and handling COVID situation. Often confidence in your clients is worth a bit of extra effort.

Yep which I why I wrote my second post, As IMO, there are 2 aspects to this -

1. What you need to do from a scientific point of view

and

2. What you need to do from a confidence/feeling safe point of view to achieve point 1.


The 2 things will likely be very different, hence my wording of you got to do what you got to do to feel safe - there is more than one way to judge what is needed, and imo, each is equally as important and need considering, and the weight given to each point will vary depending on the situation I guess!

Handwashing (and camp hygiene) is important anyway - so things that make people think about it should be encouraged.

From a purely ‘make a thing’ point of view, it’s very clever yet simple and highly effective - and pretty cool tbh

As I said I wasn’t criticising, and did not want it taken that way, I was merely questioning/discussing.

 

[MrEd]

No problem. thanks for the comment - you are right - it is a solution to a practical problem that doesn't exist! My reason for making (apart from that it was fun) was psychological. I had 9 new people visiting the site. Their course had been delayed for 4 months and I didn't know them in advance so wanted to give reassurance that I was being beyond compliant. As you say, some people have higher levels of anxiety about sharing / touching things since Covid so I didn't want anyone to skip handwashing because they didn't like the look of a soap bar on a rope or a shared bottle.

As for drying - I encourage people to air dry hands during summer months - they will bring their own hand towel in a re- sealable bag in the winter.

I think these things you have done will instill a lot of confidence in your visitors, that you and they are safe as practically possible. Hope it all goes well in the future and hope your years enjoyed themselves on their course