Close your eyes and take yourself back in time, the time when EMS was still a baby, the Gage and DeSoto generation. There are many of us "old timers" left, we have had our fun, we have been there done that and have the bloody trousers to prove it. Do you see where I am heading with this. I am talking about the day's before gloves, or at least before we used them properly.

    I am just as guilty as many of the older providers. Back in the day we were proud to get blood on us, and the more you got on you the prouder you were. We would get back to the station and compare the blood stains on our clothing. But back then we did not have (or know) of the concerns we have today. There are many things out today that can hurt or even kill us, diseases that have no conscious. Today we wear our gloves and sometimes double and triple glove. We have protective clothing we can use, and most of us do a good job at keeping ourselves safe. But lets take a look at something that I have found many providers to be guilty of.

    First I have one question for all of you: Do you change your clothes before leaving your duty assignment? The answer I have received from more than ? of the providers I have asked is no. Think about what you might take home with you, sure the HIV virus begins to die once it is exposed to air, but the HBV virus has been known to last in dried blood for up to seven days. And we are taking this home when we do not change before leaving duty.

    How can we as providers fix what we do in order to try and keep as safe as possible.

1)     Change clothes: Do this before you leave your duty station and bag them for laundry. You should also change your shoes, if you don?t you have just defeated the purpose. By leaving your shoes on and walking in your home, you have just brought in every patient and place you went to. If you don?t change before you come home have a designated place at home for changing your work clothes. Make it a place that you will have minimal contact with family or household items. As providers we DO NOT want to contaminate our loved ones or home.

2)     Laundry: Many duty stations today provide laundry facilities or service, my suggestion is take advantage of it. Use these services if your agency provides them. If not bag your work clothing and take either to the Laundromat or your designated place at home. Don?t let your soiled uniforms / work clothing come in contact with other items. And contrary to popular belief you do not need special detergent or machines for these items. Your regular detergent and machines will do the job just fine. Wash these items separately from your regular laundry. You can also wash your washing machine periodically to give you at a little more piece of mind. I have spoken with many appliance repair workers about this and they have said it is a good idea. Just run a complete cycle with no clothing in the machine with nothing more than water, detergent and bleach or leave out the detergent and just use bleach.

3)     Remember what you might have at home: Many of us have something extremely important at home, our families. Why do we want to literally take our work home. When I say ?take our work home? I am talking about what may be on our clothing and shoes. This by far is the most important reason to come home clean, we do not want to cause our families problems by exposing them to possible disease.

    The " Red Badge of Honor" is a thing of the past, we no longer look at an incident to see how bloody we can get. What we look at now is how to get the blood out, we don?t want it on us nor do we need it to prove our abilities. We now look for more and better ways to not only protect ourselves, but to protect our loved ones as well. Before you head home think of who is waiting there for you, do you really want to bring harm to them. Keep extra uniforms and clothing at your duty station, most places offer lockers and even showers, use this stuff. As for all of the ?old timers? out there, lets train the new kids in work safe practices. Sure we can and should keep the war stories going, after all that is what makes it interesting for some of the younger ones, but in your war stories point out safety. Make safety a habit.