Saturday Suggestion: A Simple First-Aid Trick for Cooks

It is quite common for someone who cooks a lot to occasionally burn or cut themselves. One simple first-aid trick helped me remain productive when I injured myself.

I am not always as careful as I should be with the sharp tools in my kitchen, and yesterday while cleaning the blade of my food processor I somehow sliced my pinkie finger. The cut wasn't really deep, but bled enough that it required a snug bandage to staunch the flow.

I was in the midst of preparing several recipes, and a band-aid on my finger was quite an inconvenience. From past experience, I knew it was likely the band-aid would slip off whenever my hands got wet. I also worried that if I began to bleed again, I could contaminate the food that I was cooking. That was something I really did not want to happen. With my nursing background, I am
quite fastidious about cleanliness and good hygiene in the kitchen!

What to do? I considered wearing a disposable glove on my injured hand, but I find gloves to be cumbersome. Fortunately, I thought of an easy and better solution.

After making sure the wound was clean and dry, I applied a band-aid. Then I reached into my box of disposable gloves and pulled one out. But rather than just draw the glove onto my hand, I picked up a pair of scissors. Eyeballing the necessary length, I cut part of the pinkie finger off the glove.

I slipped that section of the glove over my injured, bandaged fingertip and I was pleased to see it reached further towards my knuckles than the band-aid did.

Next, I secured the glove tip snugly to my finger with a piece of masking tape, creating a nice, tight seal. Any skin-friendly waterproof tape would work well, but I just used the masking tape that was in my kitchen drawer.

As I had hoped, this little dressing stayed firmly in place and waterproof throughout the several hours of chopping, dishwashing and stirring I still had to accomplish. Well - that's not quite accurate. After working with some raw meat, I was worried that the dressing might harbor some germs. I was easily able to remove and replace the glove tip, while the inner band-aid stayed nicely intact.

My injured finger remained dry and protected, I was able to work with dexterity, and I had no concerns about the integrity of the food that I prepared. None of the band-aids in our first-aid kit would have worked as well.

A word of caution: if you have a latex allergy or if you are preparing food for someone with latex sensitivities, be sure the glove you use is latex free. 

Just in case you don't know about this handy little first-aid trick, I'm sharing it with you today.

Stay safe and be careful of sharp objects!

When was the last time you cut yourself while working in your kitchen?

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