Physicians, administrators and their staff all share the stress of the
holiday season—on the job as well as at home.
Sharing tips and information on lowering the pressure, eating healthy and
having a good time can benefit everyone—and make your health care
organization look good.
This Thanksgiving, offer your community these holiday safety tidbits:
Talking turkey
This handy
infographic
from the American Safety Council offers advice on handling and cooking your
Thanksgiving turkey safely, using the acronym TURKEY, beginning with:
T: Thaw turkey at a safe temperature—40 degrees Fahrenheit or below.
U: Use extra caution when frying a turkey, and oil-free fryers if possible.
R: Remember to clean all surfaces regularly.
And so on.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln offers a more detailed
page
of Thanksgiving food preparation and safety tips, with links that answer
dozens of questions and issues—everything from, “Is pink turkey meat safe?”
to types of thermometers and a link to the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline,
staffed with food safety specialists on Thanksgiving Day from 8 a.m. to 2
p.m. Eastern time.
By the way, pink turkey may indeed be safe, according to a
link
to the USDA website:
The color of cooked poultry is not always a sure sign of its safety. Only
by using a food thermometer can one accurately determine that poultry has
reached a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F throughout the
product. Turkey can remain pink even after cooking to a safe minimum
internal temperature of 165° F. The meat of smoked turkey is always pink.
[FREE GUIDE: Make video a successful part of your strategic
communications.]
For the diabetic
Turkey isn’t the only item on the Thanksgiving Day menu, of course, and if
family members are diabetic, cooks may be looking for foods that won’t
interfere with their blood sugar levels.
The Diabetic Living Online website shares a host of
side-dish recipes
that many can enjoy, including:
· Butternut squash and carrot soup
-
Cranberry cucumber salad
-
Pumpkin mashed potatoes
-
Scalloped potatoes and ham
-
Carrot-mushroom stuffing
Hungry yet?
If vegetarian dishes are in demand, the Food & Wine website
shares
lots of tasty meatless recipes. The wild mushroom lasagna dish looks yummy.
Other safety considerations
There’s more to Thanksgiving safety than food handling, though. The holiday
season is known for a spike in drunken-driving incidents. The Guardian
Interlock website has
statistics
on drinking and driving, offering this:
Blackout Wednesday, which occurs the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, is
one of the biggest drinking days of the year
. Most businesses are closed on Thanksgiving, college students are home for
the long weekend, and there are high numbers of people on the road as they
travel to spend the holiday with family members. The combination of these
factors makes Blackout Wednesday one of the deadliest days of the year.
Traffic deaths around Thanksgiving weekend, including Blackout Wednesday
and Black Friday, account for more than 400 traffic deaths each year.
Finally, you could avoid unnecessary visits to the emergency room over the
Thanksgiving weekend with this
list
of “Top 7 reasons for Thanksgiving Day emergency-department visits” from
the Clinical Advisor website. The list includes:
-
Knife injuries.
Even before carving the turkey, food preparation involves a lot of
knife work and accounts for one of the top reasons patients visit the
ED on Thanksgiving.
-
Food poisoning.
When cooking meat, there’s always a risk of bacterial infection. The
[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommends that all
turkeys be completely thawed and cooked at a minimum of 325 degrees
Fahrenheit. It is suggested that stuffing be cooked outside the turkey
to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.
-
Burns.
Between simmering the cranberry sauce and baking pumpkin pie, there is
plenty of increased risk for burns. Encourage patients to keep an
ABC-rated fire extinguisher close by.
Readers, how are you spreading the word about Thanksgiving safety and
holiday season health tips to your internal and external communities?