Use the eyewash station as designed. Most stations have instructions clearly printed nearby. If you’re working around chemicals and have an eyewash station available to you, take a look at how the thing works before you need it. Remember that you might not be able to see all that well when it’s time to use the station. Make sure you are familiar enough to use it blindly.
Make sure no matter how you wash your eyes that you keep the water flowing for at least 20 minutes.
It might not take very long to get rid of sand or dirt in the eyes, but for chemical contamination, continue to wash with constantly flowing water for at least 20 minutes.
For chemicals, the best option is to keep your head low so the water doesn’t simply spread the chemical all over the rest of your body.
The simpler the contaminant (a grain of sand, for example, instead of a complex toxic substance) the easier it is to remove it. Squirting a water bottle into your eye to remove a piece of dirt might be enough to do the trick. Be very careful not to accidentally send the offending speck over to the other eye.
Also, seek help if the patient has any trouble seeing after you’ve completed 20 minutes of flushing, even if the patient feels like the contaminant is gone.
