{"id":321,"date":"2016-09-09T07:27:38","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T11:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orthopaediclist.com\/blog\/?p=321"},"modified":"2016-10-23T10:48:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T14:48:51","slug":"how-to-tear-tape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthopaediclist.com\/blog\/how-to-tear-tape\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Tear Tape"},"content":{"rendered":"

by James D. Hundley, MD<\/h3>\n
\n

You may think that this is silly, but it\u2019s one of those \u201cessential\u201d techniques you don\u2019t learn in the classroom.\u00a0 Have you ever\u00a0struggled to tear\u00a0off a strip of adhesive tape to apply a dressing?\u00a0 If you\u2019re not in the medical profession, how about tearing duct tape?\u00a0 Can you do it?<\/p>\n

It seems like it takes three hands to hold and cut tape with scissors, and scissors are not always available or accessible.\u00a0 Typically they are in the wrong pocket and you can\u2019t easily reach them with your free hand.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know when it was in med school that a tiny little nurse embarrassed me by deftly tearing off a strip from a roll of wide adhesive tape.\u00a0 I had made a mess of trying and she got a kick out of making fun of me.\u00a0 Then she taught me how to do it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simple but not intuitive.\u00a0 Most people will hold the tape in both hands and try to twist and tear it.\u00a0 That feels like the natural way to do it, but it bunches up the tape at the top edge and makes the tear hard to start.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccorrect way\u201d is to grasp the tape between the thumb and index fingers of both hands and then pull apart the top edge without twisting the tape.\u00a0 Think of turning the palms from the palm-down into the palm-up position (i.e. supinating them) while pulling the top edge of the tape apart.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t pull hard enough without some leverage, you can roll your hands outward leveraging on the backs (dorsal aspects) of the otherwise unused long, ring, and small fingers.\u00a0 Just don\u2019t twist it.<\/p>\n

You can do this.\u00a0 It just takes a little practice.\u00a0 Then you can enjoy embarrassing your co-workers and some novice medical student yourself.<\/p>\n

Tearing apart telephone books is a different matter.\u00a0 Maybe we\u2019ll address that sometime in the future.<\/p>\n

Dr. Hundley is a retired orthopaedic surgeon living in Wilmington.\u00a0 He is the founder and president of\u00a0OrthopaedicLIST.com<\/a>\u00a0a resource website for orthopaedic and other surgeons and related professionals.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by James D. Hundley, MD You may think that this is silly, but it\u2019s one of those \u201cessential\u201d techniques you don\u2019t learn in the classroom.\u00a0 Have you ever\u00a0struggled to tear\u00a0off a strip of adhesive tape to apply a dressing?\u00a0 If you\u2019re not in the medical profession, how about tearing duct tape?\u00a0 Can you do it? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Tear Tape - OrthopaedicLIST.com Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orthopaediclist.com\/blog\/how-to-tear-tape\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Tear Tape - OrthopaedicLIST.com Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by James D. Hundley, MD You may think that this is silly, but it\u2019s one of those \u201cessential\u201d techniques you don\u2019t learn in the classroom.\u00a0 Have you ever\u00a0struggled to tear\u00a0off a strip of adhesive tape to apply a dressing?\u00a0 If you\u2019re not in the medical profession, how about tearing duct tape?\u00a0 Can you do it? 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