A "bare below the elbows" policy makes sense and there indeed are studies corroborating that pathogens can accumulate on wristwatches. However, having worked a

A "bare below the elbows" policy makes sense and there indeed are studies corroborating that pathogens can accumulate on wristwatches. However, having worked as a paramedic I'm wondering how you would actually measure a patient's heart rate without a watch and with no additional equipment around. Not every patient will be on cardiac monitoring, after all. Yes, there are those nurse watches you can attach to your shirt or white coat but in order to take a proper look at those they have to be touched as well, which kind of defeats the purpose.