[chae]

Our lecturers and perceptors do a nail check to make sure no one is wearing falsies and your naturals are short,as short as you could possibly make them or they send you looking for a clipper before you are allowed to go into your area. Besides what if your glove did happen to tear durng clean up of a BM. How confident would you feel at the lunch table? Just something ot think about.

[ktwlpn]

Originally posted by Ruffles
I am a nursing student graduating next month. I wore "fake nails" before nursing school, but my program did not allow them during school. I am considering getting them again after graduation. What is your opinion and the policies at the facilities where you work? Are they a health hazaard to patients if proper handwashing precautions are used? Have you read any studies on the "fake nail" issue?

Most facilities in this area prohibit them-with good reason.If you truly care about your patients you won't risk their health or your own.Besides the fact that many outbreaks of some nasty infections have been linked to them (imagine spreading some fingernail funk to your own family) they poke through gloves(yuch!) and scratch fragile skin....Don't wear them....

[SmilingBluEyes]

imagine what having to send policy-violators does to staffing for that shift. SO NOT WORTH IT TO VIOLATE POLICY AND RISK THE HEALTH OF ONESELF OR OTHERS IN their care.

[mark_LD_RN]

deb-- i would have a hard time living with my self also if i was the one spreading the infection around. thankfully the hospital had a good infection control department. but it was a pain they came around cultured everything and everyone. kinda mad me feel violated

[mark_LD_RN]

deb-- i would have a hard time living with my self also if i was the one spreading the infection around. thankfully the hospital had a good infection control department. but it was a pain they came around cultured everything and everyone. kinda mad me feel violated

[sphinx]

In the past I have had acrylic nails. I had them because I am a nail biter, have been since I was a child. I am a *bad* nail biter, and I have tried to stop many times, to no avail, it is a stress related habit. I bite so much my skin breaks, I bite the skin around my nails and occasionally will bleed. I tried the acrylics not for vanity, but in an attempt to stop the biting (the nasty tasting stuff you paint on never worked, I just bit anyway). With acrylics on, I can't bite cuz the darn things are so hard, and I was able to stop because it forced me to.

I always had the acrylics filed short (I could never get used to nails with any length to them)and polished in a light color or natural. They never fell off. I was able to keep my hands out of my mouth for once in my life, which I feel in many ways was much more sanitary, because even with good and frequent handwashing, having your hands in your mouth is not sanitary at all, esp with broken skin. It also makes you look like a yahoo.

However, when the studies about infections being traced to nurses with fake nails came out, I immediately quit getting the acrylics. I figured I could never be too sure, even if I was very careful with cleanliness. I also figured I could manage to keep my hands out of my mouth during my shift, after all, smokers could go without cigarettes except for breaks, and that's a physical addiction! I still bite my nails, but usually only when acutely stressed, not all the time, and I do manage to *not* do it when with a patient.

However at present I am working in an area where I have no patient contact, and had considered trying acrylics again.....until I read in another thread about a nurse who had a pt come to the ED with a nas-tay fungal infection r/t fake nails (shudder).

[luvbeinganurse]

Wow - I am really having to rethink my position on this. Although, for as little physical contact that I personally have with our clients, I don't think it's a problem. (My admissions are mostly for home health aides and homemaker/companions - the only nursing is usually for medication management) But I would be interested in reading those studies if anyone knows where to locate them.

[jadednurse]

Originally posted by nurseleigh
Bottom line is. . . it doesn't matter what you, me, or anyone else thinks on the issue.

If your place of employment has a policy against them, then you can't wear them. It's that simple.

Traci

Well yes...and no. As for this issue, obviously the risk of infection and the risk of transmission of infection make a strong case for not wearing them. But I think the mentality of doing, or not doing something, simply because it's "policy" is not that simple.

[nursiemitch]

I recently got adventerous and had some acrylic nails applied. I was working in a NICU at the time. Imagine my disgust when six shifts later they started to lift!
It was traced back to the sterigel we use to clean our hands post handwashing.
So if you wanna spend the money, make sure that you get your moneys worth!

[Scavenger'sWife]

As I have said earlier, I have had "falsies" (lol) for 3 years. I have never had one fall off. Mine are short and most people don't even comment on my nails at all because they are so natural looking. I don't understand the thing about acrylics being sharp or poking through gloves. They are thicker than "natural" nails...if your OWN nails do not poke thro gloves, how can the fakes? I understand that many people do not take the precise care of their nails that I do, hence the rules. I am not usually a "rule breaker"...I am usually the one who is scared to death of consequences. But I have no nightmares about what I am doing. I have seen NASTY fungal infections. Those persons do NOT care for their nails at all, not their own or the fakes. I mostly do home care, as I work for a home health. Most of my work is paper-pushing. And within the home, do the patients take the extreme care to have clean hands that I do? As for the nurse who said her nails "lifted" after 6 hours r/t handwashing, I have never had that problem. It has to be the product that was used on your nails. NO ONE should ever get "tips"...they WILL fall off or lift.

Ah well.....

And Helllllo Nurse...SURE! We can be friends! There is still hope for the world!!!