Soiled Scrubs Mid-Shift

Obviously, you change, right? What are you doing with your soiled scrubs in the mean time? Are you cleaning them at the hospital? Home?

[loriangel14, RN]

I would get a set of scrubs from laundry and throw mine in a bag. I just throw mine in the wash when I get home.

[amoLucia]

It would be such a luxury to think that all nurses work at a place that has a readily available source of replaceable clothing. Now, if you work in a LTC place on 11-7, good luck!!! That's why it's best to carry spares in your car/locker. Also some of us more generously endowed, Reubenesque women may need to carry our own also!

Many nurses already carry an extra change of clothing in anticipation of staying overtime. And not all places willl do employee laundry. At one place, we had a washer/dryer available in-house that was used for Occup Therapy's ADL program. Some staff used it for their own use rather than a laundramat, so that became off-limits quickly. And besides, in-house laundry isn't germ-proofed, so I'd rather take my stuff home and do it myself. That way I could assure the actual clothes wash and the post-machine cleanse.

Shoes are different; I did have an old extra pair avail because of the notorious floods we'd have in our LTC places on nites.

At worst, you could just wear an isolation gown over the messy ones.

[teeniebert, LPN]

When I worked in LTC I had a spare set of EVERYTHING in my locker--scrub pants and top, socks, shoes, and undies. I only ever had to use the shoes and socks (so I wouldn't wake everyone up squelching up and down the hall after a particularly difficult shower) but I was really glad I had them.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

After I ended up soiling my scrubs midshift, I now keep a spare set in my locker just in case. Luckily it was just my scrub top, so I took it off and I had a white longsleeve thermal underneath, so I just wore that with my scrub jacket that I brought to work over that. I put my soiled scrub top in a bag and washed it in hot water when I got home.

[~PedsRN~, BSN, RN]

We call maternity where they wear hospital issued scrubs and then run ours thru the unit's laundry. (We have a washer and a dryer on each unit for patients)

[TheBlackDogWaits]

Yikes! I was hoping someone would say they have washing facilities at the hospital! I know that probaby sounds ridiculous, but at the risk of having foreign hazmat in your own personal washer? Yuk, yuk, yuk. I thought maybe there might be a more sterile process than just taking it home and crossing your fingers... Thanks for the replies.