Parents with Arcrylics/Tips

Specialties NICU

Published

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Hi....does anyone have a policy or know if we can legally ask a family to take off there fake nails? We are looking into this as we have had pseudomonas on several kids with mom's with arcrylics. We think that we can only advise them, but can we require them to wear gloves? What do you think?

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Specializes in OBGYN, Neonatal.

I don't know much about it but I would say that it would be a good idea, no a great idea to say you need to either remove them or wear gloves...hopefully most of the parents would prefer to touch their child skin on skin and will go ahead and remove the nails...but I know the other side is the parents may be so upset about their children and feel so out of control that telling them to remove nails might be one more thing they can't control...but in my humble opinion, the child's safety is of the utmost importance and 20+ bucks of nails can be replaced, a child cannot...

But I'm new LOL!

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We have signs posted by our scrub sink about acrylic nails not being allowed. I believe it is also posted in the binders we give our parents in a section about infection control.

We don't mess around with this subject :nono:

Just the other day I noticed a mother who had fake nails. I asked her if she had Acrylics on and explained how the fake nails can cause infection and blah, blah, blah. I told her that she had to take them off but in the meantime she must wear gloves. She had NO problem with it and was completely understanding...but I'm sure some parents would react differently to the situation.

"The child's safety is of the utmost importance and 20+ bucks of nails can be replaced, a child cannot..."

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When my sons were in the NICU, there were signs posted saying acrylics/fake nails were not allowed, and it was also posted in the binder we received, as a way to prevent infections. I would think it's not outside of what you can require, but I don't know the legal side of it or if it would be different in each state. I think it is *totally* reasonable to require removal of acrylic nails, just as they required my daughter to check in any time she came and have her temperature taken, etc.

Tiffany

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