Socializing after work in your scrubs

Nurses Relations

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Yuck! Who does this? So my husband and I are on a long weekend in Taos, NM. Friday night we were at a local bar listening to a band. In walk a group of women in their mid-twenties. They appeared to have just gotten off work, as they were all wearing scrubs. They hung out at the bar for several hours, drinking, shooting pool, dancing, flirting with men. Wearing their scrubs. Yuck! Of course, after having a couple beers, myself, I was tempted to approach them and ask if they knew how gross and unhygienic that was, but I'm not a big person, and these women were all somewhat large and could have broken me like kindling, and luckily I hadn't had so much to drink that I was that foolish (my husband, of course, bet me $5 to say something to them).

All I could think of all night was fomites!

Thanks to this thread, I'll never have to look up the word "fomite" again.

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
Die mid-sentence from being near a person wearing scrubs after work?

LMAO I know, and the fact that it was at the bottom of the page...I was in suspense!! "I wear...... I wear..... I WEAR WHAT?" lol

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

For those who think that street clothes are much cleaner than scrubs, here's what I witnessed today:

Pt had surgery, specimen removed and sent to pathology for frozen section to determine if more tissue needed to be removed. Pathology assistant is cutting up the specimen, putting it on slides, and everything else they do, while wearing only gloves! There was no isolation gown over her street clothes, which were loose, unbuttoned, and flapping around, quite possibly into the specimen. I believe it's policy, and every other person who enters the frozen section rooms does it, to wear an isolation gown over street clothes. Now that's someone I wouldn't want to be next to at the bar, but no one else is going to know.

I think its unprofessional, but i just ignore it.

I wear scrubs after work to go to the store or eat. If I get my scrubs dirtied (poo, pee or having a fomite poo and pee on my scrubs), then I’ll change. I always have an extra shoes and scrubs in my trunk.

Is it gross? Unless someone is going to put their food in my dirty scrubs then yes, I’d say that’s gross (and weird at the same time).

But like everyone said to each is own.

We watch movies and sit on those chairs and never think of germs. Who knows when those chairs was last wiped, let alone disinfected? People always put their dirty shoes on the back of those seats. Those seats have been farted on (an indication of a good comedy or really scary movie) and most probably would have some bodily fluid of some sort. We place our drinks on those cup holders and then use the same hand to dunk into the popcorn.

Is my scrub really that gross to be worn in public? Somehow I don’t think so.

Specializes in cardiac-telemetry, hospice, ICU.

What about the doctors that I see go into all kinds of quarantine rooms (with no precautions I might add), shuck their white coat and go to the same bar? Man, talk about carriers!

Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.
i wear scrubs after work to go to the store or eat. if i get my scrubs dirtied (poo, pee or having a fomite poo and pee on my scrubs), then i’ll change. i always have an extra shoes and scrubs in my trunk.

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oh no! now i have to worry about fomite pee and poo too??!! :eek:

wonder what we could turn fomite pee into? how about an ingredient in a fancy anti-wrinkle cream?

what about using the fomite poo to make something like african violet fertilizer?

hmmm...:smokin:

Well just so y'all know many European hospitals provide changing rooms for male and female medical/nursing staff to change before and after duty. Uniforms and scrubs are provided by the hospital and are laundered by same. One does *not* go back and forth from duty in scrubs, period.

Had the occasion to see this first up in a German hospital, and by the way the place was so clean you could eat off the floor. Medical and nursing staff's scrubs/uniforms were so white and clean they blinded, ditto for the linens.

In the UK there was a recent dust up about nurses traveling to and from duty in uniform ,much less going to public areas sucha s shops or restaurants. Long story short the *public* wasn't keen the idea in polling but nurses complained they didn't have places at work to change. Not sure what the final outcome was.

Historically many "old school" nursing programs forbade student's from traveling back and forth in uniform. One carried the thing and changed in the locker room.

Here in NYC many restaurants/shops will actually ask anyone in scrubs to leave. This happened to a friend of mine when she and several co-workers went out to lunch in scrubs. Management stated it made other customers feel ill at ease.

Well that comes in handy when you gotta FIGHT!! FOR YOUR RIGHT!! TO PAAAAAAARTY!!!!

:rotfl:

If you live in a smaller community, going out in your scrubs for some after work adult beverages could get back to your employer quicker than you getting home at the end of the evening. And heaven forbid you get into your car and drive....(which no one should after drinking anyways). Could cost you your job. And I would think the LAST thing you want to hear as you enter a patient room is "heyyyyy weren't you the girl at the bar doing shots last weekend????"

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
i'm with you -- but if you wore whites out, or to work, you must be a dinosaur like me, and everyone knows that we don't know anything.

oh, i'm a dinosaur alright......i used to hate the mental giant who always had to ask...."are you a nurse?" i would turn and look at them like they were crazy and i said "no i'm a beautician for a funeral home and since many of the clients just left the hospital we think it makes them more comfortable with the embalming process."

they would just walk away in stunned silence......:rotfl:

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
:rotfl:

If you live in a smaller community, going out in your scrubs for some after work adult beverages could get back to your employer quicker than you getting home at the end of the evening. And heaven forbid you get into your car and drive....(which no one should after drinking anyways). Could cost you your job. And I would think the LAST thing you want to hear as you enter a patient room is "hey weren't you the girl at the bar doing shots last weekend????"

No one has a sense of humor anymore.....:sniff:. As far as the nosey town gossip.....I would just tell them that was my evil twin just released for the state hospital. :lol2:

I probably wouldn't but this falls under the category of

.......what would you really like to say:smokin:

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.
:rotfl:

If you live in a smaller community, going out in your scrubs for some after work adult beverages could get back to your employer quicker than you getting home at the end of the evening. And heaven forbid you get into your car and drive....(which no one should after drinking anyways). Could cost you your job. And I would think the LAST thing you want to hear as you enter a patient room is "heyyyyy weren't you the girl at the bar doing shots last weekend????"

I've been to parties where people were my patients and they recognized me and said something about it. Makes for some fun/awkward stories.

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