Socializing after work in your scrubs

[klone]

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!

[IEDave, ASN, CNA, LVN]

...What about the business man in his suit enjoying a corona after work? He doesn't get judged...

Exactly how much would you care to wager on that one?

So far, I've heard of it happening about half a dozen times at my various employers - and, witnessed it twice.

The best one was, hmm, would've been in the early 90's. At the time I was a young computer operator at a firm that insisted on business attire for the DP staff, including dress shirts, ties, presentable slacks, etc. for the operators. Really "by the book" organization...fast forward a bit...along came a Friday night & there was a company 'do at the local baseball game. The "real" suits got to use the box & us peons got the nosebleed seats. Anyhow - game was on, and one of my co-workers points out one of the managers, in his suit, with an adult beverage in hand. My nosy co-worker kept track of his actions, and...Monday morning, I got in at my usual oh-seven-bleary-eyed & got called over by one of the management - handed a cardboard box & told to go help clean out so & so's office. Seems that the CEO got a report from someone of one of the managers loosening up at the ball game, left an after-hours meeting, drove over to the field and witnessed said manager in action.

So...Mr. "Life of the party" shows up at 7:55 a.m., apparently oblivious to the police cruiser in visitor parking :redlight: and the fact that the CEO's car was in "executive row" (which very rarely happened - CEO was a "9 to whenever" kind of person) :redlight::redlight:. CEO called him in to the conference room & closed the door. Nobody witnessed what happened next, but about 15 minutes later two of the local gendarmerie escorted the manager out of the building; manager looked white as a sheet; and a couple of the office staff took the boxes out to his car. Ta-ta, y'all!

Technically, it wasn't an "after work" scenario - the other one that got nailed was as you described though; just wasn't as interesting a tale is all. Unprofessional behavior is unprofessional behavior, and the "suits" get nailed as well - it's just a little more low-key as to how it's handled.

Far as me - I usually carry a couple of change of clothes (backup scrubs & street clothes) with me anyway. Being a CNA's not terribly clean to begin with, and for me it's not that big of a deal to change into casual street clothes at the end of a shift. But, that's just me - do as you like.

----- Dave

[Perpetual Student]

To each their own, but I sure wouldn't go to a bar in scrubs. I always change in the locker room at the end of the day. The only time I leave the hospital grounds in scrubs is if I'm going to hit a drive-thru and report back for duty.

It just plain looks trashy as heck regardless of how clean they are. I won't leave my house in sweat pants for the same reason.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

My personal preference is to change into street clothes when I get off work. I work in the ED, and we often don't even know what kinds of things we're being exposed to.

However, I'm in agreement that hand hygeine is the single most important factor in infection control, and people outside the hospital walls aren't reliable about it, no matter what they're wearing.

Heck, they've found MRSA on several North American beaches, and I doubt it came from someone wearing scrubs!

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

One thing you can be sure of: They weren't hussies looking to get hooked up that night.

[mom4josh]

This has been a huge deal for our facility lately. It has come down the pike numerous times something to the effect of "Thou shalt not weareth thy scrubs outsideth the worketh facility-eth." I'd bet that most facilities have such rules, but just not enforced. I, personally, chooseth to keepeth my jobeth!

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

I personally don't like to wear my scrubs out after work. I just yucky in them after work. If others want to do it, so what. To each its own.

[MomRN0913]

To each their own, but I sure wouldn't go to a bar in scrubs. I always change in the locker room at the end of the day. The only time I leave the hospital grounds in scrubs is if I'm going to hit a drive-thru and report back for duty.

It just plain looks trashy as heck regardless of how clean they are. I won't leave my house in sweat pants for the same reason.

Wow, you sound near perfect. You don't even go out in sweats.

So now people who go out in sweats are just plain trashy. Well, I have been in public in scrubs and sweats. Guess I define trash.

Wow, this has been the most judgmental thread I have seen yet.

[interceptinglight, CNA]

....I also noticed the reference to them being 'somewhat large' and the assumption that they'd break her 'like kindling' if she said anything....

[sharpeimom]

i live in a very rural area. the three local counties that ajoin where our county forms a triangle have a total population of under 15,000

and most of those people are very set in their ways about how a nurse (anyone in scrubs or a lab jacket really) should behave. fair or not, outdated or not, it still is. a nurse, a doctor, any kind of teacher, a lawyer, is expected to conduct themselves in a certain way.

someone in scrubs sticks out, whether they're a nurse, cleaning staff, or lab tech. we have a favorite little family three generation italian restaurant where everyone in a four county radius goes. there was a table of off duty state police (in uniform) having lunch last time we were there. the reaction was not good. i guess if you go certain places in your uniform, whatever it may be, people feel

free to take potshots at you. unfair? yes, but until attitudes change, that's how it will be.

my objection is more that that germ phobia. i would change before i left if i were covered by anything gross before leaving work.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

This has been a huge deal for our facility lately. It has come down the pike numerous times something to the effect of "Thou shalt not weareth thy scrubs outsideth the worketh facility-eth." I'd bet that most facilities have such rules, but just not enforced. I, personally, chooseth to keepeth my jobeth!

I guess it the flower child in me. What I do on my time with the clothes I have bought with my own money is MY BUSINESS. As long as there is no identifying marks from the hospital and not wearing my ID.......it's my time.

I guess I'd have to find another job.

[interceptinglight, CNA]

I think you guys are all totally missing the point -- let's just forget about all this worry over microbes, MRSA and unprofessionalism and get down to what's really important here -- namely, looking good while partying!!! :yelclap: Like, just how are you supposed to be a man-magnet in unflattering and unfashionable scrubs?? :cheers: Sheesh, personally I wouldn't dare go out in anything I couldn't wear with a pair of fishnet stockings. Get real, people!!!

[klone, MSN, RN]

....I also noticed the reference to them being 'somewhat large' and the assumption that they'd break her 'like kindling' if she said anything....

Yeah, every single one of them was at least 5'10". No joke. Next to them, I looked Lilliputian, and I'm not a particularly tiny person by normal standards.