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!

[CompleteUnknown]

First point. Most people wear scrubs in a non-medical environment because they think i makes them look cool.

It is pretty shocking that health care professionals would think that wearing "used" scrubs to say a bar or a restaurant is ok. The same goes for shoes.

Hospitals are the nastiest dirtiest places ever.

All of us should change our clothes and our shoes ASAP after our shift. Then head straight to the showers.

Cool factor, what cool factor??

Naturally there are exceptions and there are days when it would be wise to change and shower straight after work, and each of us will do what we want to do, but I can't agree with that statement.

If it really was the case, we'd all be sick all the time, none of our little cuts and grazes would ever heal, and it would be the same for our families. We don't change clothes between patients (in normal circumstances). Patients are discharged into the community. Visitors come and go freely. There is no decontamination zone at the exits. Sometimes I think there should be one at the entry point, but that's another issue altogether.

[MadpeysRN]

I was born for scrubs

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

Hospitals are the nastiest dirtiest places ever.

You been to a daycare recently?

[klone, MSN, RN]

My, what a thread. My two cents:

I've seen women wearing skin-tight thin fabrics that were cut way too low, way too high, or just way "too". They look ridiculous, unattractive, and I'd rather not see that.

Thank goodness that or scrubs are not the only two options!

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

I do not care if my nurse, doctor, lawyer, accountant, goes out drinking after work . However going out in scrubs is super gross to me because I always shower before going out, do my hair, after washing it, put on a full face of makeup ( not blessed with great skin). However, I know not everyone does this and their regular going out clothes might be even dirtier than my scrubs after a 13 hour shift with a few cdiff incontinent patients, a couple with bad wounds etc....... people are gross. I get all ready in clothes I would never wear to work, and makeup I could never wear to work, so I look better. All this talk about teachers, nurses, pt, ot, mds, cops shouldn't be seen drinking, and if they must, they must be in civillian clothes with a wig,makes me miss one of my old jobs where we got paid to party, essentially. (not healthcare !)lol

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Thank goodness that or scrubs are not the only two options!

LOL! Indeed :)

[Wave Watcher]

I'm exhausted by the time I get off work. If I want to go eat, go shopping, go to the grocery store....whatever....I'm going. In my scrubs. I am not going home to change, I am not going to lug around extra clothes "just in case".

I don't care what the person next to me thinks. If they don't like it.....get a little bit further away from me. JMO.

I deal with people hacking, coughing, snotting, rashes....you name it when out in public. I'm not the one spreading the germs.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I've been at work all day, knowing what rooms I need to wear gowns in to avoid the germs. You've been to Wal-Mart. Who knows who had the buggy before you. Who pawed the banana you're picking up. Who sneezed while looking at underwear. Who was just released from the hospital with a still oozing wound and picked up some gum on their way home.

If my scrubs keep you and your Wal-Mart worn FOMITE clothes sitting further away from me, all the better for me.

[vanburbian]

Anyone who thinks I am gonna go home, change and clean up after I just ran my azz off for the last 12.5 hours all night before I stop at the grocery store on my way home is, IMO, only seeing half the picture here.

All that "ick" that I came in contact with last night?? Hate to burst a bubble, but those peeps came in wearing their street clothes (many of them from a bar, by the way) and they have already been out "fomiting" it up all over town.

At the grocery store, the tavern, the library, minit mart and McDonalds.

Now, if I had a night like last night, and I have a patient who is projectile vomiting enough blood to spray the walls behind them, well...I change scrubs at work right away.

Otherwise, no- if I have to stop somewhere, I do it, in my scrubs. Not like I'm hugging the aisles/display cases.

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

Yuck! Who does this?

I'm not a big person, and these women were all somewhat large and could have broken me like kindling

You should have said something. One of them might have been large enough to pull that giant stick out of your rear end.

[tech1000]

I do it. I don't go dancing, but I do go eat a meal after work with friends sometimes. After all, I DO eat lunch at work wearing *gasp* my SCRUBS! I also grocery shop in them if I need to. If I'm all up on some patient with urine all over the place, or if somebody with MRSA is all up on me, then no. I go home and I change. But I have days where my scrubs barely touch even the beds my patients are in (I'm an ER nurse. Sometimes the patients don't need all that rolling and changing and all of that). But you do realize that the same people who are in the hospital ALSO go out in public, right? These people who never wash their hands are restaurants could have cdiff, and it's really no different. I've never looked at somebody in scrubs and assumed they were a nurse. I worked the front desk at a dental office for a long time and wore scrubs.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

All that "ick" that I came in contact with last night?? Hate to burst a bubble, but those peeps came in wearing their street clothes (many of them from a bar, by the way) and they have already been out "fomiting" it up all over town.

"Fomiting it up all over town" ...

Oh man, I'm so gonna use this phrase!