Are nurses allowed to have their nails painted?

Nurses Professionalism

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I keep hearing nurses aren't allowed to wear acrylics, which I understand. Are nurses allowed to wear nail polish though? I love having my nails painted, but I don't mind giving this obsession up to be a nurse! :)

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I paint my nails, but the polish comes off with all of the hand

sanitizer that I use!

I would like to have a manicure but I'm not sure what in the

world to have done. Can't have fake nails. Can't have a

french manicure or have the nails painted; again the polish

just comes right off. Guess I'd just have to have my

cuticles done.

My daughter got a nail buffing kit and did mine - it looked like clear polish when she was done. Hand massage sounds great, too . . .

Specializes in Utilization Management; Case Management.

I was just toying with the idea of getting my nails done...going on vacay but will have to work and go straight to the airport so no time for nail between work and travel. Also I have worn polish to work...ends up chipped in 2hrs. But me personally, I try to not do a thing without gloves on anyways, not that its the ultimate protector but I dont just run in a room unprotected bc I dont SEE poop or blood...so yes chipped nails harbor bacteria but if I never touch my patient without gloves...I think my nail germs will stay mine...lol. And yes I know I can touch a chart and the bug jumps off and someone else touches and now their patient has my nail bug...but in a perfect world where we all wore gloves and did hand washing I think we'd be ok. I agree that some ppl do need to get a life and not be down my back bc I know the rules...if one doesn't know the rules then send on perfect patty with the megaphone reminders.

Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.

I think "Newbie" says it all. Look at ME! Look at my nails!! Would you want to work in a shellac factory? Why would you put it on your nails? Obviously you never did an OR rotation where hygiene standards are observed more keenly. Fake nails are cesspools of disease.

.....

Subee? Listen, there's no need for the "smart" remarks. I CLEARLY said in my post that I understand if we can't wear Acrylics. Pull the stick out of your rear!

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

My hospital has a naked nail policy. They don't want to go policing possibly chipped nails.

Us too, hospital wide, no nail polish, acrylics, or natural nails longer than the fingertip, which is fine on my unit because Im an L&D nurse and long nails would just be mean.

Specializes in LTC, MDS, EHR, HH, Nursing Management.

I am SHOCKED this thread is even up here? The research related to artificial nails goes back before I even began my nurse aide training in 1996! Does anyone read a professional journal or online journal? How can we call ourselves professionals and not know that artificial nails are bad business for the patients whom we all "claim" is the reason we got into nursing in the first place?

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

I think the issue was nail polish where policies vary from one facility to the other. We have had threads in the last couple of years though where people take issue with gels, wraps and other forms of artificial nails that have come on the market since the original study mentioned earlier in this thread here:

Outbreak of Extended‐Spectrum Beta‐Lactamase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Linked to Artificial Nails

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/502380

Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.
Depends on where you work. All the places I've worked had a specific policy against false nails but they never enforce it. I used to wear fake nails and no one ever said anything to me. Now I always wear gel/shellac polish on my natural nails. Sometimes I have loud, crazy colors; I get lots of compliments. If anyone has time to focus on if your nails are real, fake, and polished they need to get a life and do some work.

Well, fake nails sure do look pretty, but egads, the studies that show the amount of bacteria and nasties that are associated with them is enough to make me "just say no"

I did 2 clinical rotations at a facility that spelled out in black and white that acrylic or other "fake" nails were an absolute no-no. Unless you were my clinical instructor apparently...'

Specializes in Operating Room.

As an O.R nurse I am allowed to wear nail polish as long as it is not chipped and that is according to my AORN guidelines. I'm pretty sure your hospital has a policy regarding nail polish if there is one that states you can't wear acrylics.

Specializes in Oncology, Medical.
Also I have worn polish to work...ends up chipped in 2hrs.

Wow, my nail polish lasts at least a few days! And yes, I wash my hands a lot. In fact, the skin on my hands is now peeling because of the hand sanitizer, and this is the second time it has happened in maybe a year (I think it also has something to do with the specific hand sanitizer my workplace uses, but I do use it a lot at work...)

My trick is to apply clear nail polish, two layers of the coloured nail polish, and then finish with another layer of clear nail polish. It takes time but it works.

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