Patients are told to ask nurses: have you washed?

There are no policies against wearing wedding rings where I work, but I leave all my rings at home, including my wedding ring. why risk bringing those nasty bugs home? Or risk cutting gloves with them? Or risk losing them when I have to take them off for patient care at work? Not worth it to me.

Me too . . . no rings at work. No official policy against rings though.

steph

I can't even imagine what must be lurking under the stone in my ring. I really need to get them cleaned! I don't wear any to work. It's easier for me not to worry about them.

Because this seems to be an Aussie issue (but the OP originated in England?) I wonder about some cross-cultural issues.

Do you think hospitals in Australia would be more likely to do this button thing than hospitals in the US? I haven't worked for any that did in 12 years. But in America, it's all about marketing. I can forsee the day when we have ID badges "sponsored by" some drug company that has an advertisement along the bottom. "Ask this nurse if she washed her hands with KLENZO KLEENER!!!!"

Are patients pushy in Australia? I can't imagine most Americans asking anything like that, even if we were wearing buttons. It would be considered too rude. People here get rude, but usually about other things. Maybe they're more in-yer-face Down Under.

Who do you think makes more people sick: nurses who don't wash their hands or restaurant workers? Oh -- add doctors into that poll!

I think it is management that has a problem. Any nurse who would wear such a badge and not feel insulted has a problem. I am a professional, my JOB is to teach health practices. I can't teach if you (the patient) are too busy asking if I practice what I preach.....think about it.

Despite the small number of infection-related sentinel event cases reported to the Joint Commission, the number of patients acquiring infections in the health care setting, as well as the number of patient deaths due to an acquired infection, remains high. According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), each year nearly two million patients in the United States get an infection in hospitals, and about 90,000 of these patients die as a result of their infection. Infections are also a complication of care in other settings including long term care facilities, clinics and dialysis centers.