PICU without wearing a gown?

Specialties PICU

Published

hope everyone is fine while reading this. i posted this thread hoping that that the responses that ill be getting from you could help me to clear up my mind coz i am really confuse now.

i am newly hired at picu department here in our place, i could say that everything is in order except that the staff here ( nurses, doctors, and lpn) are not wearing an icu gown. i believe that working in icu, u must already know that wearing a gown is a must.

when i looked for a gown in the stock room, i didn't find any. thus, i am planing to bring my own so i can protect myself and my client as well .but i am worried that maybe the staff in the icu will make fun out of me or it'll will be awkward that nobody else in the room wearing a gown but me.

so what you think? should i wear a gown as part of ppe or not?

thank you!

-daren

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU/CCU, Med Surg.
i believe that working in icu, u must already know that wearing a gown is a must.

i work in an icu and did not know that "wearing a gown is a must". we don't at my hospital, unless the patient is on contact precautions.

what does your hospital's policy say?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

I have worked ICU for 22 years now, including Pediatric ICU, and have never worn a "gown" unless the patient is in isolation for some reason.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I work in an ICU and did not know that "wearing a gown is a must". We don't at my hospital, unless the patient is on contact precautions.

What does your hospital's policy say?

Well, I read it somewhere in my book ( Dunno if it's correct or not ) that when you are caring for a client in an ICU standard PPE including gown must be worn all the time. As with me, I am frequently caring for a pediatric client with pneumonia, clinical sepsis, CNS infections etc.

Still, I dont see anyone wearing a gown except for those client's relatives who wants to visit.

I was not able to read the hospital policy coz I don't even know where to find it. lol :smokin:

Anyways thank you and gb.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

My son was in the PICU a few years ago and nobody ever wore a gown.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care, Capacity/Bed Management.

I work ICU at two different facilities and personal protective equipment is worn when the patient is in some sort of precaution (neutropenic, contact, airborne, droplet, etc) or the risk of being soiled with body fluids is very likely.

To be honest if I was forced to wear a gown all day for the 12 hours I would be seriously upset, those gowns get pretty hot, pretty quick; especially in an airborne room.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I thought that depended on your specific hospital regulations?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Never heard of such a thing in my area unless the pt is under some kind of isolation. The only time we wear a gown is with an isolation pt, a bloody trauma to protect our clothes or messy code browns :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

Let's think about this for a second:

Wearing the same gown all day would be no more effective at preventing infection than wearing no gown. You walk into one patient's room with your gown, get germs on it, go into the next patient's room, and bring the germs right with you. In order for this practice to make sense the nurse would have to remove the gown before leaving the patient's room and put on a new one before entering another room. This would be wasteful and expensive unless the patient has a certain disease that can be spread by contact, air, respiratory droplets, or ir neutropenic.

Bringing your own gown wouldn't help because you would not only be passing germs from patient to patient, you'd be bringing them from home with you and taking them home as well. In my facility, isolation carts (with gowns) are sent from central supply when we have a patient that requires it.

If you are following standard precautions than you will be able to effectively protect yourself and your patients from the spread of most infections. It's only when they have a certain condition that a gown is necessary. Here is a chart from John Hopkin's medical center that lists which illnesses require isolation precautions.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/bin/i/j/IFC023_APP_B.pdf

Well, I read it somewhere in my book ( Dunno if it's correct or not ) that when you are caring for a client in an ICU standard PPE including gown must be worn all the time. As with me, I am frequently caring for a pediatric client with pneumonia, clinical sepsis, CNS infections etc.

I'm sure you will soon realize that not everything in your text books is practiced in real life. This can be a real shock for some new nurses. :) Depending on the type of bacteria causing the infection, pneumonia, sepsis and CNS infections do not always require contact precautions. See this list above for more reference.

Best of luck in your new job. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatrics.
well, i read it somewhere in my book ( dunno if it's correct or not ) that when you are caring for a client in an icu standard ppe including gown must be worn all the time. as with me, i am frequently caring for a pediatric client with pneumonia, clinical sepsis, cns infections etc.

still, i dont see anyone wearing a gown except for those client's relatives who wants to visit.

i was not able to read the hospital policy coz i don't even know where to find it. lol :smokin:

peds nurse here (with some picu ecxperience): where io have worked (and brought my students to clinicals) gowns are not a standard practice. only if the conditions permits.

i also worked in a bmt unit, where gowns were standard with all persons entering the room. why? to protect the patients (protective or reverse isolation).

just sayin': when you say "i read it somewhere in my book (dunno if it's correct or not), it doesn't sound too credible. and if you weren't able to read the policy, it sounds like maybe you should before you call anyone out.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Back in the olden days, when I was a new grad ... we always wore gowns in the Neonatal ICU. We would have a different gown for each baby, each shift. As we went from bed to bed, we would put on that baby's gown to avoid taking germs from one baby to the other. That practice went out of favor many years ago. Now, as others have said, people just put on a gown when the situation suggests a risk.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

I don't think it's standard practice to automatically wear a gown w/o a reason. Many pts have "self-contained" infections: that is, e.g., septicemia--it's "contained" w/in the pt's body. You would wear gloves in any case if you were going draw blood, start an IV, mess around w/the IVs, etc.

Also, think about how the disease is transmitted: meningitis: bacterial is non contagious after a certain # of antibiotic doses; viral is fecal-oral spread. Base your PPE on what you are doing to the pt, and what they might do to you.

You stated you didn't know where the Policies/Procedures were located. I strongly recommend a little treasure hunt to find them, and any other stuff that might prove useful on occasion--disaster plans, fire evacuation and the like. Often these things are "on the computer" (altho what you're supposed to do if systems are down is a whole 'nother issue). When accreditation comes around, they're gonna ask you to show them stuff like that. Avoid the "deer in the headlights" moment! Trust me, been there, done that. 'Nuff said! ;)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment