This is my first post on allnurses, and I wasnt sure where to ask this question...Hopefully I dont make anyone mad if its in the wrong spot!
I am a student and at my school we cannot have acrylic fingernails (I feel like this is standard in nursing schools). One of my peers is taking it hard that she had to take hers off when school started. She states that once she graduates, passes the NCLEX and secures a job that she will get her nails back. I feel like getting her nails back is what is keeping her in nursing school.
I was wondering if current nurses could shed some light to me, so maybe I can pass some info along to her or I can just make her stop talking about it because I hear about it on a daily basis.
Boo Hoo! Seriously? She's that upset over fake fingernails?!?
I don't know of any hospital or potential employer that allows acrylics. Why she would even want them while in the nursing profession I don't understand. Does she have any idea what kinds of "goodies" hide under them??? Gross!
It's a health hazard to her and her patients...plain and simple.
Maybe she should have went into cosmetology instead of nursing. Just a thought.
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
(I still want to know what the black fuzzy stuff was!)
Mold. And not just any mold...sounds like it was similar to what grew in water-damaged buildings after Katrina, causing the "Katrina cough." Nasty nasty stuff.
just tell her about how infectious material can get down inside of the nails, and no matter how many times she cleans it, it will always have material down inside of the nail bed. nails should be kept to finger tip length, for her safety also.
This is my first post on allnurses, and I wasnt sure where to ask this question...Hopefully I dont make anyone mad if its in the wrong spot!
I am a student and at my school we cannot have acrylic fingernails (I feel like this is standard in nursing schools). One of my peers is taking it hard that she had to take hers off when school started. She states that once she graduates, passes the NCLEX and secures a job that she will get her nails back. I feel like getting her nails back is what is keeping her in nursing school.
I was wondering if current nurses could shed some light to me, so maybe I can pass some info along to her or I can just make her stop talking about it because I hear about it on a daily basis.
Thanks
If my program told me, "Crazed, you have to cut off all of your hair, cut your nails, wear no make up, and sing the national anthem every day in order to pass," I'd be singing the "Rocket's red glare," part while cutting my nails and hair because I can multitask like that.
I lived for a long time in the deep south (loved my solars) but honestly I can't see where it would be advantageous to have long fingernails as a nurse.
If my program told me, "Crazed, you have to cut off all of your hair, cut your nails, wear no make up, and sing the national anthem every day in order to pass," I'd be singing the "Rocket's red glare," part while cutting my nails and hair because I can multitask like that.
I lived for a long time in the deep south (loved my solars) but honestly I can't see where it would be advantageous to have long fingernails as a nurse.
I love my naturally long fingernails. They feel like a (tiny) part of my identity since I've had them since my tween years and both my grandmother and mother (both now gone) also always had long nails. People often compliment them and I love getting them French manicured. I will hate to cut them.
But I'm going to indulge in one last beautiful French mani right before school starts and then a few days later cut them off, buff them and turn them into "nurses nails". Long nails are unsanitary and dangerous for nurses, and I'm about to become a nurse I won't be able to open soda cans without fumbling for a few days, or scratch an itch quite as well :) but it will be totally worth it.
I work on a postpartum unit where about ten percent of our patient population has the super-long acrylic nails, complete with jewels and other doodads. I cringe when I see a mom trying to change her five-pound baby's diaper while wearing those daggers. They're sharp. Not to mention that they harbor bacteria and other yucky things. If the mom seems at all receptive, I will ask if her doctor or the pediatrician or anyone else has explained to her how her nails could endanger her newborn.
About half seem surprised or tell me they already have plans to lose the acrylics as soon as they go home. But the other half look at me stone-faced like I have just called them names or asked them to amputate a finger. Some tell me they had no trouble having the long nails with previous babies. I just shut my mouth then and watch them go through contortions to wipe their baby's behind, put on Vaseline, and tape the diaper. Okay, then . . .
Besides worrying about carrying infection from one patient to the next, I'd be concerned about what I was bringing home. No amount of glamor is worth a bout with c-dff or e. coli. Just thinking of this makes me shiver.
That's how I roll by rebelling. 
I won't be able to open soda cans without fumbling for a few days, or scratch an itch quite as well :) but it will be totally worth it.
jesskidding, LPN
361 Posts
Boo Hoo! Seriously? She's that upset over fake fingernails?!?
I don't know of any hospital or potential employer that allows acrylics. Why she would even want them while in the nursing profession I don't understand. Does she have any idea what kinds of "goodies" hide under them??? Gross!
It's a health hazard to her and her patients...plain and simple.
Maybe she should have went into cosmetology instead of nursing. Just a thought.