Can nurses have artifical nails?

Nurses Professionalism

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I'm sure this has been asked on the forum before but this question has been burning in my mind, lol. Are nurses allowed to have acrylics or wear nail polish? I know for sure that I want to be a nurse but I'd be very sad without my nails.

There are probably a hundred threads on this topic; type "artificial nails" into the Search box ;)

In a nutshell, no matter your reasons for wanting them, no matter how long you've had them, no matter your justifications, no matter...ANYTHING.....your employer's policy is the ONLY thing that matters, period.

If your facility policy is that you CAN have them, that's that. If they say no....you're done with asking. To start a conversation with management by saying "But I only...." is useless and tiresome to them (they've heard it before).

Different facilities have differing policies, but I can't think of any that allow bedside nurses to have tips, gel polishes, acrylics, or whatever you want to call them; if they aren't grown by your own body, it's artificial.

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Nursing school doesn't allow acrylic nails, either. ( at least mine didn't).

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nursegreene said:
Nursing school doesn't allow acrylic nails, either. ( at least mine didn't).

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

Excellent point, and I don't know why I didn't think of that! OP says she wants to be a nurse, but doesn't indicate she's already in school.....and since I can't imagine a school program allowing that, the question of whether or not nurses can have such nails is moot. You have to get into and out of clinicals first.

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RNsRWe said:
Excellent point, and I don't know why I didn't think of that! OP says she wants to be a nurse, but doesn't indicate she's already in school.....and since I can't imagine a school program allowing that, the question of whether or not nurses can have such nails is moot. You have to get into and out of clinicals first.

My school didn't allow polish of any sort, either.

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Long nails of any kind are a bad idea as they harbor disease-causing organisms. I was taught this back in nursing school. My nursing instructors used the example of a local world-renowned children's hospital where there were several infant deaths and the cause was traced back to the long fingernails of one nurse. I couldn't find an article on that particular hospital, but here is another similar case: Study Links Bacteria, Long Nails and Baby Deaths - NYTimes.com

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mama.RN said:
Long nails of any kind are a bad idea as they harbor disease-causing organisms. I was taught this back in nursing school. My nursing instructors used the example of a local world-renowned children's hospital where there were several infant deaths and the cause was traced back to the long fingernails of one nurse. I couldn't find an article on that particular hospital, but here is another similar case: Study Links Bacteria, Long Nails and Baby Deaths - NYTimes.com

I think most of the arguments (for having artificial nails) is not the length of the nail. Most normal people realize that long nails and babies don't mix ;)

It's the process by which synthetic materials are painted on and hardened onto natural nails (which allows bacteria to grow and thrive under and on their surfaces) that's the problem.

Someone who keeps her nails short, with no polish, is FAR less likely to pass bacterial contamination onto a patient than someone who keeps short, artifically-covered nails.

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mama.RN said:
Long nails of any kind are a bad idea as they harbor disease-causing organisms. I was taught this back in nursing school. My nursing instructors used the example of a local world-renowned children's hospital where there were several infant deaths and the cause was traced back to the long fingernails of one nurse. I couldn't find an article on that particular hospital, but here is another similar case: Study Links Bacteria, Long Nails and Baby Deaths - NYTimes.com

OMG thanks for posting the article. didn't know about this

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There's a small number of misinformed people who think that if they "only" have clear gel polish (or they "only have gel," not acrylics) that's somehow different, as if maybe it's the color or something that's the determining factor in infection control. It's not. :rolleyes:

In answer to your original question, "Can nurses have artificial nails?" the answer is, "Yes, of course they can. But not if they work in any capacity in patient care, and not if they are in nursing school."

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RNsRWe said:
I think most of the arguments (for having artificial nails) is not the length of the nail. Most normal people realize that long nails and babies don't mix ;)

It's the process by which synthetic materials are painted on and hardened onto natural nails (which allows bacteria to grow and thrive under and on their surfaces) that's the problem.

Someone who keeps her nails short, with no polish, is FAR less likely to pass bacterial contamination onto a patient than someone who keeps short, artifically-covered nails.

My point was that having long nails of any kind, meaning real or artificial, can be a bad idea. This was assuming that all artificial nails were long. As I've never had artificial nails, I'd never realized that anyone would actually ever bother to have short, artificially-covered nails.

Given the number of nurses I see with natural long nails, as well as new moms who I do consider "normal people", I think many may not realize that it is not a good idea to keep nails long, especially around babies and other immunocompromised patients.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

The research has been done has been on both long, natural nails, as well as artificial nails/nail tips (gel polish is not in that category, btw, and I am unable to find any research on gel polish). As I previously mentioned, both WHO and CDC recommend NO artificial nail tips, nail polish that is not chipped, and natural nails should be no longer than 1/4" of "length" (the white, grown out part).

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Can nurses have fake nails? The answer is No. Do they wear fake nails anyway? The answer is yes. Most of the nurses and physicians I work with wear fake nails. None of them have been fired on written up. If my job fired all that wore fake nails we wouldn't hardly have any staff.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

Ours has a policy of no artificial nails, long and/or broken natural nails, or chipping polish. Like the other posters, it is b/c of the infection risk; they can harbor bacteria this way.

I sometimes wear some color for fun when I dress up on my own time, but remove it for work.`

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