Contaminated Scrubs..do you wear scrubs to the stores

Nurses General Nursing

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This will be the topic on 10pm new fox tonight.......captions states that c-diff and mrsa can live on scrubs. That being said.....what is your take on wearing scrubs out in public places????

When I leave work which is usually after midnite....i usually go straight home, but on occasion I have gone to a take out..

When we have a patient with c-diff or mrsa we usually wear precaution gown along with the standard precautions.

Specializes in LTC, Med-SURG,STICU.

I am more worried about what is on the handle of the shopping cart. How about the door handle out of the restroom? I know for a fact that everyone does not wash their hands after using the public restroom. Just thinking about this makes me want to grab a paper towel to open the door of a public restroom. I guess my anwser would be yes I wear my scrubs to the store or where ever I need to stop on my way home from work.

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Specializes in 2 years school nurse, 15 in the OR!.

I work in t.he OR and I think it's crazy that nowadays we wear our scrubs from home right into work. They won't wash them for us anymore so most OR nurses wear them in. I'm like my dog could have been laying on these and now we are in here doing a sterile procedure...EWWWW!!!

Besides that I'm guilty about running into the store and grabbing a few things. Unless I am visibly soiled, I don't think about it. I'm really concerned about my shoes though...That's just gross!!! I think there are more germs in the grocery store on shelves and carts then we are caring around on our scrubs. Just a thought!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
guilty! i am a dirty germ spreading nurse!

if i know my scrubs are very dirty, i go home and strip in the garage or i change into the spare pair in my locker. but if i work an uneventful day where i dont have poop, pee, blood, mucus or vomit on me and i need to go to the post office or to target... im going.

atleast i KNOW what my patients have and take the proper precautions such as masking, gowning and gloving and wash my hands 8,000 times a day.

how do you know the person who is bagging your groceries doesnt have C-diff, just went to the bathroom, and didnt wash? or the person whose behind you hacking in the walmart line didnt just get tested for TB?

and how many times do you see people put their hands thar you dont know if they've been picking their nose or their buttcrack and inspect every peice of fruit in the grocery store?

we're all dirty.

maybe if we all ate dirt as children, we'd be better off.

Yeah, I second that. And what about the grocery cart....if a microcbiologist were to do cultures on the handle of the cart, I wonder what they would find???

I don't wear scrubs in the store, but I most certainly don't change before I come home. I strip in the garage and don't wear my shoes in or on my carpet. I also use a special mat for my car so my shoes won't contaminate my carpet in my car.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Hospice, Float pool, Med/Peds.

I wear mine out. I wear my shoes home too... We don't have a laundry service at my hospital and no locker room to change... I wash my hands often and I am sure that I am already carrying MRSA somewhere...

WE go out for a beer after work and all hit the same bar... A sea of blue scrubs

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Or, watching from the nurses station... and betting if a Doc will put on PPE prior to entering iso. I've seen many that do not - and it don't matter if airborne, droplet, or contact either. Even when PPE is nicely set on wall shelves in abundance right outside each and every room. Yukky! Lets not shake hands, and say we did, right?! :icon_roll

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Specializes in CTICU.

I do not wear my scrubs outside of the hospital. They are provided and laundered by the hospital, and we aren't meant to remove them from the property anyhow. Plus, I think it's gross. Sometimes I change scrubs during the shift if I'm feeling gross.

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Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

I must be neater than most....I don't think I've ever "soiled" my scrubs. I do, and will continue to, wear them in public. If I were visibly soiled, though, I'd change at work into OR scrubs

Heck, I've seen people wearing scrubs that I KNOW weren't in healthcare!

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.
personally, i think it is gross to wear scrubs & shoes out of the hospital.

why bring germs w/ you in the car & out into the community?

guess you better not go to the movies! the stuff that is on the seats there is nasty!. saw on the view( a few years back) that they did cultures on those movie seats and they tested + for human waste, semen, nasal mucus, rat urine and feces, etc, etc, etc, and you are worried about bringing germs in your car and the community from work?

no thanks, rather watch the movie at home on dvd!

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As a former biologist it literally makes my skin crawl to see healthcare professionals (not only nurses) who should know better walking around outside the work environment without either a) wearing a long smock or labcoat over the scrubs or b) wearing street clothes to and from the hospital/ care facility and taking the scrubs home to wash separately.

I'm also disturbed by surgical staff who wear shoe covers, caps, and even face masks, outside while on breaks or short errands. I pity the poor patients subjected to the seasonal yeasts, molds, fungi, old gum, spit and 'tobacco juice' and all else that gets dragged back into what should be a clean environment. These threats are minor to healthy individuals but to those who are ill or immune-compromised, the dangers are real.

Am I too picky? If you could see what I've seen living on 'clean and disinfected' surfaces you wouldn't think so!

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

check this out if you are worried about nurses carrying germs.

don't ever eat in public.

dirty lemons...

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=1641825 dirty ice...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3473728/ dirty food....

wear gloves at the grocery store.

http://www.truveo.com/Grocery-Carts-Bustling-with-Bacteria/id/72057610012706743

don't sit down at the movies.

http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?S=8332025

don't put your cell phone next to your ear or your face!

don't wash your hands in public.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/275039/the_real_hygiene_care_and_health_risks.html?cat=5

god guys, we're running out of things to do besides develop a germ free suit!

like i said, i ate dirt as a kid, and i turned out just fine.

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If wearing scrubs out in public was such a hazard, we'd all be dead by now.

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Specializes in ER, ICU cath lab, remote med.

As I've said before (in previous threads on the subject), you cannot tell what kind of germs someone is carrying strictly by their clothing...scrubs or not. You can't look at me in my scrubs and tell whether I'm on my way to or from work, on my way to or from a meeting, or if I've even stepped in a patient's room all day. Scrubs are NOT JUST A NURSING UNIFORM. Day care workers, vets, optometry techs, pharmacy, PT, geez...even the women at the pet groomers wear scrubs to work!!! I mean think about it...you see a guy in jeans and a tshirt in the grocery store...how do you know he didn't just spend his day emtying out septic tanks or port-a-potties? And people are scared of my scrubs?!?! This just makes absolutely no sense. I wonder if the people who are scared of my scrubs even bother to read the ingredients on that package of convenience food they just purchased? You want a health scare? Think about all the junk that's IN that box of food you just bought before worrying about the germ that jumped off my scrubs ONTO the packaging! Oh, and about the fruits/veggies from grocery stores. People are worried about my "scrub germs" getting on the produce? So that means people aren't washing their fruits and veggies when they get home? Ok...hello fertilizer, hello wax, hello pesticides, hello insect poo, hello environmental contaminants...meet the stomach of the consumer who decided not to wash her fruits and veggies before eating them. And don't get my started on restaurants...I've done food sanitation inspections in restaurants that would scare you off restaurant food forever!

Of course the day that I dropped a liter of peritoneal blood (i.e. vomit scented blood) in a heavy plastic container and it EXPLODED all over me...ya...that day I didn't go to the market on my way home.

I agree with Flightnurse2b...eat more dirt!

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