Medical Workers wearing scrubs to and from work, outside the Hospital, etc..

Nurses General Nursing

Published

New York Daily News

Tuesday Oct. 17th 2006

-Barbara M. Simpson writes:

"MEDICAL WORKERS NEED TO CHANGE

I have bben wondering if there is now a rule that persons who work in the medical field, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. can wear their uniforms in the streets, on the buses and on the trains.

Aren't they required to wear regular clothes to work and then change to their uniforms and change back after they have completed their tour of duty?

Every day you see white uniforms, blue uniforms [scrubs] in the post office, in the stores, in the banks, in restaurants, on the streets. That kind of behavior is unsanitary."

I happen to agree, what do you guys think? I admit, I've been guilty of this as a student, after following the lead of my health care profession colleagues. But I realize I was wrong in doing so, & I'm willing to change. I always see scrubs on the trains, and we were taught in school to change once we get to the hospital & when we leave. Why do many of us do it? I believe we can do better as health care professionals.

I was just wondering about this in another vein. I work in palliative in a home environment, so we don't wear uniforms or scrubs - we wear street clothes.

So, if we are at work and go shopping after, no-one in the public knows and it's the same as if we wear scrubs. So, while scrubs are what people see and can point at, there are many other ways this can be happening and no-one is the wiser.

Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.

This thread has really made me think about scrubs and sanitation more. Hospitals really need, after reading through these, to have locker rooms for nurses (and doctors) to be able to change and not wear their scrubs outside the hospital. I never thought about that before and it is nasty when you think about it!

God only knows what you could pick up on a bus and bring it to the hospital, or what you can bring home at the end of the day. To think my mother used to come home in her uniform and cook breakfast for me in the morning and I used to clean her shoes every night...GROSS!

I would do it if the facilities were there. I know a hospital can't have lockers assigned for every employee, but they could at least offer them for the shift.

I just saw this thread.

So will Doctors be required to change clothes when they visit their patients? How about family members and friends?

Heck we can't even get families to keep their babies from crawling on the floor of the rooms with MRSA all over it. Scrubs in public are probably the least of people's worries since so many diseases are community acquired.

Anybody check out the handle of your grocery cart lately? How about an office keyboard? They're crawling with evil bacteria.

But then our society has gotten extremely bacteria-phobe to the point where I know parents who won't let their kids play on the floor in their own homes.

Unless i have worked with infectious people, i dont change and often go to store on the way home etc. there are germs everywhere around us, anyways. when you go to grab the shopping cart etc. but unless i have been around something contagious or infectious i just dont do it. i have never brought anything home or to my child.

Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

I know...let's ingest oral antibiotics, insert PR antibiotics for those nasty GI bugs, and don hazmat suites before taking report... then stand naked in a disinfectant shower before leaving the hospital.

Only to get bombarded by the bugs OUT THERE!!

:rotfl:

I don't really think the bacteria are as evil as the agents we are giving to kill them. We are a very clean society, germ phobic, parasite phobic etc etc. We keep encouraging the use of antibacterial soaps that have triclosan, a pesticide. I don't think we are seeing the real root of the problem here and that is the over use of antibiotics. The body can no longer heal itself. This is the real issue. Personally, I gown when taking care of these patients but the rest is just fair play. I will go to the grocery store (in my scrubs) and it is just as bad there. You know, germs are not always bad, they are part of our environment. MRSA lives in all of our nasal passages. Our bodies will be strong if we are allowed to fight some of these problems naturally. That is why we have immune systems. But we are destroying our bodies ability to fight off these germs because we run right into the doctor and get put on an antibiotic. We are all part of the problem, not part of the solution. And these doctors....just don't get it.

In my perfect world..my hospital has uniforms available, private showers for employees,a gym, saunas & jacuzzi's. Our patients think it's a hotel why can't we?:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
I like the perfect world you live in, because those are my thoughts too. At my hospital too the only nurses who wear street clothes in and have a place to change into their scrubs is OB and OR.

I personaly LOVE to wear scrubbs for all most everything. I have scrubbs that I do gardening in, scrubbs that I clean house in, Scrubbs that I run errands in, and scrubbs that I do what I get paid for in, To me the comfort factor will always out weigh the fasion statment factor. I of course don't do all of these jobs in the Same pair of scrubbs :chucklebut I just love scrubbs!!!

Specializes in Perioperative; Gyn-Onc.

Every day you see white uniforms, blue uniforms [scrubs] in the post office, in the stores, in the banks, in restaurants, on the streets. That kind of behavior is unsanitary."

Your "unsanitary" remark automatically assumes these people have just left work. Perhaps they are on the way to work!

I, personally, head straight home and change immediately. After taking care of people with C-Diff, MRSA, and many other nosocomials, I refuse to walk inside my house with my shoes on!

One trait of a good nurse is that she never "assumes" something. Use your critical thinking skills and don't "assume" these people have just left work.

Germs do not live on scrubs, you are not carrying germs into your home or businesses by wearing them places after work. That is an old nurses myth that came from long long ago. Why are family and friends able to visit in their street clothes and hug and be near pts and not transfer germs to them? Let's get over this old tale and move into the 21st century.:rolleyes:

Specializes in NICU.

If we wore scrubs provided by the hospital, laundered by the hospital, and had a usable locker room, I wouldn't be wearing my scrubs coming and going.

But who wants to wear scrubs washed in the hospital laundry? The ones we have as reserve, provided by the department for emergencies, are cheap, thin, and only good for that purpose. I also hate finding someone else's hair in the hospital laundry, even sometimes in the baby blankets. Everything gets washed in the same loads, and they don't pretreat or use fabric softener.

I used to work at a place that provided scrubs, sometimes all you could find were wayyyy too big, or sometimes much too tight!

Ummmmm have I missed something or are germs just limited to scrubs? What about physicians and PA's and NP's who wear street clothes into patient areas? Sometimes with lab jackets but mostly without?

Just my 2 cents

+ Add a Comment