How many of you disinfect car after work?

[PHC-nurse]

So I’ve recently had some trauma that has resulted in some OCD behaviors. So After I finish my shift I immediately come home from work, shower, wash my scrubs, and I will wipe down my car with Lysol wipes.

I am just wondering if others do this too, specifically cleaning their car after working, or if this is excessive behavior and I don’t really need to be sanitizing my car. I have young kids, and the trauma/OCD behaviors is linked to them and feeling like I have to protect them and keep them safe. But if this is something unnecessary I don’t want to be feeding my compulsions and making my ocd worse.

[Wuzzie]

Scrubs to the grocery store? Well if I gotta then I do. Shoes in the garage? Nope-dining room. Scrubs washed separately? Never.

Things I have not caught from work:

Ebola, SARS, HIV, MRSA ,VRE, Misc. Staph..

Things I have caught from work:

Mycoplasma and RSV. Please note both are respiratory transmission so no amount of cleaning , short of snorting bleach, would have prevented it.

[Wlaurie, RN]

I walk in from work and strip down out of my scrubs. I wash them separate from my other clothes. I take a bath too when I get home but mainly bc it relaxes me, not so much to reduce germs.

[Leadkrm, RN]

Idk about your facility, but if I were in your shoes and had such a worry over it, I would wear street clothes to work. We have lockers and a shower in the locker area. Take a bag with you. Change at work. Shower before you leave, and place your soiled scrubs in the bag you bring. This would make you “clean” for the ride home. Your car wouldn’t come into contact with your scrubs and you wouldn’t have to do anything but toss the dirty scrubs from the bag into the washer. Again, I realize not all facilities have showers. If yours does, this might work.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

In my humble opinion, this seems like overkill.

Like Wuzzie said, I've never caught anything in my 12 years besides respiratory stuff and I wear my work shoes in the house, I don't strip down as soon as I get in the house, I don't wipe everything down, my scrubs get washed with my regular clothes, etc. I'm more overly-hygienic when I am in other public places, like touching a grocery cart, than when I am coming home from work.

[TNViking]

Disinfecting after every shift may be a little excessive. However, I do disinfect my drivers side seat, steering wheel, transmission, and gas/break pedals and flooring every now and then. I also refuse to wear my work shoes indoors, they are often left outside unless I wipe them down very well and carry them to my shoe rack. I also have a special place I keep my scrubs until they are ready to be washed. And I sanitize my phone with alcohol o.O.

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

Why don't you just bring a bag to work with a chance of clothes/shoes and wash your hands and change your clothes before you get home. Toss the bag in the trunk.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

When i was working acute care AND we were ripe with isolation patients then there were times that I would change at work. I am still in the habit of kicking my shoes off as soon as i get in my door, but I don't care if visitors do the same. I do keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in my car, but I can say with accuracy that i've never sanitized it above and beyond the norm of what you'd do when one cleans the empty water bottles and accumulated papers out of their car.

[TC3200]

I don't think it's farfetched. I used to work the QC lab of a foundry that made huge heavy section cast iron parts for wind turbines, mining, rock crushing, etc. Those are cast in huge molds made of sand and resins. There was black carbon dust everywhere. Even though I was in the lab, I walked though the foundry a lot during the course of a day. Fine black dust stuck on my clothes and ended up on the tan leather upholstery of my car. It was an interesting study to watch the buildup just from fines being picked up on my clothes. I put a seat cover on the driver's seat.

So, yes, your seat and arm rest and anything else that contact your work clothes is getting deposits of whatever is on your work clothes. I don't think it's crazy to disinfect the car. I always travel with Lysol wipes or a knockoff thereof.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

I don't really disinfect anything or take special measures when I leave work. The only thing I don't do is wear my hospital shoes in the house. I don't use hand gel or antibacterial soaps - just plain soap and water and plain laundry soap.

I haven't caught anything in all the years I've been nursing.