How Not To Bring Germs Home...

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Apr 12, 2014

I really never worried about it, aside from frequent hand-washing. Back in the dark ages, before we had needle-less systems, I would be extra careful about getting stuck, but that is about all.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Apr 13, 2014

Omg. The first thing I do when I come home is take a shower. I keep my scrubs separately from my other dirty clothes. I don't allow my nursing shoes inside the house. I know a lot of people who do the same thing I do. It's not paranoia... it's common sense.

It's paranoia, not common sense. I don't do anything special, and after 37 years have yet to bring anything home.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Apr 13, 2014

There is a difference between the germs you encounter and those in other public places. Health care facilities breed resistant strains of common bacteria. The problem is not the likelihood you'll get sick more often but that if you did contract something it could be particularly nasty and hard to get rid of. Take off shoes, launder scrubs alone, and certainly shower as soon as possible.

So, something special happens to those germs when the visitors who have been lounging on the floors of the isolation rooms and consuming their buckets of fried chicken without visible handwashing leave the hospital and get on the bus? The germs suddenly become non-resistent? That means that I don't have to worry about pushing the button in the parking garage elevator because the germs on the fingers of those visitors that just left the MRSA room are miraculously changed to MSSA? WOW! Who knew?

CrazyGoonRN · Apr 13, 2014

For those of you who leave your shoes in the garage. Do you put them in a sealed container or something that will prevent spiders from crawling in them? I live in brown recluse and black widow country and I would be more scared of a poisonous spider in my shoes than the germs on them. However, I do wipe my shoes down before I enter my house.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Apr 13, 2014

Crazy~ I have scorpions, and they LOVE to crawl into shoes. I also have the black widows and brown recluse. This is one reason why I won't leave shoes in my garage. I bring mine inside, and my 3 indoor-only cats take care of any creepy-crawlies!

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Apr 13, 2014

Oh, back when I lived at the ocean, I had a water moccasin (cottonmouth) snake WITH BABIES in my garage!

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Apr 13, 2014

Crazy~ I have scorpions, and they LOVE to crawl into shoes. I also have the black widows and brown recluse. This is one reason why I won't leave shoes in my garage. I bring mine inside, and my 3 indoor-only cats take care of any creepy-crawlies!

Oh. My. Word! To Crazy and Apple: I think if I were in your shoes (bad pun but hey, I'm tired) I'd stick the shoes in a snap-top tub. We actually keep several of these kinds of tubs around the house, always seems to be a need for someone to store something, either long-term or until garage-sale time.

Thankfully, never had to resort to lock-down for my shoes! You, otoh.....get a snap-top

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Apr 13, 2014

Gross overreaction. Stop worrying about this. Bigger fish to fry.

I never changed my clothes in the garage or threw scrubs in a special load or hamper, and I put my shoes under the bed next to the rest of them. Once I had a cat that loaded my work shoes -- and only my work shoes-- with feathers and birdy feet :: pppphhhh :: but nobody ever got sick from them. I mean, do you walk on sidewalks? In public bathrooms? Swim in ponds or public swimming pools? Pick up vegies from the bins at the supermarket? Dig in the dirt in your garden? I wouldn't cuddle my baby at daycare if I had stool or blood on me, but then, I wouldn't walk out the front door of the hospital without changing looking like that either, or even into the next patient's room.

It's a big wonderful germy world out there. You and your family have immune systems for a good reason. Trust them.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Apr 13, 2014

My work shoes always live on the bookshelf we have in the garage for shoes; they don't come into the house. But my husband is Korean so culturally we don't wear shoes in the house anyway, so that's not really a special precaution. But like PP's have said, if your shoes have ever taken you into a store, into your kids' school or daycare, into the gym, etc. they are likely just as dirty as the ones you've worn to work.
My kids know not to hug me until after I change out of my scrubs though. I would hate for a stray C. diff spore to make its way into their mouth.
Years ago too, I read (either in AJN or the advice column or a nursing mag) that you don't even have to wash your scrubs in hot water. The detergent and the dilutional capability of water of any temp are sufficient to cleanse your scrubs to a non-pathogenic level.

Newsflash: Your kids have Clostridium difficile in their guts already. Everybody does. The only reason they'd get in trouble with it would be if they had the rest of their gut flora disturbed by antibiotics, same as everybody else. :) Hug 'em.

Besides, after you change your clothes that you just drove home in, are you taking the kids out for ice cream sitting on those same seats? :)

Nurse Connie · Apr 14, 2014

I don't do anything special either. My scrubs get washed with everything else, I don't change out of my shoes before I get into my car. I rarely get sick, neither do my kids.

CPGUCLA · Aug 31, 2015

Yeah, the millions of pathogens on the bottom of shoes is a scary reality when you actually know. There was a study last year at Univ Of Houston that found 39% of shoes tested and 40% of front door steps contained CDiff. I think there is some serious truth to needing some exposure to all types of germs, but an overabundant microbial load is not necessary and we should be cognitive of the millions of germs were transferring into our homes from our shoe soles. There is a very cool new product called HealthySole which very quickly and easily eliminates a large amount of these pathogens from the soles of your shoes. Check it out on HealthySole.com