I am a nurse on a general children's ward so I get every kind of patient you can think of. I also struggle with OCD so, at the moment, I have a ritual for when I get home from work that even I think is a little bit crazy but I can't make myself stop. I thought a good idea would be to get fellow nurses insight on it so I could get some perspective on what is "normal" and what isn't. I should say I wash my hands frequently when I'm at work and always wash them before I leave the hospital.
When I get home, I strip immediately and leave my uniform in a small wardrobe where it will wait until I have enough uniforms to fill up the washer. No one is allowed to touch this wardrobe. I also leave my shoes at the door, and then proceed to use Dettol wipes to clean every door knob I might have touched. Finally I also wipe my mobile with Dettol wipes, making sure I don't touch any part of it with my unclean hands - this is a big issue for me as I then take my mobile to bed with me. After all this I take a shower and wash my hair.
I realize that all this is a bit much but I am terrified of contaminating my home/my family with some of the horrible bugs I see everyday.
If I step in something horrifying, I wipe down the soles of my shoes, and I wipe my phone down with alcohol wipes now and then mostly because otherwise touching it to my face seems to increase breakouts, but I agree with above comments that this ritual you're describing is both excessive, unnecessary, and likely to escalate. There is no clinical evidence that special laundry techniques change the microbial load of nursing uniforms, either.
Have you talked to your doctor about treatment for your OCD?
Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
Like most other posters stated, I do nothing special when I get home from work in regards to contamination. Although the idea of wiping down my phone on a consistent basis makes sense, but has nothing to do with working in the medical field. Most times at work, you know exactly what your patient has so you were the appropriate PPE to protect yourself. If you are using your PPE and precautions as you should, you're fine. It is the people out in the non-hospital world who you have no idea what they have when you walk by them or use their cart after them in the grocery store...
If you have small children who mouth everything, then putting your work shoes out of reach is good.
When I get home, I wash my hands, arms, and face and change my clothes.
The goal is not to try to eliminate all germs - for the reasons stated by other posters - but to decrease the number.
The only time I've left my shoes outside, stripped down in the kitchen, immediately put my clothes in the washer, and then taken a bath was after I shook the dog's blanket outside and got the worms that he had spit up all over me! They covered my arms, moving in the breeze. That was creepy! But coming home from work does not require such measures.
I do not do anything special. I'm an OR nurse and wear facility provided and laundered scrubs. My shoes also stay at work, I have two pair at work. I wear whatever I want to wear into work (sometimes sweats/yoga pants, others jeans, sometimes nicer clothes if I have somewhere to be after work). I wipe my cell phone down, but that's about it. To be honest, wiping my phone down is kinda pointless, since I leave my phone in my locker except at lunch.
When I was a floor nurse I did the shoe thing where my shoes either stayed in the trunk of my car or were taken off right inside the door. My uniform pants, tops, t-shirts worn at work, etc, were washed separate from my regular clothes but that was mostly because they went on a different wash and dry setting than everything else. I wiped my cell phone down then too. I never saw the need to do anything super special with my work clothes. If I had gotten blood or some other body fluid on my clothes I would have had to change my work clothes for OR scrubs, and leave my work clothes at work so they could be washed (I believe this is an OHSA requirement in the US). Since that was the rule, I didn't see much difference between my work clothes and clothes I wear out in public (as others have commented on).
Thank you everyone. Right now I am not in treatment for my OCD as (knock on wood) is pretty manageable. I've been trying to reduce my rituals, and for the most part I've been doing okay but this is where I've struggled the most. Even though I know that a lot of it isn't rational, it's like a little voice in my ear is telling me that if I stop doing all this, my family is going to end up getting some horrible bug because of me. Knowing that other people don't do this makes me feel better and makes the goal of reducing this ritual much more achievable.
Thank you all for spending some of your time making me feel better!!
I leave my shoes right inside my door (too afraid of creepy crawlers to leave them outside). I wash my uniforms typically with my other clothes. I do wash my hands right before leaving work and I wash them when I get home after changing out of my uniform. I don't shower when I get home because I like to shower right when I get up- it helps wake me up and I feel better. I've gotten sick only once in the past 16 months.
edit: I'd like to add that I've been working on a unit with a lot of respiratory patients that have viruses, pneumonia, etc. so I am exposed to a lot.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I am a nurse on a general children's ward so I get every kind of patient you can think of. I also struggle with OCD so, at the moment, I have a ritual for when I get home from work that even I think is a little bit crazy but I can't make myself stop. I thought a good idea would be to get fellow nurses insight on it so I could get some perspective on what is "normal" and what isn't. I should say I wash my hands frequently when I'm at work and always wash them before I leave the hospital.
When I get home, I strip immediately and leave my uniform in a small wardrobe where it will wait until I have enough uniforms to fill up the washer. No one is allowed to touch this wardrobe. I also leave my shoes at the door, and then proceed to use Dettol wipes to clean every door knob I might have touched. Finally I also wipe my mobile with Dettol wipes, making sure I don't touch any part of it with my unclean hands - this is a big issue for me as I then take my mobile to bed with me. After all this I take a shower and wash my hair.
I realize that all this is a bit much but I am terrified of contaminating my home/my family with some of the horrible bugs I see everyday.
You're right -- it sounds a little OCD.
I wash my hands before leaving work. When I get home, I play with the dog, greet my husband and change into sweats. My "work" shoes get worn into the house, through the house and sometimes out to the mall on my day off. Neither my husband nor I has ever worried about "bringing home the bugs," although he did pick up C. Diff from work. (Laughing out loud with mouth wide open while cleaning up poop on a patient with projectile diarrhea.) Other than the C. Diff, we've never gotten sick from work bugs.
If you're washing your phone all the time, I hope you have a LifeProof case on it!
Nah. The worst thing that ever happened to my shoes was one of my cats left the remains of one of her kills in them. Perhaps if i'd left them in the garage.... Nah.
My clothes went right into the hamper with everybody else's clothes until the kids were old enough to do their own laundry (age 8). Then I just did mine, but with all the rest of my clothes and sheets and the dishtowels and everything else.
Seriously. Look around the world. Yo have an immune system-- you studied that in school, right? What did you expect it to do? Support its self-esteem-- give it a meaningful job.
If I had gotten blood or some other body fluid on my clothes I would have had to change my work clothes for OR scrubs, and leave my work clothes at work so they could be washed (I believe this is an OHSA requirement in the US).
If this is an OSHA rule, then my hospital has been slacking. I've never heard of this. Is it for all body fluids or just blood where you work?
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emmy27
454 Posts
If I step in something horrifying, I wipe down the soles of my shoes, and I wipe my phone down with alcohol wipes now and then mostly because otherwise touching it to my face seems to increase breakouts, but I agree with above comments that this ritual you're describing is both excessive, unnecessary, and likely to escalate. There is no clinical evidence that special laundry techniques change the microbial load of nursing uniforms, either.
Have you talked to your doctor about treatment for your OCD?