Isolation Gowns

[Redhead28]

Our facility, without checking with the staff that would be effected, changed from the yellow isolation gowns to a blue plastic gown. These gowns are horrible. They are hot, sweaty and stick to your skin. Infection control states we had to change to these because they prevent contamination by fluids. Please let me know what your facility uses.

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

As of the time I left this morning, we still use the yellow paper type gown. That and anything in a hospital can change in a blink of an eye though.

[mmm cdiff]

Oh god, yeah. My facility uses the blue plastic gowns and I sweat like a creature in them. My arms were literally dripping with sweat the last time I had to use them, in a pt's room that involved heavy lifting, rolling, bedmaking, diaper changing, etc. I've heard of the yellow gowns, but have never gotten a chance to use them. They sound like a delight. 3

[Sarah010101]

We use yellow cotton gowns? Why we have not switched to disposable i have no idea

[Ashley_RN]

we use yellow, nylon-ish gowns, which are protective against fluids then placed in the linen basket, washed & restocked. plastic gowns?! i cant imagine how uncomfortable that is. ours are quite large so they're airy enough to keep you as cool... well, as cool as you can be while doing a million things.

[Flipper911]

i hate those blue plastic gowns - you sweat like a pig! My facility has both (yellow paperish and the blue sweat baths)

[Bandaide, ADN]

Where I worked, the yellow gowns were used for regular isolation, and the blue gowns were only used for chemotheraputic isolation, along with a thicker glove.

[SCnurse2010]

We have the nasty blue plastic ones too. YUCK. I just try to remember that it's better to sweat in one of those gowns than to go home with MRSA or C-diff!

[Redhead28]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to keep a tally and take to infection control.

[Mags_RN, BSN]

we use yellow, nylon-ish gowns, which are protective against fluids then placed in the linen basket, washed & restocked. plastic gowns?! i cant imagine how uncomfortable that is. ours are quite large so they're airy enough to keep you as cool... well, as cool as you can be while doing a million things.

i believe these are the same ones my institution uses ( they have a barcode thing in the front of it). they get kind of sweaty too if you spend a long time in the room moving about, especially when you add in the gloves and a face mask or even worse, a n-95 .

Coincidently, today, I found out that on average, it costs $7 to rent this gown. I dont know if I believe it, it sounds too expensive.

We also have the blue plastic one-time use ones. I mainly see the physicians put them on, dont know why.

[rn4lyfe08]

Ok so I see I'm going to be the odd man out. I began mu nsg career using the blue plasticky ones. The ones that come over your head and have circular vents across the shoulders. Then I changed jobs and had the thin paper-like yellow ones you had to tie at the neckand around the abd.

Sooooo. I think they both make you hot. But I prefer the BLUE ones. They're easier to put on and faster for me. They keep out all moisture, which is a must for showering, rolling, etc. I just liked them better and actually missed them at my last job. Sorry, to go against the grain, but I think they are better both from an ease of use and an infection control standpoint.

[carrotstix]

Before I got my RN I was a sitter at large hospital. When I first started working we had to wear the blue gowns for EIGHT STRAIGHT HOURS with our contact precaution patients. Often it was a C. Diff case with many incontinence changes, linen replacements, etc. So sweaty, so gross. They passed a policy after about a year that limited us to 4 hours of isolation at a time, which was an improvement but still less than ideal.

Despite the sweaty-ness I would think from an administrative point they would be cheaper and at least as effective (perhaps more?) at infection control.