Nails question

Acrylic Nails, chipped nail polish, nail polish of any color (including clear), and long fingernails are all know sources of nasty bacteria - acrylic nails being the worst and listed in decending order of offense.

I love the acrylic nails but as a nurse I dont wear them they are hard to work in, you can harm the pt and they are not easy to keep clean to the naked eye let alone the microscopic nasty stuff.

i've been a nurse for 22 years and in nursing school (when we wrote on tree bark with slate rock) we were NEVER allowed to have nails longer than the tips of our fingers. it is unprofessional and harbors bacteria...... In the real world the nurses around have nails that are very long and as said before the acrylic nails that harbor bacteria and even fungus under them. this is truly nothing new.

Nope, no fake nails allowed.

i've been a nurse for 22 years and in nursing school (when we wrote on tree bark with slate rock) we were NEVER allowed to have nails longer than the tips of our fingers. it is unprofessional and harbors bacteria...... In the real world the nurses around have nails that are very long and as said before the acrylic nails that harbor bacteria and even fungus under them. this is truly nothing new.

I had them for 6 weeks and hated them. And there are still those who have the long, dagger like things. Would you want a rectal check with them?

Suebird

i've been a nurse for 22 years and in nursing school (when we wrote on tree bark with slate rock)

LOL!

I just recently finished school, and the instructors were quite strict about NO NAILS while you were there. Absolutely nothing fake, and anything real that was longer than the end of your finger was probably going to get you some flack (risky to scratch patients among other things).

I didn't like the rule at first, since I'm a longtime acrylic wearer and had to lose them, but I quickly grew to see the wisdom of it. Frankly, I couldn't scrub my fingers/nails ENOUGH during and after clinicals--so much ICK!!

Of course, the DAY AFTER my last clinical I had some lovely tips put on for the summer--never long by salon standards, but certainly longer than the nothing I had!

It is true here-Western US.

We haven't been able to have acrylic nails for the past 5 years. The length of the nails has to be under a certain length also.

They haven't dictated what color at this time BUT chipped nailpolish is unacceptable.

It is an infection control issue...................

In my OR- no acrylic nails allowed..Nail polish is allowed, but it has to have no chips in it. I gave up wearing nail polish for the reason that mine was always chipping. I have always preferred short nails-I just don't like the way long ones look(kinda trashy, IMHO) and I don't want to cause injury to a patient-being scratched is not fun.

I didn't like the "no nails" rule either at first, but it is really so much easier to have short, unpolished nails when working in the hospital setting. Much easier to keep clean, no worries about chipped nail polish/accidentally scratching someone, etc.

I can agree with not having the artificial nails, but does anyone have a suggestion on how to keep your own nails from breaking and splitting from the moisture that we constantly subject our hands to? Mine are soooo short and thin, they are horrid!

I have no nails to speak of anyway...LOL!

I wore acrylics for several years BECAUSE my own nails chip, split and I have horrible cuticles. And I wore them very short. I found no problems working in them at all, and never did I wear them at daggar length. Now they are gone, and my natural nails look crappy: split, torn, horrible cuticles...but I guess that's healthier than the alternative, so someone better be happy about it. I'm not, but I'm going to retire in a couple of years.

I donated blood yesterday and the gal who took my history, did my blood sample and who also does starts and stops, had beautiful French tips. I was so envious, and no it didn't bother me. She followed all the other protocols, gloves, handwashing, etc., so I was very comfortable with it.

I guess that's where I don't quite understand the big deal: if nurses can't have them, why do you see them everywhere else in health care. There are lots of people who have patient contact, from the admissions people to the person wheeling them out at discharge. Many of those folks are not bound by this.

I only hope that one day there will be a study done on how much improved the infection rate has become because we've given them up, not just that they cause all kinds of problems.

I'm probably dreaming.