NICU nurse scrubs question...

[KTLou06]

HI, this is my first post, hope it works out ok. I am a nsg student set to graduate this Dec. with a BSN. I want to work in the NICU and had a probably silly question about their scrubs...do NICU nurses dress from home and wear their own scrubs or do they change into hospital scrubs once at work like in L/D?

[danissa, LPN, LVN]

No cover gowns. Scrubs provided by hospital, colour identifies seniority. Change at work in locker room on the unit. Uniforms washed at the hospital also.

Same here Roxycat, with darkest blue being the most senior sisters to palest blue for the nursery nurses. We also change at work, (in trouble if you arrive or leave in your scrubs!) but we take them home to wash, unless you are in isolation then you wear any scrubs available and send them to the laundry. We do however leave the unit to get food etc,(within the hospital) and dont wear any lab coats or coverings, havent done for a long time. Dont tend to gown up for babies either, just going from baby to baby, but if we are lifting them out would mostly wear a plastic apron. ALWAYS gloves for nappy care etc!

If we go to theatre for c/s, then we would change scrubs, shoes and gown up, but not to receive a baby from labour room.

[nicunurse2004]

OUr nicu is broke up into 4 bays, Bay one being the most critical they were hospital provided scrubs and when they go back to deliveries they use cover gowns masks and gloves, in our other three bays we were our own scrubs of any color. We only use covergowns with the isolation patients. Parents/family members do not were cover gowns but are supposed to scrub up before entering the unit.

[preemieRNkate, RN]

We dress at home. Our hospital provides scrubs, or we can wear our own. I usually wear the ones from the hospital, it makes it easy when geting dressed, I don't have to worry about what matches what! I do get them out of the machine and take them home to wash, because IMO, they smell kind of funny and are always a wrinkled mess out of the machine. We do a 3 minute up-to-the-elbow chlorohexidine scrub when we come in. Our parents and visitors are supposed to do a 3 minute soap and water wash when they come in, and of course, we encourage frequent handwashing during their visit as well. No cover gowns for anyone.

If one of us has to float to a "dirty" unit (PICU or Peds) during our shift, but then returns to NICU, we're supposed to shower and change into clean scrubs. I have never seen anyone actually shower (I'd be afraid to use the one in our locker room unless it was a dire emergency!), we just get scrubs out of the machine and change before going back to NICU.

[CRDBear]

We dress at home and our entire hospital is instituting a navy blue scrub dress code for ALL nurses regardless of their floor. They are giving us two pairs and we have the option to buy more thru them or buy our own. (On an off note - the "free" scrubs are cheap and stiff and ill-fitting unisex...most of us are going to buy our own in the brands, styles and fit we prefer!). When we attend deliveries we wear a cover gown, with mask and cap if it's a C-section. Parents also wear cover gowns and have to scrub for two minutes before coming in. We only wear cover gowns on the unit if the baby is on isolation.

[missapoo]

When I was a student, the nurses where we rotated wore scrubs provided by the hospital: when they came in they changed from street clothes into scrubs. Now, at my hospital, we wear scrubs within the parameters of a dress code color and all the nurses wear scrubs from home to work. We are required to buy our own scrubs beginning last year when they made a mandatory dress code to help differentiate nursing staff from other hospital staff. We only gown up if a pt is in iso. but we are supposed to gown prior to bathing newborns and etc...

We rotate from Newborn to NICU and all nurses on our wing wear the same color pants but any coordinating tops/jackets of our choice. We scrub up to elbows 3 mins when we come in and are not supposed to wear long sleeves due to increased transmission of infection especially from one baby to the next. Our unit is a closed unit so we don't get pulled to other units but when census is high others may get pulled in to help us and these are required to change into clean scrubs provided by the hospital if they come from a "dirty" unit. Docs come in street clothes or hospital scrubs and are required to scrub in like the rest of us. Parents are also required to scrub but not to gown unless they are visibly dirty (ie dads coming in from working a dirty job....we've seen that before and even had to make them change into clean scrubs a time or 2). Just common sense stuff.

[Audrey28]

I haven't worked in a NICU yet- but this is what I want to do with all my heart- and I have visited friends babies in there- and the nurses wore cover gowns over their scrubs. And I had to put one on too. I wasn't dirty -LOL- but its better to be safer than sorry... [seeing the babies in there and the care the Nurses gave is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to be a NICU nurse.]