NICU nurse scrubs question... - page 2

1. 
   Sep 20, '06

   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.
2. 
   Feb 21, '07

   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.
3. 
   Feb 22, '07

   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.
4. 
   Feb 23, '07

   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.
5. 
   Jul 25, '08

   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.]

   Last edit by Audrey28 on Jul 25, '08 : Reason: can't freakin spell. LOL haha

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