how do nurses wear nail polish?

[meghan91]

hey guys! so I'm a nursing student and worked at my hospital in patient transport for a year and I am now a nursing assistant in the ICU. when I worked in transport I noticed this but even more when I started in the ICU as an aid because I use hand sanitizer CONSTANTLY before I go into a room after each room and theres over 20 beds so when its time for sugar checks I use a whole lot of hand sanitzer. since the sanitizer is basically alcohol it destroys your hands and nails (especially if you have nail polish on) the polish will get sticky as all hell and basically come off and due to the tackiness of the polish then you get fuzz stuck to your nails (not cute). I have stopped wearing nail polish now but I noticed like all the women nurses wear normal nail polish and they dont have this problem.

Do you girls wear nail polish?

If so, does yours become tacky and gross?

I have sooooo much nail polish and have tried this with many different brands and it happen with all them pretty much. I know this is kinda a silly question but I am just wondering haha.

[carrie_c]

Some women have naturally pretty nails without polish. I however am not one of them, lol. My natural nails are just not attractive to me. They look so much better polished.

[wanderlust99]

Chipping I can understand, not the gooping/sticky part. It's just hand sanitizer. Do you wear a top coat? Maybe that is the culprit. One to two normal coats of polish should work.

[cityknitty_RN]

Nurses shouldn't wear nail polish? Really?

I know artificail nails are an infection risk, but nail polish? I guess I've never seen these studies...

I wear nail polish. And tend to change it every couple of days.

Wash your hands. Wear gloves when doing any sort of procedure with a pt (which should be standard anyway).

If you follow these guidlines, I guess I don't see the big deal.

[cityknitty_RN]

And "real nurses who do patient care don't wear nail polish"?

Yikes.

[beeker]

I got a gel polish manicure for a friends wedding (bride insisted even our fingernails match) and it chipped on my 3rd shift at work after having it done.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

"so just to be clear, nurses who don't do direct patient care - are we not "real nurses"? or is that only those of us who don't do direct patient care and wear nail polish? just wanted to make sure I'm clear on that."

no, what I said was that nurses who do direct patient care shouldn't wear nail polish or acrylics. I do not do direct patient care anymore, and I am definitely still practicing nursing . I wear acrylics and can see how the edges separate open up a wee bit about week after they go on, and see how they separate a tiny bit from the nails at the tips. these would be great reservoirs for infection.

I believe this is the citation for "no increase in infection with nail polish." however, since that's the only part that was visible in the Google search, I got more from that citation. they are referring to periungual skin. it is from the cdc on dental health care, but the references are more general. the full work gives an awful lot more information on hand hygiene, gloves, and artificial nails.

guidelines for infection control in dental health-care settings --- 200]http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5217a1.htm

fingernails and artificial nails

Although the relationship between fingernail length and wound infection is unknown, keeping nails short is considered key because the majority of flora on the hands are found under and around the fingernails (156). Fingernails should be short enough to allow dhcp to thoroughly clean underneath them and prevent glove tears (122). Sharp nail edges or broken nails are also likely to increase glove failure. Long artificial or natural nails can make donning gloves more difficult and can cause gloves to tear more readily. Hand carriage of gram-negative organisms has been determined to be greater among wearers of artificial nails than among nonwearers, both before and after handwashing (157--160). In addition, artificial fingernails or extenders have been epidemiologically implicated in multiple outbreaks involving fungal and bacterial infections in hospital intensive-care units and operating rooms (161--164). Freshly applied nail polish on natural nails does not increase the microbial load from periungual skin if fingernails are short; however, chipped nail polish can harbor added bacteria (165,166)

references cited:

161. passaro dj, waring l, armstrong r, et al. postoperative serratia marcescens wound infections traced to an out-of-hospital source. j infect dis 1997;175:992--5.

162. foca m, jakob k, whittier s, et al. endemic pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in a neonatal intensive care unit. n engl j med 2000; 343:695--700.

163. parry mf, grant b, yukna m, et al. candida osteomyelitis and diskitis after spinal surgery: an outbreak that implicates artificial nail use. clin infect dis 2001;32:352--7.

164. moolenaar rl, crutcher m, san joaquin vh, et al. a prolonged outbreak of pseudomonas aeruginosa in a neonatal intensive care unit: did staff fingernails play a role in disease transmission? infect control hosp epidemiol 2000;21:80--5.

165. baumgardner ca, maragos cs, walz j, larson e. effects of nail polish on microbial growth of fingernails: dispelling sacred cows. aorn j 1993;58:84--8.

166. wynd ca, samstag de, lapp am. bacterial carriage on the fingernails of or nurses. aorn j 1994;60:796, 799--805.

[Pneumothorax, BSN, RN]

Ive seen ICU RNs who are wiping up c. Diff all day with French acrylic manicures. It skeeves me out, but hey if they like poop under their fingers once the glove rips. More power to them! Lol

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Pneumothorax said:

Ive seen ICU RNs who are wiping up c. Diff all day with French acrylic manicures. It skeeves me out, but hey if they like poop under their fingers once the glove rips. More power to them! Lol

Kind of an aside, but whenever I had that kind of mess going on, I always double-gloved. Sometimes I did it because I didn't want any risk of exactly what you described, and sometimes because I might be in that room doing more than just the wipe-up and I wanted to be able to peel off a dirty set and still have poop-free gloves at the ready ?

As for the polish/no polish debate, I think that's been answered rather fully.

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

while we are in this subject, there are a couple of nurses male & female at the facility where i work that sport their black nail polish like frankenstein & elvira wanna bees... even though they been told not to, which every day their nm hands them the acetone swabs prior their shift

[klone, MSN, RN]

grntea said:

"so just to be clear, nurses who don't do direct patient care - are we not "real nurses"? or is that only those of us who don't do direct patient care and wear nail polish? just wanted to make sure I'm clear on that."

no, what I said was that nurses who do direct patient care shouldn't wear nail polish or acrylics.

no, actually what you said was "real nurses who do patient care don't wear nail polish..." it's right there on the first page. and I was just clarifying what you meant by what "real nurse" meant.

[SandraCVRN]

None in the OR. Polish OK, no fake nails for rest of facility. I use the shellac, doesn't chip or peel lasts about 3 weeks grows out before it wears off or looks bad. No glitter, stickers or such...

[klone, MSN, RN]

SandraCVRN said:

None in the OR. Polish OK, no fake nails for rest of facility. I use the shellac, doesn't chip or peel lasts about 3 weeks grows out before it wears off or looks bad. No glitter, stickers or such...

Shellac! That's what I meant, rather than gel!