hope everyone is fine while reading this. i posted this thread hoping that that the responses that ill be getting from you could help me to clear up my mind coz i am really confuse now.
i am newly hired at picu department here in our place, i could say that everything is in order except that the staff here ( nurses, doctors, and lpn) are not wearing an icu gown. i believe that working in icu, u must already know that wearing a gown is a must.
when i looked for a gown in the stock room, i didn't find any. thus, i am planing to bring my own so i can protect myself and my client as well .but i am worried that maybe the staff in the icu will make fun out of me or it'll will be awkward that nobody else in the room wearing a gown but me.
so what you think? should i wear a gown as part of ppe or not?
hope everyone is fine while reading this. i posted this thread hoping that that the responses that ill be getting from you could help me to clear up my mind coz i am really confuse now.
i am newly hired at picu department here in our place, i could say that everything is in order except that the staff here ( nurses, doctors, and lpn) are not wearing an icu gown. i believe that working in icu, u must already know that wearing a gown is a must.
when i looked for a gown in the stock room, i didn't find any. thus, i am planing to bring my own so i can protect myself and my client as well .but i am worried that maybe the staff in the icu will make fun out of me or it'll will be awkward that nobody else in the room wearing a gown but me.
so what you think? should i wear a gown as part of ppe or not?
thank you!
-daren
ok. just a thought. if you are the only one wearing a gown amongst the folks with experience, maybe that is a clue?
no. a gown is not a "must". it tracks the same junk around as your scrubs.
have you asked these deviants why they aren't all gowned up?
is there some unspoken conspiracy going on to keep the census up by making sure all patients in the unit have the same germs?
think about this- if there aren't any "precautions" other than "universal", why would you wear a gown?
are the droplets from a few units away chasing down your patients? (that would be bad ) is there someone with long-distance arterial splatter? (seem cis would be more appropriate than a gown- just sayin') is there some new pulsating pus-squirting bacteria in an open wound that is aimed directly at your patients' beds? (maybe the cdc could help. and a large shield around the 'donor' ).
find the p & p manual (as a pp said, if jcaho - or whatever their initials are this year- shows up, you need to know that.... badly).
or- maybe talk to your coworkers. you are the newbie. they have experience. for some reason they're not wearing the gowns. (i worked pedi, and did a few float shifts in picu- never wore a gown, or saw the regulars wear one either; in nicu, we did wear gowns between babies...same as the other pp said- each runt had their own gown hanging somewhere near them; different kid? different gown- definitely didn't wear the same gown around all shift )
PICU was my specialty. I worked it for many, many years...NONE of the Nurses, RTs or our Intensivists ever gowned UNLESS it was for contact isolation. In that case, we would gown, mask, glove, booty and cap, etc before going into the isolation room then do whatever we had to do...on the way out, it was the reverse...take everything off and decontaminate....when it was time for the next treatment...do it all over again. Everything in the room was disposible or autoclavable..
The other times we would gown of course, would be when the Intensivist would do surgery at the bedside, ie central lines, spinal tap and needed a sterile field...but that goes without saying...
(of course, the reason for not needed gowns has been eloquently explained in several former posts)
So, you may not want to say ANYTHING to anyone else about the fact that they do not use gowns and that "you know better".....it would not turn out well for you, I fear.
(I know it would not have gone over very well with me...and it would show how very new and "unknowlegable" you are)
I work in a children's hospital and float between all the ICU's (NICU, Cardiac, PICU) and as other have said, gowns are NOT standard, even in the NICU. Only when pts are on contact isolation for something specific or reverse precautions.
Hi guys!! Thanks for these! After working in that department for almost a year and a half, i just rwaliEd that you guys are actually right; not everything in the book is practiced in real life.
Hi guys!! Thanks for these! After working in that department for almost a year and a half i just rwaliEd that you guys are actually right; not everything in the book is practiced in real life.[/quote']
.thumb.jpg.1730911fbf00f611ba1c99c44f0b92b3.jpg){kind=small}
blondy2061h, MSN, RN
1 Article; 4,094 Posts
I work BMT and we don't even gown for every patient any more, just if they're on isolation. HEPA filters and good hand washing protect them.