Question about perfume/cologne

[Despareux]

I love to wear perfume, but I know some people are very sensitive to certain scents. I noticed that when I've been in doctor's offices or at the hospital, I rarely smelled perfumes/colognes. So is wearing perfume out of the question for me when I start my clinicals?

[suanna]

Yes, that is what it means, no scents, Be considerate to your patients. You are not on a date or at a social function- you are taking care of ill, frightened patients. I get that you like perfume- In my off hours I like to go skinny-dipping but that dosen't mean I have a right to show up to work in the buff.

[Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP]

Please, please, please DO NOT wear strong scents or perfume in a hospital. I'm a nurse and not even a patient and i suffer terribly just from one brief exposure. Just walking past someone wearing perfume can cause me problems as I have a severe allergy to it. Just last week the daughter of my patient came to visit, and as I work in the ICU I only had that one patient that day and he was extremely busy. The daughter (who was studying to be a nurse) pulled up a chair, took out her books and snuggled down to spend the afternoon there in the room. Her perfume was so strong that I could not stay in the room. A tiny amount sends me into severe asthma attacks, nausea, headaches, sinus pain, dizziness and disorientation. Would you want me to look after your relative in that state? I had to wear a mask and only spend short time spans in the room, and really I needed to be in that room all the time but I didn't want to end up in the ER myself. Perfume is a chemical POISON!

If I got on a plane and found I was seated next to someone wearing perfume, I would refuse to sit there for my own health. I simply cannot tolerate it.

[loki3981]

I hear you all on the scented products including heavily scented lotions, but what about hair products. I'm entering nursing school this fall and have no clinical experience at all. Can hair product scents be an issue? I'm planning on keeping my hair pulled back in a ponytail for clinicals.

[Flipper911]

I was guilty of the wearing the colognes as a younger nurse, but now I cannot stand to smell it on others. Even some deodorants are horribly strong. Soap still smells good to to me!!

I like the nurses who carry around the fabreeze to douse themself after smoking. The smell of smoke is sickening at times and the smell just clings to some people.

A must must must are breath mints! Especially for change of shift. I pop in a few altoids at the beginning and end of my shift - I wish some of the people I worked with did the same.

[blueheaven]

What's the deal over the darn comma...................................who cares??????????????

[Baloney Amputation, BSN, LPN, RN]

I hear you all on the scented products including heavily scented lotions, but what about hair products. I'm entering nursing school this fall and have no clinical experience at all. Can hair product scents be an issue? I'm planning on keeping my hair pulled back in a ponytail for clinicals.

This is my opinion, so it may not be worth much to anyone but me, but anything that is scented is potentially a problem, including hair gel, deoderant, shampoo, etc. I usually can't predict what scents will set me off. (Others can.) With this in mind, there is only so much that I can hope another person does. Stuff that is scented and aerosolized (like hair spray and perfume) is usually worse than something that is scented but directly applied (like stick deoderant), but not always. I always hope that a nurse or anyone else providing direct care wears the deoderant of his or her choice but avoid spraying scented crud.

Remember that ANY scents can be an issue for the ol' allergies. I personally know the risk I take by living and breathing is that I may encounter some odd scent that throws me for a loop. I don't expect people to use completely scent-free products (I don't), but I do expect a caregiver not to wear a gallon of perfume.

For anyone who doesn't have allergies, if someone tells you are wearing a scent giving them a reaction but you think there is no way because you aren't wearing perfume, BELIEVE THEM.

[Ciale]

so what if she spelled perfume as parfume? give her a break!

bathing, deodorant and wearing clean clothes keep you from smelling bad.

what about your above statement-you missed the comma after deodorant. i hope that was a typo!

actually, that would be considered an "oxford comma" and isn't taught in schools anymore from what i understand. you don't have to put a comma before your conjunction in a series but if you do, it's okay too.

haha..back to the post. i especially use frangrance free clothes soap. mostly because it irritates my skin but some of them are so stinkin' smelly.

[agldragonRN]

holy smoke! :hdvwl:

the point of my comma post was to give the person who misspelled perfume a break.

plus, that is how i learned it when i was in school in my native country. i did not know it was different here.

okay back to the topic. it was required in both my lpn and rn programs not to wear perfume or cologne during clinicals because your patients could be allergic.

angel