scrubs in OB-need input STAT

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Administration has called a meeting tomorrow regarding the use of scrubs within the hospital. To cut costs they want to do away with scrubs in areas that are not necessary and according to some studies they have found that the risk of infection does not change with the use of scrubs in OB. Currently the hospital provides and launders the scrubs for us. I was wondering if this is common practice? Do other hospitals provide their OB nurses with scrubs, do you provide your own or do you wear the traditional white uniforms??

Anyone involved in the birth of a baby has to wear scrubs at our hospital. Special Care nursery also has to wear scrubs as they often are called to deliveries. All other personnel wear can wear their own uniforms, but most wear the scrubs with their own warmup jacket. So much easier when the hospital provides and washes them!

Specializes in Geriatrics/Oncology/Psych/College Health.

The two hospitals I have worked in both laundered and provided scrubs to OB and surgery nurses.

I think in OB it had as much to do with infection as easy identification of the staff for security reasons.

Originally posted by Nurse Ratched

I think in OB it had as much to do with infection as easy identification of the staff for security reasons.

Yep. Moms and dads need an easy way to i.d. who's supposed to have their hands on their baby and who's not. It's not so much an infection risk as it is a SECURITY risk. Tell administration to do their infant-abduction-prevention homework.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

WE all wear standard-issue hospital scrubs and BRITE PINK Name tags to easily identify us. And i LIKE NOT BRINGING HOME NASTIES FROM work.....all those organisms should NOT come home w/me to my family. TO me IT IS ESSENTIAL WE WEAR SCRUBS IN OB/NEWBORN NURSING, just like anywhere else in the hospital where you deal with the sick and bleeding...it's a NO-BRAINER!

Specializes in Obstetrics, M/S, Psych.

We have the choice of wearing the scrubs provided by the hospital or buying our own, though my manager is quick to point out that the hospital doesn't have to supply them. I prefer to use the hospital issue. I agree with SmilingBlueEyes on the "leave the nasties at work" thinking! Plus if they provide them, it is the hospitals responsibility to make sure they are clean and I don't have to worry that I may bring something in from "out there" somewhere. There is the mismatched staff thing that could be seen as a baby security risk, but we do, of course, all have specific name tags.

L&D gets hospital scrubs, but PP and antepartum don't. I prefer wearing my own scrubs, hospital ones are so ugly.

Thanks for the input. The meeting was held today and a task force was initiated so I may not have any decisions until all the "data" is collected. I will share everyones response though.

Our hospital gave us each 2 pair of scrubs to wear (not enough for full time) and we were to buy whatever else we need. The bottoms are required to be blue or pink, the tops and jackets can be whatever we want.

However, the hospital will not launder our scrubs, they are our own problem (they do however launder all the doctors' and the OR staff's).

The policy states we are to wear street clothes in and change but this is not followed by anyone and not inforced (dosent make sense to bother).

We are an LDRP, level 2 nicu, and do our own c-sections and have seen no difference in infection control when compared to anywhere else in the hospital.

Hope this helps!

I'm a GN that works on a PP floor and I get floated to L&D and Nsy sometimes. We have LDR's, level 1 Nsy, PP rooms, and we do our own c-sections. We have to wear hospital issue scrubs, and while I understand the reasoning for wanting to not bring anything in or out of the hospital, it's a pain when you go up there and they NEVER have scrubs in your size. I'm always having to wear something that is either too large or too small for me b/c the rest of the staff up there has taken 2 or 3 sets home to launder. They did it with good reason too -- I bet the scrubs for our floor get laundered MAYBE once a week, so there's never anything up there -- really difficult to deal with when you're full time. :rolleyes:

Fortunately, I came in at a time where our unit was getting a new director who wants new scrubs, so maybe the situation will improve.

:nurse:

In the 2 hospitals I work, everyone wears scrubs! And each nurse can wear whatever color/design they want. We buy our own. Nurses working in mom/baby have special ID badges.

Gail

this is my 2nd try at this reply so I hope it gets thru. I started out in OB in the 80's. At that time we went in and changed into scrubs from the hospital and left them as we went home to be laundered by the hospital. It was sometimes a pain, they were ugly, and more times than not you didn't have a size even close to yours. A few yrs later, due to "costs", it was decided we would vote on a design and color, get 2 or 3 sets to keep and we would launder them at home. You L&D nurses out there know how gross some deliveries are, not to mention the germs we are exposed to and then we come home, throw this into our family washing machine and share it with our loved ones!! It is just not right!! I always bought Lysol products to kill germs and of course washed my stuff seperately, but who knows what I exposed my family to. Also, it took a while, but we had a serious post op infection rate increase in our unit. It got sooo bad that the "secret" got out into the community. No one publicly blamed any specific reason, but I'm afraid not all people are as clean as we would hope and I know nurses who run errands and such before they come in to work--then they go in and do surgery!!! I know it's all about money but I'm afraid someone might die! Just think about it. Would a dr or nurse go in to the OR in street clothes and start to operate? What's the difference here? The old nurses from the STERILE years would just freak out!! I'm surprised this has been allowed to go on. Sorry to preach, but maybe some administrative type will read this and see the ignorance and the risks to patients and put a stop to this.

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