showering: before or after work

[peachypurple]

this might be a weird topic but I am curious. when do you all shower when you're working? and if you shower before work, do you shower again when you get off, then again before you go to work?

[cherryelle07]

After. I work 12 hour shifts and we only have one bathroom at our house... Kids are usually in bed or on their way to bed by the time I get home, so I can shower in peace without someone knocking on the door asking if they can go pee or how long I'm gonna be, because they gotta pee.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

both yes

[Paradox123]

If you can shower before and after work. Showering after work is very important.

[Emergent, RN]

If you can shower before and after work. Showering after work is very important.

Do you have solid evidence to support that statement?

[kiszi, RN]

Do you have solid evidence to support that statement?

Took the words out of my mouth.

I shower before work (nights). After work, leave the shoes by the door, get in PJs, wash face, brush, & hop in bed.

I keep up good hand hygeine & standard precautions at the hospital and honestly don't feel any more "dirty" or "infectious" after work than after, say, a day with my kids at the mall.

Of course there are exceptions, such as any major splashing of body fluids or such like.

By the way, I call the sink-wash-up a "bird-bath" or "pits and bits".

[Qing]

I would just shower before and after work just because we don't know what we are bringing back to our home. You feel a lot cleaner then.

[Glycerine82, LPN]

Always after. Always, always, always.

Sometimes before and one time....during. :-)

[Glycerine82, LPN]

My sweet Nana used to say PTA.

Like, "I'm gonna take a PTA bath". So, one time I said......

Nana....what's that? She said ...

"P&$#y, Tits and Ass."

*spits out drink*

Oh that lady was a hoot!

[HeySis, BSN, RN]

I shower before work, but I only wash my hair every other... (I may not shower or wash my hair on a day off)

And I use lotion like it was going out of style. I live in a desert and I can put lotion on in the morning and have flakey dry skin by midday or sooner, which is not only gross, but very itchy. And my hair color doesn't last if I wash it everyday.

Scrubs are provided at work and I leave my shoes there, but before when that wasn't the case. I kept a small plastic box in the car for my shoes, would leave work, sit on the edge of the van, change my shoes (a bit like MR Roger's) then climb in. When I got home the scrubs came off and went right in the laundry.

[almostnurse2]

BOTH!!! Want to be clean and fresh when I start the day, then want to wash off all the "hospital germs" before I crawl into bed : )

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

Now that I work 12 HR night shifts, I tend to shower after, but sometimes I'm too tired, it wasn't a nasty shift, etc.

[Emergent, RN]

Here is information on the hygiene hypothesis. Too much of a good thing can sometimes have negative outcomes. The immune system develops properly when it faces challenges. Otherwise, it can turn on us.

What Is the Hygiene Hypothesis?