Skirts in the OR

Specialties Operating Room

Published

Is this an absolute no-no. I wear skirts, and did so throughout all of my clinicals (my personal preference). I got to observe a C-section once and no one said anything to me. What do you think? By the way I live in Colorado, so I don't know if there are different rules about this in other parts of the country.

Thanks for replying.

I swear when I read perineal fallout I picture someone's lady parts falling on the floor right in the middle of

the OR. :D

Our OR wears pants too. I think you might be best off just asking to wear a skirt over the pants.

LOL! I thought the same. Prolapsed uterus meets tile floor. Thud!

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Specializes in Operating Room Nursing.

Scrub skirts would be an absolute no no at my work. Perineal fallout, yeah it sounds silly and all that but we have to do what we can to minimise skin shedding in the OR to reduce the microbial count. Apparantly a study was conducted a looooong time ago with a couple of nurses wearing skirts dancing over a petri dish and it showed that stuff DOES fall out....:no:

Also, why would you want to wear a skirt in the OR? It's cold most of the time, you have to crawl around sometimes to place foot pedals etc and theres a good chance of something splashing on your leg, even with pantyhose on would feel pretty gross. I understand there is religious reasons but you can wear a skirt over the top of pants.

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Specializes in aged -adolescent.

Ayla and Ortess

Yes if you were a midwife here in Oz and were looking up someones fanny it is definitely the front section, vulva (and other pink bits).

I am getting off the subject here a bit but what do you wear under scrub tops. Are you allowed spencers?, ( They're vests with short or long sleeves, usually a polyester/wool mix), or long sleeved teeshirts. Must anything under a scrub top be all cotton? I know theatre is more stingent than recovery where I am but I hate feeling cold.

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Specializes in Home Health.

Hi! I am Apostolic, a nursing student, and I don't wear pants either. I appreciate your willingness to share, not be ashamed of your faith, and approach this issue online!!:up: When a uniform decision is faith based, it has been my experience (although not yet as a nurse) that employers are generally pretty reasonable, and there are usually ways to address all these issues (probably even fall-out! LOL).

You want to work in OR- Go for it! :clown: God Bless!

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Specializes in OR - Telemetry - HBPC.

Perineal fallout and the shedding of skin cells are the reasons for pants instead of skirts. You are really supposed to wear ankle cuffs on the pants but most just use straight legged pants. You should not go sockless either.

All staff members should wear long sleeved tops/jackets unless they are scrubbing in, and then only take the jacket off right before they scrub. This is because of skin cell fallout.

Think of putting glitter on your arms and opening a sterile item onto the sterile field. The glitter would go flying onto the sterile field. Well, skin cells do the same thing, only you cannot see them.:nono:

If you do wear dresses, make sure you have panty hose on with them.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

We have a few nurses in our facility in TX that wear scrub skirts. They are provided and laundered by the hospital, as are the rest of our scrubs, and the ladies wear thick pantyhose under their skirts.

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Specializes in 2 years school nurse, 15 in the OR!.

Funny, one of our CRNA's just returned from Sweden, and she had pictures of all these socks hanging on a door. I asked what this was all about and she showed me pictures of their feet. These socks look like stockinettes and they all tuck their pants into them. The hospital washes them and they just put on a pair when they come to work. I had to laugh at their shoes though, they all had on sandals-birkenstocks over their "socks." Guess this helps prevent fall out. I also have been at a hospital as an agency nurse where some of the nurses taped the bottom of their pants to help prevent "fallout" as well...

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Speaking of thick pantyhose, I have to wear support pantyhose for the severe varicose veins. Trust me, they are much more secure than any scrub pants can be. They are extremely thick and tight.

But as a student I was asked to wear scrub pants in the OR. I had no problem with it. Although I am Jewish and chasidic, I understood that it is needed and agreed to wear it ONLY in the OR.

The school also has a policy for the students against wearing T-shirts under the uniform shirt, but nobody ever complained to me because it was understood that I wear it for religious reasons.

Unfortunately, Europe has a lot to learn from the USA how to treat those from different religions. My niece that lives in Belgium suffered so much discrimination she had to leave the nursing field. No leeway there.

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i was also told by my (MO) rabbi that pants in the OR are not an issue - since this is not a public place.

which is not to detract from those who don't hold like this.

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perineal fall out OMG I can't stop laughing I keep thinking about the first meeting where the issue was brought up I see a man all serious saying ...the next issue I would like to address ...clears throat...is um the problem of perineal fall out. :roll:roll:roll

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Perineal fallout is not much to worry about since the floor of the O.R. is disgusting to begin with. It's not like nurses hang over the sterile field.

Pants are better than skirts if you have to crawl on the floor to look for a lost needle.

Pants protect your legs from blood splatter.

I think it's fine for nurses to wear skirts but it's impractical.

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