Socializing after work in your scrubs

mindlor · Mar 19, 2012

First point. Most people wear scrubs in a non-medical environment because they think i makes them look cool.

It is pretty shocking that health care professionals would think that wearing "used" scrubs to say a bar or a restaurant is ok. The same goes for shoes.

Hospitals are the nastiest dirtiest places ever.

All of us should change our clothes and our shoes ASAP after our shift. Then head straight to the showers.

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 19, 2012

First point. Most people wear scrubs in a non-medical environment because they think i makes them look cool.

Do people really think that? Who *are* these people?

Merlyn · Mar 19, 2012

Yuck! Who does this? So my husband and I are on a long weekend in Taos, NM. Friday night we were at a local bar listening to a band. In walk a group of women in their mid-twenties. They appeared to have just gotten off work, as they were all wearing scrubs. They hung out at the bar for several hours, drinking, shooting pool, dancing, flirting with men. Wearing their scrubs. Yuck! Of course, after having a couple beers, myself, I was tempted to approach them and ask if they knew how gross and unhygienic that was, but I'm not a big person, and these women were all somewhat large and could have broken me like kindling, and luckily I hadn't had so much to drink that I was that foolish (my husband, of course, bet me $5 to say something to them).
All I could think of all night was fomites!

Calm down. You are taking this nursing thing too serious. I was taught that as long a your ID card was turned around you can go out after work.

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 19, 2012

You SO missed my point! I don't care what the heck they do after work. Just change out of your gosh-darn scrubs first. Fomites, people! Fomites!

PediLove2147, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2012

There is a pizza place/bar in Boston that encourages scrubs. Every Thursday. You get a free beer or pizza or something, I don't quite remember.

I take the train home from work so on my walk home I will stop at the grocery store, bank, really anywhere. I am not about to go home, change, and go back out. I am usually tired and hungry, the last thing I want to do is make a second trip. Also, it's not like I am touching everything. I grab what I need and go. I don't know if I would go out, out in scrubs. Opportunity hasn't presented itself. My fiance won't even touch me in scrubs so usually if we are going out he will wait for me to change.

Oh and yeah, you can be wearing scrubs and be totally clean. I worked PDN and did nothing all night. She slept and I watched TV. I don't think I picked up any microbes from her couch.

notpuurfctbtgdenghns · Mar 19, 2012

I have not had a chance to read all the posts but here is a scenario.

In some metropolitan cities, I have seen health professionals who go out in their scrubs on their lunch times to local restaurants or fast foods across the street because these folks may just be tired of the hospitals cafeterias' menus. Looks like some of them may also be surgeons.

Would you look down on a homeless person, who may not have bathed weeks to eat in the same building?

kakamegamama · Mar 19, 2012

Goodness!!! Some people need to lighten up a bit. Valid points were raised by the OP about wearing scrubs in a bar. She clearly said it was in part the "ick" factor. To be honest, I've shopped in my scrubs and felt "icky" the whole time. The only reason I did was I needed to run into a store on my way home from a shift. Those things, while comfortable, are items of clothing that I can hardly wait to shuck once the need to wear them is no longer there. Anyway, just my 2 cents worth. Plus, the looking professional (yeah, I'm old fashioned that way) doesn't quite work in a bar in scrubs (or really anywhere else but the hospital/office for that matter). Just another way to help the profession (sarcasm).

SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS · Mar 19, 2012

I wear scrubs at work. Most days I don't get too dirty educating our patients with diabetes- mostly over the phone. I've been known to go out without changing. Judge me all you want.

Lynx25, LPN · Mar 20, 2012

Wow, you sound near perfect. You don't even go out in sweats.
So now people who go out in sweats are just plain trashy. Well, I have been in public in scrubs and sweats. Guess I define trash.
Wow, this has been the most judgmental thread I have seen yet.

I know, right? Who knew?

I've gone out in scrubs before, sue me- the bar is between home and work. I try not to make a habit of rolling around on the floor at work, so I doubt my scrubs are dirtier than anything else I've worn for a few hours.

PinkNBlue, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2012

I'm regularly in the minority so today is no different. It seems we missed an important part of the equation. A group of friends were obviously enjoying themselves, each other, and their night out. What I would have seen is friends being friends. Comraderie. Community. Honestly I probably would have envied them just a little.
If our post work scrubs were that contagious, I would have killed off several dozen members of my immediate and extended family. But I have not.
Were they looking for attention? I don't know. But even if they were, what's the difference between them and the girl with purple hair, see through blouse, mini skirt, four inch heels............. Just a different kind of attention. Is it just me or are there some days you feel powerful, incredibly smart, privileged to do what we do?
On those days, I admit, the scrubs are like a neon sign that confirms that I am a really cool person with a really
cool job.

AMEN. Amen!!

I've gone out after my 3-11p shift in scrubs with friends and I don't care what other people think of me, in my scrubs, a second thought. I won't touch you, don't worry. I don't have time to go home and change my clothes when I'd like to go out and socialize with my friends from work after a night of work. Seriously, who cares?

sunny4you · Mar 20, 2012

Not that it makes much of a difference as to the occupation, but at our SNF, the housekeepers wear scrubs, and receptionists do too, at alot of the dental, hospital, and MD offices....Don't judge, lest ye be judged.....Some clothes that people wear in general are dirty and grimy because they wear them 2 and 3 or more days, because they work in a dirty place, you just never know!!..Take it easy and you should've been relaxin instead of paying attention to people that were just out and having fun...its not like they were sitting on your couch, cooking your food, or coming in your car, were they?!!

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Mar 20, 2012

My, what a thread. My two cents:

I've seen women wearing skin-tight thin fabrics that were cut way too low, way too high, or just way "too". They look ridiculous, unattractive, and I'd rather not see that.

I've seen men wearing pants slung down so low the waistband is around their buttocks, the crotch sits mid-thigh, and they look ridiculous...I'd rather not see that.

I've seen kids wearing entirely inappropriate clothing to synagogue and church....I'd rather they dress more respectfully, but I guess that's on their parents.

I've seen people wearing visibly dirty clothing, smelling badly, going to supermarkets and bars and malls. Dirty, smelly people at the pizza place. You can be sure I'd rather not see/smell that.

And I've seen people wearing scrubs out in public. They at least looked clean, didn't smell badly, didn't show too much skin, didn't have to be peeled out of the clothes they were so tight, didn't look like a freak show. Certainly the least offensive of all things people wear, in my opinion.