Wearing scrubs home??

RNGrammie · May 28, 2006

When I did my student work at a SNF there was no place to change into or out of your scrubs. We were expected to show up on time dressed and ready to go and to leave without tying up the one bathroom in the lobby. One moring I saw a girl, who had finished an early morning shift, changing in her car! (and no she was not wearing an undershirt) LOL She just didn't care I guess.

Showing up on time, dressed and ready to go isn't the issue..wear your scrubs to work...or get there early and change into them....you can't be serious that the facility won't let you change into or out of scrubs. That'd be day!! Maybe they need to be educated??

SaraO'Hara · May 28, 2006

I am an infectious disease nurse. You can NOT spread TB through your scrubs!!! LOL TB is spread through airborne droplets. And UV light and sunlight DOES kill TB. It is also harder than you think to spread the TB virus.
At my facilty, all patients have to have the diagnosis of TB to be admitted. None of our employess and staff members have contracted TB in the last 10 years.
Hopefully I have put some of your minds at ease! : )

I thought TB was caused by a bacterium, not a virus?

I'm just plain going to -have- to wear my uniforms home (from CNA job, as I'd have to catch a bus fairly quickly after shift), but I intend to keep a can of Lysol aerosol on the front porch, and to coat myself in a quick fog of it before I enter the house, so I don't pass anything on to my family.

sunnyjohn · May 28, 2006

I trained/worked in a facility were the OR staff were not provide hospital scrubs for surgery. They were each given a monetary allowance once a year to buy a certain type/colour scrub they had to launder themselves. The hospital provided scrubs were for surgeons only. They said seperate scrubs were an 'AORN guidline' not a hard and fast rule or law.

I thought it was kinda gross, but I must say they were a neurotic and tidy bunch that would holler hell fire if so much as hair was out of a scrub cap or on a nurses jacket.

50% or so of the staff would bring in freshly laundered scrubs, hang them in their locker and change in/out of street clothes.

Don't know what their infection rate was. The training was great, but I didn't stay very long.

TRINI_RN · May 28, 2006

Well, I guess my fun days of putting on my scrubs, lab coat, steth, and Rockers and watching TV are almost over:( I start clinicals in one week. I gotta tell ya, I feel so important watching Grey's Anatomy in my uniform:chuckle
T

I just spit water half way across the room!:roll :roll I have to try that sometime!

SharkLPN · May 28, 2006

Yeah, I've got not one, but TWO lockers (a smaller one is closer to the unit for purses and personal supplies).

However, I work with quite a few men. and both locker rooms are unisex. You can bet your sweet bippy I go home in my scrubs. I'm not changing in our cramped, no-coathook-having bathroom either.

If a germ was going to take me out, it would have succeeded at work a looooong time ago. And as far as taking things home to the family, didn't we learn in school that exposure to germs, bacteria, and viruses boost our immune system? Or did I hallucinate that lesson?

twinpumpkin · May 28, 2006

As a nursing student, and a tech, I work on different units from shift to shift. Therefore, I do not get a locker and must go to and leave work in my uniform. I have taught my 2 1/2 year-old not to touch mommy whenever I have my scrubs on, as they as "germy". When I come home from the hospital, she sees me and says, "Mommy, are you germy?". I say yes, and she knows not to touch me until after I've had a shower and changed into clean clothes. She also asks me if I "had fun with the sick people?". So, she knows that wearing scrubs equates with working with sick people. Not a bad lesson to teach to anyone.

As for shoes, I have a pair just for the hospital, but they do come home with me inside the house and live in my closet. However, I do wash them often. I would love to be able to go to work in street clothes and change into scrubs when I get to work and come back home in my street clothes, but that is just not an option. Maybe some day...

Emergency RN · May 28, 2006

You know, it really pains me to say this, but after reading through the entire thread, I get the sense that everyone here "...throwing their scrubs into the hamper as soon as they get home..." etc, so as not to spread infection to their families... that they've missed the whole point to begin with.

The original intent of scrubs was to provide medically safe clothing for bedside caregivers in order to reduce the risk of infection for PATIENTS, not caregivers and their families. It was assumed that clothing from the community would bring all sorts of bacteria into the hospital setting, and not every nurse or doctor knew how to process laundry well enough to kill every pathogen. Hence, scrubs were provided as a way to ensure that every caregiver approaching the bedside was wearing clothing that was free of infectious agents. If you wore such clothing outside of the hospital, it essentially negated the whole rationale, hence the violations.

Ralph

asylum5w2 · May 28, 2006

I am glad to hear I am not the only one who wears my scrubs home. I have run to the grocery store (rarely) and even fallen asleep in them. "Back in the day", as a new grad, I wouldn't have been caught dead in them once I entered the house (kids were younger then too). Hospital supplied scrubs would be nice for patient protection--we only get them for OR/PACU, burn unit and L&D/mother-baby, but can always request them when we get "slimed" and need a change.

clee1 · May 28, 2006

I wear fresh scrubs every day to work from home, or from school/clinicals if I was there that day.

I wear school uniform or scrubs home.... However:

My shoes live on the back porch, in a shallow pan of bleach-water; my scrubs and undergarments go into their own hamper and I wash them myself on average 2x wk; and my family knows not to even approach me until I have had a shower and changed clothes. (Preggers wife and 18 m/o dd)

Don't be paranoid; but don't be careless either.

kat911 · May 28, 2006

You know, it really pains me to say this, but after reading through the entire thread, I get the sense that everyone here "...throwing their scrubs into the hamper as soon as they get home..." etc, so as not to spread infection to their families... that they've missed the whole point to begin with.
The original intent of scrubs was to provide medically safe clothing for bedside caregivers in order to reduce the risk of infection for PATIENTS, not caregivers and their families. It was assumed that clothing from the community would bring all sorts of bacteria into the hospital setting, and not every nurse or doctor knew how to process laundry well enough to kill every pathogen. Hence, scrubs were provided as a way to ensure that every caregiver approaching the bedside was wearing clothing that was free of infectious agents. If you wore such clothing outside of the hospital, it essentially negated the whole rationale, hence the violations.
Ralph

Well said! Now one more opnion if I may:chair: I wear my scrubs home, to the store or where ever I need to unlesss they are visibly soiled with some infectious goo or whatever. Our world is full of germs and viruses. As previous posters have stated MRSA is in our community. Most people, including your children, are not going to get sick from what is routinley on scrubs after work. If you are following the Universal Precautions at work you shouldn't be taking home anything that you can't pick up in any public place. The years I worked in ED's gave me a phenomenal immune system and I rarely catch a cold or GI bug. If you try to live in a sterile enviornment you will do yourself and your children more harm than good, you have to be ezxposed to stuff in order to develop antibodies. I'm not saying live in filth, just a reasonably clean enviornment. All this of coure depends on the state of health your family is in and if you have family with special needs. Remember what our Infection Contol people keep telling us, wash your hands!! That is the best way to prevent the spread of germs. It's not your scrubs!

hospitalstaph · May 28, 2006

I just spit water half way across the room!:roll :roll I have to try that sometime!

Seriously, you should try it:) My DH knows it has been a bad day when he comes home and I am in full uniform on the couch. I think that I may be the only nursing student that has not even started yet, that has had to wash all 3 sets of scrubs!

T

CYR · May 29, 2006

"I have about a dozen sets of uniforms, all solids, and every one of them cost $$ that I could have used for other things. And the time I spend washing and ironing each week could be better spent with a good book and a glass of wine or reading to the kids down at the local library on Tuesday mornings."

It seems that with a nurse's salary you could have your uniforms laundered so that you could go and read to the kids at the library if you wanted to.

I believe the person who pointed out the purpose of scrubs being to protect patients from germs was correct since these are the people who are in very vulnerable states of health.