Why must all docs bathe in cologne?

[kessadawn]

Okay, maybe not all docs, but I have a HUGE problem with the ones that insist on wearing so much cologne that we can still smell it all over the unit 20 minutes after they have left the floor! I have asthma and more than once I have had to find another nurse to sit with my ICU pt so I could get away from the smell left behind in the room after the doc has been in. I once refused to let a resident in the pt room because he smelled so strongly...and the pt was in status asthmaticus!!! Do they teach them anything in med school? I have c/o to all the right people, I have confronted the docs one on one (sometimes I was nice, sometimes I wasn't) and for the love of all things fresh and clean it's written in the dang policy NO FRAGRANCES! We cover it every year in our competancies!!

:angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

Thanks for letting me vent! I have just about had it up to hear and I don't know what else to do. I have to admit, usually it's the residents, and once you say something to them, they usually cut way back. The repeat offenders are the one's I'm not nice to. But every month it's a whole new batch of bodies, and every month they smell worse and worse. I am tired of carrying my inhaler around just incase the docs need to come in my pt room.

[lauralassie]

We have one Dr. who you can smell 10 min after he's been there. He also has his nurse (who , I really think is an ma , who calls herself a nurse) that carries his cigarets for him , so that the pt's can't see that he smokes.If you pick up a phone he's been on , you know that Dr. _____, has been there. However, I do agree,nurses should not wear sented products. In the same respect, nurses should not smell like smoke. Not much we can do about it but, I am also irritated by such things .

[ginger58, ASN, RN]

I think that I would first ask him if he could wear less/or none as it's bothering my/someone's asthma because he may not have a clue. Maybe his honey bought him the scent. If he continues I'd get in touch with the Medical Staff director.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Our docs don't wear any that I have ever smelled. Wish I could say the same for some nurses. There is one who floats up to the unit, who you can smell coming before she arrives. If she shows up again like that, I will be polite, but will say something to her about it. Last thing laboring women want or need is perfume filling the room.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Ditto on the nurses. Where I am it is not the docs but a couple nurses that I can smell a mile away perfume-wise. Most docs and most nurses make a very conscious effort to NOT wear anything offensive to our pts. It's just a couple. I personally stick to Dial soap & that's about it on work nights.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Luckily we don't have any docs that marinade in cologne. We do, however, have one that should reapply deodorant after every case. Shooooo:imbar

[Julie_Bean]

I agree its too much if you can still smell it after they left or you can smell any further out from them than 1-2 feet but I love it! Its a pleasant surprise after wiping stinky butts all day and dealing with the other gross smells.

[KellNY, RN]

I agree its too much if you can still smell it after they left or you can smell any further out from them than 1-2 feet but I love it! Its a pleasant surprise after wiping stinky butts all day and dealing with the other gross smells.

To you, maybe.

But not to someone with breathing problems, enviromental allergies, anaphalctic reactions, lupus, pregnancy (olfactory nerves function insanely well!), migraines, etc.

And a good doctor will come well within 1-2 feet from his/her patient (as would a good nurse) for assessments, etc.

And in the health care setting, we have to think more of the patients comfort and safety than staff's desire to smell (usually) artificially enhanced.

I'm not trying to attack you, but I've seen this attitude with plenty of nurses. One I work with flipped out when a pt said "The lotion you wear really makes me feel sick", telling the pt "don't know what you're talking about, I get compliments all the time!" and still wears it today.

[neneRN, BSN, RN]

Never had a doc wear too much cologne, but lots of nurses! I agree that any health care provider shouldn't be wearing strong scents, but I do have to ditto Julie Bean; after a day of smelling C-Diff, old urine, and vomit, I do like when the night nurse comes on shift and you finally smell something pleasant.

[JBudd, MSN]

One of our unit secretaries has such a reaction to strong perfumes/colognes, that her voice will get very tight and squeaky, and has even had to leave early in the shift.

Then I get to be charge AND secretary both. I have no problem telling people they cannot use such strong scents in the ER. Its in our policy, has been posted, etc. One poor traveler didn't wear perfume, but her hair spray set things off. When I pulled her aside and let her know, she made a real effort the rest of the night to work on the other side of the unit so as not to bother the clerk.

If people don't know they are affecting others, they need to be told.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

I pulled aside a respiratory therapist several times about being able to track him (literally) from unit to unit by the smell of his cologne. He swore he just had shampoo. No one else said anything to him, he said, but I'm not a sensitive person, and it was enough to make me dizzy standing beside him. I chalked it up to pure obstinance, at least in his case.

In nursing school one of the surgeons did not wear deodorant, plus layered on gallons of cologne after each case. He was of a culture that prefers to be close to you when talking, so on the busy evenings you could often see him and a nurse dong a dance down the hall. Her stepping away and trying to be pleasant, and him moving forward, trying to get his point across.

[AliRae]

I do like when the night nurse comes on shift and you finally smell something pleasant.

I've often thought the same thing and then wondered "But is she wearing perfume, or is that just the glorious smell of CLEAN? :chuckle

[jill48, ASN, RN]

I would trade your docs who wear too much cologne for a few of the docs I have worked with that smelled like that had not had a shower in a week. Ewww.