Nurses (& the like) wearing scrubs outside the workplace.

augustsmummy

I worked as a nurse at a city centre teaching hospital, and if we were seen leaving or arriving at work in our uniforms we faced disciplinary action.
I know of 2 nurses that were indeed seen and were disciplined.
Yes it was an absolute pain in the rear to get up earlier and get in to work 20 minutes before our shift started at 6:30am so we could get changed. And it was an extra time delay in getting home (on top of working late to help out etc) after our 12.5 hour very busy shift.
However I totally agree with the trusts rules. They are there to protect patients, staff and the wider community.
I think it makes sense as you could be dealing with potentialy infectious patients, you wouldn't leave the ward without washing your hands, so why leave in your uniform?
I hate seeing people in the supermarkets in their uniforms, I think it is lazy and unhygenic.

The promblem is dependant on the trusts enforcing high standards, in my opinion the no uniform outside of the hospital rule should be NHS wide.

Nine_Lives

pauletruth wrote: »

you have not really caught it.

I'm confused, totally. I can't find anywhere where i said that i had or even suspected i had caught it.

snugglepet20

I did a student placement in endoscopy and we weren't even allowed to wear our scrubs outside the department in the rest of the hospital, never mind outside! If we needed to take someone to the ward we had to get changed first into a standard uniform. It was a bit ironic considering some of the patients that came in clearly had ingrained dirt on them and hadn't had a good wash for quite some time!

mttylad

Perhaps the nurses should remove their uniforms before going outside for a ciggy. Might be a bit chilly but will perk up the old fellas in the mens ward

I bet the wall that they sit on is far cleaner than some of the seats in the waiting room. At least the wall gets a wash almost every week.

milliemonster

Well as a cardiac nurse myself, the Trust where I work has a policy that staff are allowed to travel to work and home again in their uniform (NOT scrubs) but should not make a detour anywhere else in their uniform (ie calling at tesco on their way home), if you take infection control seriously then you should be wearing PPE when dealing with patients so your actual uniform should not be an infection risk per se. This policy was introduced as years ago, most hospitals expected you to come to work and leave in your own clothes and get changed into uniform at work, this was because uniforms were cleaned on site, but like everything they wanted to cut costs so refused to do this anymore. I would be more than happy to get changed at work but I would still have to carry home my 'used' uniform, so what would be the difference in carrying it out of the hospital home, or wearing it?

However, to expect staff to change from uniform into their own clothes whilst on a break is unreasonable, whilst we are on a break, which sometimes during a 12hr shift we don't manage to get, we are still classed as on duty and could be called back in the case of a medical emergency, I'm sure you wouldn't be happy if we couldn't resuscitate your relative as we were too busy getting changed back into our uniforms?

Staff should not be smoking outside as all hospital grounds are no smoking and it is about time trusts laid down the law on this on staff AND VISITORS who constantly flout the rules.

Infections are on the increase in hospitals, a large proportion of bacteria are brought in by patients and relatives, although staff play a huge part in reducing the risk.

We frequently remind visitors not to sit on patients beds, but they continue to do so, we ask relatives to wash hands coming into the unit and leaving, but they refuse, we can't force them to do it, only advise. The public really have to help us with this if we are ever going to combat it, but I accept a lot of staff hygiene leave a lot to be desired.

Charliezoo

My mum's a nurse and always frowns on anyone wearing their uniform outside of work. She says its unhygenic but also if there was an accident or someone collapsed in the street everyone would automatically turn to the person in uniform to help. Not everyone who wears a nurse's type uniform is always the best to assist in these situations, they may have hardly any medical or first aid skill at all depending on their line of work.

Caroline73_2

I'm a nurse. I wear my uniform to and from work but that's it. I don't make any detours on route. I wear a clean uniform each day despite only being given two uniforms when I sometimes work 5 days a week.

If I had a place to change at work and a locker to keep my clothes in I would change at work. At my hospital changing rooms (like the ones you see on Holby) only exist in theatres, itu and emergency department. My department doesn't even have a staff toilet. I have to share with patients.

My trust has a very strict uniform policy and they do discipline for anyone found outside in uniform. Exceptions are travelling in private transport to work.

dickydonkin

Azari wrote: »

I would have thought the answer is obvious.

Dental nurses are, by and large, assisting dental surgeons. They will be handling things that are going to be put in the patient's mouth when blood vessels may well be exposed (i.e. there is some bleeding).

I'll bet a pound to a penny that you will not find that theatre nursing staff wear clothing they have worn outside whilst working.

Of course, the same should apply to A&E staff and any others who may be dealing with open wounds.

But nurses who don't work in theatre will surely still have to change the dressings on the people who have been in surgery - and on any other open wounds for that matter.

And as for 'putting things in mouths', don't nurses use thermometers for taking a patients temperature? (Yes - I know they can be used at 'the other end' as well).

As an aside, I used to work for a food grade packaging company and nobody was allowed to wear workwear outside of the factory areas or take them home for the very reasons the OP highlighted.

milliemonster

dickydonkin wrote: »

But nurses who don't work in theatre will surely still have to change the dressings on the people who have been in surgery - and on any other open wounds for that matter.

And as for 'putting things in mouths', don't nurses use thermometers for taking a patients temperature? (Yes - I know they can be used at 'the other end' as well).

As an aside, I used to work for a food grade packaging company and nobody was allowed to wear workwear outside of the factory areas or take them home for the very reasons the OP highlighted.

No we don't, they went out with the dark ages when mercury thermometers were banned in hospitals, most hospitals now use tympanic thermometers

augustsmummy

dickydonkin wrote: »

And as for 'putting things in mouths', don't nurses use thermometers for taking a patients temperature? (Yes - I know they can be used at 'the other end' as well).

Which Nurse did you pee off to find that out? :rotfl: