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What's the deal with medical professionals commuting to work in their scrubs?
By adamg on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 12:00pm
Karl doesn't get it:
... [D]oes anybody else find it disturbing that nurses commute to work on public transit in their nursing uniforms? I mean, isn't the hole point of the uniform that whole sterility thing? Otherwise, why not just let them wear jeans? ...
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Comments
Have Often Wondered The Same Thing
I'm of the opinion that these people in their scrubs want the rest of us to "ooh" and "ahh" because we're supposed to be really impressed that these people are involved in some sort of medical profession. Wankers.
How does he know they're nurses?
How exactly does Karl know that the people he's seeing are nurses? I work in a hospital, and lots of different people wear scrubs here, including many who don't even work in patient care - the housekeeping staff, for instance. In any case, most scrubs are clean but not sterile - the sterile garments are in the OR changing areas.
100% correct. Karl has no
100% correct. Karl has no idea what he is talking about. Sorry, Karl.
Scrubs aren't sterile
Scrubs aren't sterile. Nor is the rest of the attire, or the skin, for that matter. That's why they scrub their hands so thoroughly before surgery -- that's what counts.. And why they wear other clean things like gloves and masks and hair coverings.
Want to sterilize some clothes? Put them in an autoclave for 20 minutes. Then see if they still fit on your non-sterile body.
Replied at he original post as well...
The scrubs most nurses wear are not sterile. For nurses who work in say, a surgical unit, burn unit or in obstetrics (for c-sections), they’ll have sterile scrubs that are only worn in designated places and are provided by the hospital, and are never worn outside of those designated areas. Sometimes in maternity, hospitals won’t allow nurses to wear their scrubs outside of the hospital, even if they’re not sterile, for cleanliness reasons, since newborns don’t have much of an immune system. If you’re someone who’s immune system is so compromised that you can’t be around non-sterile anything, those nurses will also wear sterile scrubs (or disposable sterile ones) specifically when taking care of you. Otherwise, scrubs are just part of the required uniform, meant to signal “hey, I’m a nurse.” There are some hospital units that allow nurses to wear “casual professional attire,” but when you’re working around all the gunk in hospitals, most people don’t really want to ruin their clothes. Plus, scrubs are just comfortable, even if not terribly fashionable. (Hopefully any nurse you see on the way home on the T changed her scrubs if she got puked on that day).
And point taken- not everyone wearing scrubs is a nurse!
Nurse's uniform?
These are O.R. scrubs.
Rushmore
Oh, are they?
As Seen On TV
No doubt. On TV, nurses don't wear scrubs - they wear short, tight white dresses and white fishnets and little hats pinned in their hair.
Even when it isn't Halloween.
Most hospital employees wear scrubs. Even lab rats wear scrubs sometimes. They save your real clothes.
OMG.
I worked at a hospital where there was this one nurse who was about 112 years old with about the fittest body I've seen on anyone over 40. Every single day she wore white tights, white starched nursing dresses that either had a pastel embroidered pattern on the neck/chest area or a starched white bolero with embroidered lapels, white clogs with the same color embroidery as that day's ensemble, and at times either a headband covered in starched cotton or one of those nurse hat things that I thought were only from the movies. Once she had a starched white flower clipped in her hair. The stuff looked like it came out of the '30s or '40s, except for also looking brand new.
The best part of it was that she was a manager of some sort and never did typical nurse-type duties. The others in her office wore stuff like khakis and sweaters.
Am I the only one who got
Am I the only one who got that?
no
no
O R they?
O R they?
Why can't they change at work?
Why can't doctors and nurses just change into their scrubs at work?
Lots of professions do that.
Then I don't have to wonder if my doctor or nurse got any hobo juice on them on the way to work.
Simple Answer
Many people don't get paid for the time to do that. It takes time to change and change back. Add in unpaid paperwork time before and after shift, and it adds up!
There is no medical reason to change, either. If you are working in a sterile area, you pull disposables over your scrubs. Otherwise, they would get this mysteriously virulent and T-borne "hobo juice" on their street clothes, then touch their street clothes, then touch their scrubs, and it wouldn't make any difference!
What most people "just know" about sanitary practice is lysol propaganda, wives tales, and partly-informed fear. Here's a simple fact: what is already floating around inside that hospital is VASTLY nastier and far more dangerous than just about anything in the community at large.
JCAHO rules...
the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) requires that street clothes be removed and sterile clothes be put on before entering sterile areas (e.g. Operations rooms). Pulling disposables on over street clothes does not cut it.
Many nurses, docs, techs, etc wear scrubs because they are far easier to get in and out of (than street clothes) before entering sterile areas.
Hospital != Sterile Area
Many healthcare workers never come near a sterile area. They may change into/out of "sterile" scrubs for sterile areas, but your doctor's office or a typical hospital room isn't sterile.
snore
snore
It's just him
Karl seems to be under the mistaken impression that somehow changing at work would make the scrubs more "disease-free." Scrubs aren't to protect the patient. They are so doctors and nurses don't get Karl's nasty leaking body juices on their real clothes. Doctors/Nurses deal with cysts, cuts, snotty noses, leaking vaginas/penises throughout the day and don't want their clothes ruined. The scrubs aren't for you, Karl -- they are for the doctors.
TMI
TMI
Just for the record...
...the word is "whole," not "hole." Sheesh.
Maybe they're not even going to work...
I have an aunt who works as a nurse and she wears scrubs on her days off, just because they're comfy when she's just hanging around the house. I even have some scrubs that I wear on weekends--because they're comfy. I expect the best part for real medical staff is the aforementioned ease of changing. Most med staff I know are seriously overworked and have no time to change in and out of street clothes to scrubs and still get to their shift on time. Just lay off, already, people. Appreciate the people who take care of us when we're ill!
Scrubs
My neighbor who is an emergency room doctor occasionally walks his dog in his scrubs just before he leaves to the hospital. I think Karl has valid concerns and I am also concerned with many of the comments from those whom seem to be medical "professionals". I can imagine what my neighbor brings into his emergency room from his whatever his dog sniffs, licks, or leaves on him during their daily rituals.
scrubs
I'm required to wear scrubs each day and work in medical records. Our housekeeping dept are also required to wear scrubs. No one is trying to Ahhh anyone, not everyone in scrubs are nurses or doctors. We wear scrubs because employees don't seem to know how to dress professionaly these days. They come to work in t-shirts, flip-flops, and club wear. Five-inch hills, skirts to their A$$, breasts hanging out and ugly feet are not professional and don't belong in a medical environment, scrubs makes them look presentable.