Respectful Insolence: Drunk with scrubs
…We were inside, but there was an outdoor sidewalk cafe area with tables as well As I was sitting there, I noticed a guy in surgical scrubs showing up in the outdoor area. Not surprisingly, he appeared to be trying to chat up a couple of young women who were also out there.
I had to restrain myself from bursting out in laughter.
Orac channels how I mostly feel about people who wear scrubs out of the hospital. Except that I usually am also given to wondering about the infection-control implications of it. We now have a myriad of multi-drug-resistant bugs, and you’re going to wear the same clothes home you wear at work?
Thing is, in England the doctors who wear shirt and tie are recommended to change those clothes when they leave the office/hospital and go home for the same concern about transferring organisms. I don’t know a lot of doctors who do this, but its the same problem as with the scrubs. Since I do medicine, I rarely got blod and things on my scrubs. I wear a lab coat.
When I worked at a clinic that required scrubs I was often guilty of wearing them outside of clinic — the thing was though that I would never go to a bar in them or anything. I’d maybe stop by at the store for some milk on the way home but that was about it. It was definitely more about being really tired than about wanting to look smart and important.
It’s standard for nurses to wear our scrubs to the hospital and while leaving. Who wants to change in a public locker room in front of other employees when the door opens to a busy hall? I don’t really want to get buck naked with all my co-workers every morning, thanks. Oh, and the one staff bathroom just doesn’t accomodate a staff of 20 or more each shift.
So, the after night shift 8 am bloody Mary occurs in scrubs. We really don’t get them that dirty.
When I worked ER, upon arriving home, I stripped inside the kitchen’s back door, dropping my scrubs directly into the washing machine. (I wouldn’t enter the “normal” part of the house while wearing them, no way.) Even now, as a road nurse, when I come home I change clothes FIRST, without sitting on anything in my home, and drop my work clothes into a separate hamper.
I know a lot of nurses who have work shoes and never wash their scrubs with their other clothing – and always wash their scrubs in hot water. I’m not one of them. First off, I work in the NICU…yes, we do get some germy stuff and even MRSA on occasion, but I don’t get much physically on my clothing. That being said, I do get puked on by babies at times… I guess maybe we could chalk it up to the fact that I’m building great immunity? I just don’t have time to wear different clothes into work, change when I get there, then change at night before going home – I’m often rushing everywhere I go and too exhausted to care at the end of the day. When I get home, I do change right away, but I throw all my stuff in the same laundry basket and wash lights and darks as a mix of scrubs and regular clothing. It’s expensive to do laundry where I live, so I can’t afford to be doing separate loads just for my scrubs! But I definitely don’t wear them outside the hospital as some sort of “trying-to-impress” thing!
Take care,
Carrie :)
Perhaps I am cynical, but when I see scrubs I don’t automatically think “doctor.” Perhaps this is due to the two CNAs wearing scrubs who were taking the entrance exam for nursing school at the same time I was. (No surprise to me, they both flunked.) Too many folks only tangentially related to medicine wear them (& those of us outside it can’t really tell the difference among any types there might be), & you can buy the blessed things at Wal-Mart.
Heck… I’m a Research Scientist and I wear scrubs to work. I also wear a white lab coat over my scrubs when working in the lab. My office is a glass enclosure within my lab which I wear a separate lab coat, but only because it is very cold. I will go out for a drink after work in my scrubs. Not to impress, but because it’s a long way to my house and back to town. I know my scrubs are clean but never thought about others thinking they are dirty. Those of you wearing scrubs home could be spreading anything all the way home. It only takes a couple of minutes to change into different scrubs. Isn’t it worth the effort?
Are you kidding me? Nurses are smart enough to change scrubs if they become soiled with blood, urine, stomach acid, feces, etc. Any hospital has a supply of O.R. scrubs that are available to change into if necessary and I have done it countless times. Nurses wash their hands at least fifty or more times per shift and generally speaking we are germaphobes in our daily life. More clean in every way than the general population. The shopping cart handles at Wal-mart or any public bathroom pose a bigger threat to you than a nurse having dinner in her scrubs after a long hard day of taking care of you guys!
About medical personnel wearing srubs in public:
Are you kidding me? Nurses are smart enough to change scrubs if they become soiled with blood, urine, stomach acid, feces, etc. Any hospital has a supply of O.R. scrubs that are available to change into if necessary and I have done it countless times. Nurses wash their hands at least fifty or more times per shift and generally speaking we are germaphobes in our daily life. More clean in every way than the general population. The shopping cart handles at Wal-mart or any public bathroom pose a bigger threat to you than a nurse having dinner in her scrubs after a long hard day of taking care of you guys! What about a sewer worker/plumber? Countless germy professions out there people!