I absolutely agree with the above article - nurses wear washable uniforms and are supposed to be responsible for laundering their uniforms at the required temperature to clean them.
Why do other members of the Health care fraternity think that somehow bacteria bypass them?
I brought this up on another forum and got into deep water with the snappy suit and tie brigade!
I firmly believe that we should all wear cotton, washable clothing when we doing any clinical work.
first thought to flash through the "not so enigmatic" grey matter of the female sex
i mentioned "mimipods" post to my wife (ICU educator) and she said that that was what the room full of nurses (females) had said their first thought was when they saw it! funny about that
The staff at the Healthcare practices in Boots the Chemist (now defunct) wore cotton "scrubs" type uniforms which were boil washed after each use. As these were in an attractive blue-and-white pinstripe, they quickly became nicknamed "Andy-Pandy suits"!
Many health workers complain that it's difficult to get clinical uniform such as white coats laundered. On the Radio 5Live phone in, a chap who works in a dog-food factory called in to say it's compulsory for him to have a clean coat daily, and all laundry is done for him. Says a lot, methinks!
Cheers,
Martin Nunn
Podiatry Service Manager
Hotter Comfort Concept
Never mind Doctors Ties and Specialist Teams going into NHS. Hospitals?
How about 60,000 more cleaners to replace the ones removed in the process of saving money by people who probably never set foot in a Hospital Ward in their working lives before!
If you don't have a 'Cleaner' dedicated to a Ward.
Who cleans it?
Guess what happens to the blood and snots split on the floor and in the toilets etc.?
Are we going to remove all the door handles, too?
Just to stir the loins in the NHS.
Nurses having to clean their own uniforms just because the Serialisation units have been closed down, why? Because of money of course!
The Nurses should not have their uniforms in their personal possession to wash at home.
What happens between the home the bus-seat whatever and the Hospital front door, never mind what she takes home with her!
Or what the visitors bring in with them when they sit on the sick persons bed because there isn't enough chairs to sit on, perhaps?
That could be an interesting sight for sore eyes on the bus when the nurse goes home after shift of course!!!
......
Do you think that is enough Spleen-venting for one day perhaps?
perhaps, being a mere student, I may reflect that the use of plastic carrier bags may help prevent the spread of extraneous matter from nurses uniforms???? & that they may get changed before leaving the wards?
What’s hanging around your neck? Pathogenic bacteria on identity badges and lanyards
Despina Kotsanas, Carmel Scott, Elizabeth E Gillespie, Tony M Korman and Rhonda L Stuart MJA 2008; 188 (1): 5-8
All very interesting, but what is the percentage transmission from identity badges and lanyards versus hands?
The tie (necktie) issue IMO simply obfuscates a serious matter.
There has been no research on regularly laudered tie versus not regularly laundered tie, and no research on skin squames dropping from the neck of practitioners with no tie on to patient wounds.
In an ideal world, I suppose that we would all be naked with a thin layer of petroleum jelly and so would the patients.
Fortunately, for the benefit of society as a whole and my patients' mental well being in particular, I will have retired before we reach that stage!
Personally I hate Lanyards. I've switched to the coiled string on my hip. It stops the badges & keys entering the clinical field, althought they're still obviously magnets for the airborne nasties.