Nurses in uniform on public transport

[sea74]

This is something that makes me crazy.
They talk about nosocomial infections, millions of pounds are spent per year to supply hospitals with hand gel, and then on the way home, you see dozens of nurses on the tube, trains, buses, trams and buses wearing their own uniform from and to work!

Don't they know it should not wore before they arrive in the hospital?

Also midwives do that.

I just cant stand it! They really show they dont care!!!

My mum used to say this, years back i did work experience on a ward to see if i wanted to be a nurse when i left school

I wore a white coat, which the sister said i could wear home 'on the bus' (to show off basically) there was no consideration about germs

I think its stricter now, more seem to wear 'scrub' style clothes than proper uniforms

YANBU! My friend does this and it annoys me too!

They're not supposed to. You can call the NHS trust and complain as it's an infection control issue. There are changing rooms but they are not always availiable.

midwfifes and health visitors go on home visits in uniform, so they would possibly have to use public transport to get to their appointments?

or should they wait till they get to the patients house, change, then change again after?

going to work the other day the bus was full
Lady got on in nurse's uniform and sat on the stairs of the bus as no seats
Her coat was open and her badge announced she was a trainee midwife
She was going to work sitting on a bus floor no doubt taking in millions of germs with her

it used to be that hospitals did their own laundry but now it is contracted out and the uniforms, afaik are no longer part of the deal

health visitors don't wear uniforms.

All you can do is contact the NHS trust and ask to speak to the infection control nurse. The nurses are told not to do this.

I know what you mean it annoys me too, but how do you know these nurses/ mw work in a hospital and not in the community?

YANBU they should not do this. Also, you try getting some of the old school consultants not to wear a tie on the ward (which can touch patients as they lean over them). gah.

I've worked in a couple of NHS hospitals, a private hospital and a hospice and in each one it was a disciplinary matter if you wore your uniform either to or from work.

Obviously, people like community midwives, community nurses and agency carers can't change every half hour, so you do see them in uniform in public.

not just on buses tho,we lived right next door to the hospital and you would see staff outside on the steps(off grounds)smoking and eating lunch,in uniform sitting on dirty steps & the grass banks etc

They don't do that on Grey's Anatomy.

How do you know they aren't on the way home and won't wear the uniform until after it is washed again?

Yes i see your point. YANBU.

Your not allowed to wear your uniform outside of work or smoke in it at Mc Donalds either.

I my trust all HCP's have to get changed before and after our shift, we face disciplinary action if we don't. Since having DC I don't even like the thought of putting my uniform in the washing machine, would love to do what they do in theatre; wear scrubs and shove them in a skip at the end of the shift and pick up a fresh set at the start of the next one. I always leave my work shoes in the changing room as I wouldn't want to tred them through my house.

These people are probably not all HCP's though, my mum often points people out in town in their "nurses" uniforms but they are actually beauticians.

There are no changing rooms where i work (and it is a reasonably sized nhs hospital). There are no laundry facilities either. There is 1 unisex staff toilet shared between 3 wards. If i could go to work, collect my laundered uniform from designated place and change in a fully functioning changing room I would as would my colleagues.If anyone sees staff in uniform, perhaps they could phone the relevant trust and ask about staff changing and laundry facilities, this may spur hospital managers to do something about the situation.

Maybe she was not a nurse.

My mum was a receptionist at a hospital but had a nurse-like uniform (in a different colour).

Or as frazzled said, they lack the changing/laundry facilities.

I think that wearing your uniform other than where you work is shite.Wear civvies until get to work othewise is infection control nightmare but work in area where patients are really susceptible to infection.Takes 5 mins to change into uniform

btw, I dont travel to work on public transport, smoke or go to mcdonalds in uniform, just raising a valid point!

frazzled agree they should give you changing facilities,if not really crap.

It is a disciplinary offence where I work

same here, but tbh if everybody stuck to the rules, im not sure where or how they would change into uniforms.

YABU to blame nurses.

fgs think bigger, nurses hardly "don't care"