Nurses in uniform on public transport

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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!!!

Not allowed in the area where I work.

However, I agree that a scrubs system, where uniforms are left and washed at work would be ideal, however there are too many office-bound Florences with a filofax who think scrubs look scruffy, so we have to lug the bloody things to and from work.

I also think they should be stricer about staff keeping their hair off the collar. That's my major pet hate.

Yanbu, my friend is a nurse and gets fed up with doing battle with colleages over this. And where she works they do have a laundry but most people choose not to use it!

My god... I never thought about this before. I see them too out and about. Oh great. Another reason for me to stay away from the hospital.

As soon as I get home, I wash my hands and face and I change out of my jeans into my comfy pants because I can't bare to think about what I may have sat in while out and never ever put clothes on the bed.

OK... I had to Wikipedia it... This is pretty serious!

"In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that roughly 1.7 million hospital-associated infections, from all types of microorganisms, including bacteria, combined, cause or contribute to 99,000 deaths each year.[1] In Europe, where hospital surveys have been conducted, the category of Gram-negative infections are estimated to account for two-thirds of the 25,000 deaths each year. Nosocomial infections can cause severe pneumonia and infections of the urinary tract, bloodstream and other parts of the body. Many types are difficult to attack with antibiotics, and antibiotic resistance is spreading to Gram-negative bacteria that can infect people outside the hospital."

YANBU

YANBU , but as gothanngeddes says there is a real attitude in the NHS against nurses wearing scrubs,which could be washed in house as theatre scrubs are . It is a disciplinary offence to wear uniform outside of work here though . However there are occaions where wearing uniform cannot be avoided ,ie in the community ,paramedics etc .

It's not just the germ issue. If someone collapses in Tesco and a nurse is shopping in uniform he/she will immediately be expected to deal with it. If they are a Paramedic or ED nurse then fine. If, however, they are a Dermatology outpatients nurse (very specialised and important job) it may have been 10 years since they experienced anything other than the basic life support any first aider knows. It is making them vulnerable to litigation and also could delay treatment.

MadameDeathstare - when I trained as a nurse, our uniforms were laundered by the hospital, and nurses who lived-out had lockers in changing rooms in one of the nurses' homes. The only time you were allowed to wear your uniform outside the hospital was when you were working on the district (or doing your district nursing allocation as part of your training).

But the hospital's laundries were closed down to save money, and sending your uniform to the outside laundry was a total lottery - there was no guarantee whatsoever that you would get a uniform back when you needed one - or you might get a uniform but no collar - so more and more nurses started laundering their uniforms at home and wearing them to work. The nurses' home with the changing rooms was a long walk from most of the wards, and a very long walk from some, so I suspect most nurses didn't want to use the changing rooms and then hike all the way to their wards, and do the same in reverse, when they could cover their uniforms with a coat and just go straight to the ward.

There are 3 major hospitals in the city where I live and I have never seen anyone in a nurses uniform outside of a hospital. So some NHS trusts must be getting it right.

Ooh, one of the mums at school always does pick up in her uniform. She's pretty scary though - I'm not going to mention it!!

all the midwives & HV's I've ever dealt with wear their own clothes - no uniform. A couple of the MW in hospital wore a uniform, but most, inc the MW who delivered DD wore own clothes.

I've just realised most nurses I know walk or use public transport to work - I suppose because parking is so crap at hospitals?

I agree that it should be something to complain to the locan PCT / Hospital trust about.I don't think for one minute that the nurses don't care; I think they are probably absolutely sick of nothing being done about a lack of changing facilities / laundry.

YANBU

DH is a chef and would only wear his uniform at work because of all the germs.

YANBU to wonder about the risk of cross infection, though YABU to think it's because "nurses don't care". As others have said, they may be community based, and if not they may not have access to changing facilites, I work in a massive trust and the changing facilities are a joke (the tiny toilet! shared with another ward! not cleaned all that efficiently!), and the "autovalet" (shudder) is grim.

I've never used it, as students we weren't allowed (student midwife on bus probably has no access to changing facilities and has to launder her own kit) and then I never bothered since qualifying as there are never any suitable uniforms available, they only ever have size 8, which are proper oldschool 30-22-32 size 8 not the modern ones that would at least fit a few people, and they are not very clean looking! Staff nurses used to wear white and you should have seen the state of the autovaleted uniforms, grey and horrible. Bloodstains, biro, god knows what they do to them!

Also, given that I've never had access to a locker and often have had to work with my purse in my uniform pocket, you can't really blame people for not wanting to leave their own things at the mercy of whoever. Theft is sadly rife in hospitals, patients, visitors, staff, opportunists who just "sweep" a ward...

I used to wear scrubs which is better, though I am allergic to industrial detergent so still had to launder my own. Thank god I lived in rented accomodation, doing that many boil washes meant we got through a few washing machines.

Agree about managers making stupid decisions about people "looking smart", they stopped A&E nursing staff wearing scrubs here (docs still do one rule for us etc) a few years ago which is just daft. They are much more comfortable for physical work, which is what a lot of HCPs are doing, and if the risk of contamination from uniform worn away from clinical areas is SO great, scrubs are the answer!

I do think it's unfair that nurses get so much stick when junior doctors wear their own clothes on the way to work, in the cafe at lunch, in the pub after and then come to work in the same trousers and cardigan the next day...they are "in the thick of it" too and should have to wear some sort of uniform I think.

YANBU, but I am a nurse in a large teaching hospital and we have no changing facilities apart from a tiny staff loo on the ward. Our lockers are in the ward linen room which must be a clean area so you can't get changed in there. The lockers are in there as there is no room anywhere else as the staff room is tiny! We can send our uniforms to the laundry but it's a lottery as to when (and if!) they arrive back on the ward so this is unreliable.

To be honest there are much more 'risky' behaviours that are important for infection control, such as ensuring effective hand hygiene between each patient contact.

Also, I have seen numerous non-hospital nurses in nurse type uniforms as others have said eg care home staff, therapists/beauticians,, dental workers etc so don't assume all staff in nurse uniforms are nurses.

Hmm, well it rather depends. If there's changing facilities and laundered uniforms, grand. But where I work (large NHS hosputal) - no laundry, no changing rooms, small lockers.

Plus docs wear their own clothes (iyswim) as do all the visitors obviously. If a nurse washes her hands so what? Exactly how are these germs meant to be transferred specifically to a pt (compared with a patient hugging their visitors or a doc examining them)?

As long as good hand hygiene and aprons worn as appropriate I can't see a problem.

Nursing and AHP professions are hugely wide ranging in the actual work they will be carrying out! In a lot of hospitals nurses now wear plastic aprons over their uniforms if contamination is likely.

Members of public are visiting and attending hospitals and are more likely to be carrying germs back and forth than an outpatient nurse who's main job that day was ticking patients off from a list and showing them into the consultant room !!

Agree staff that do invasive procedures should wear scrubs or change out of uniform but yabu to scaremonger people who see what may be a beautician on public transport !!

YANBU in relation to germs.

However anybody who has inferred it is the nurses fault is being VVVU.

As others in the know have said, due to cost-cutting measures most hospitals removed the laundry facility and most hospitals do not have adequate staff changing/secure locker facilities.

Enough nurse bashing please, they have plenty of shit to deal with on a daily basis without the germ-brigade having a go at something they have little control over.

Get in touch with your PCT's, complain to them and insist they bring laundry facilities back.

Of course, District Nurses, Community Midwives - couldn't possibly change in/out of uniforms.

YANBU about them wearing their uniform INTO their place of work, but I can't see that wearing them home where they will be laundered is a bad thing.

The whole germs thing is getting totally out of proportion from my POV. humans have evolved alongside bacteria and from what I understand (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong) maintaining a too sterile environment isn't good for the overall immunity of the population as a whole. Obviously there are places where infection control is important; hospitals, open food prep areas, food manufacturing etc. but washing as soon as you get home, changing out of your outdoor clothes (for anything other than comfort) and not ever putting them on beds? surely that's more than a little bit extreme?

And funnily enough, my DH works in the food manufacturing industry and he said there are better controls in place before he walks round a food factory than there were when he accompanied me into theatre for my C-section, where he picked up a hideous fungal infection from the manky old clogs that were supplied for him to wear!

"They really show they dont care!!!" oh FFS

At my trust there are no changing facilities, no staff lockers and no laundry.
How do you expect me to travel to work - naked?

YANBU Didn't know in some hospitals this is a disciplinary offence - don't know if it is out local hospital. But I see people people getting off at the bus stop for the hospital all the time, wearing a nurses uniform.

I actually think the best idea, to keep hospitals as sterile as possible, is that at each entrance there should be locker facilities for every single person who goes into that hospital (doctor, nurse, receptionist, cleaner, visitor, patient, delivery person) to change into scrubs.

They'll have all had to get to the hospital in their car (could be filthy) or on public transport. They will all bring germs into the hospital. Some of them may visit a ward, wearing clothes that have not been adequately laundered.

There is only so far you can go.

I do not think nurses should do their shopping in their uniform. Nor care-assistants.

FWIW our local Vets dress their nurses and receptionists in the same uniform that my mum wore - how can you be sure (unless seeing a name badge) that it is actually a nurse?

In my experience, nurses don't tend to do their shopping in their uniform. District Nurses do have to eat though and will pop into Sainsburys (for example) during their lunch hour.