To ask why all these nursing/care uniforms being worn in public?!

[GinDaddyRedux]

I'm not trying to start a flame war here about the importance of people's contributions or whatever. This is something that is genuinely getting my goat.

Twice in the last week I have gone to a supermarket, first for food, and then latterly for medicine for my DC.

Both times (which is perhaps a coincidence in itself) I have seen someone from a caring profession - one a nurse I think, the other a care home worker, wearing their full uniform out around the shop. At both times it was towards the end of the day (when I finish working from home) so it looked like it was the end of their shift rather than lunchtime.

My question is, why is this allowed and actively encouraged from what I see on social media?

I think the reason is clear - the uniform wearers enjoy the kind public comments and encouragement. It provides a visual identifier that they are one of the people to be clapped or whatever.

What gets me though is surely this is an infection control nightmare? Why are people not being asked by their heads of department to change at work, thereby limiting the chances of infecting the public?

For those who say you don't have "dedicated changing facilities" - do toilet cubicles count? I just am perhaps understandably nervous at the idea that the lady who walked right up next to me, no distancing, in full uniform in the cheese aisle reaching across for cheddar, is wearing the same clothing used to treat people who may have had COVID-19.

If this is unreasonable of me then fair enough, but I really think this is a "look at me" thing. It's a tough profession and it's nice to be thanked in public, but it feels like this is a potentially big price to pay for a bit of congratulation.

I work in a hospital . We were told months ago that we have to wear our own clothes to work and back again and change in the hospital . It's a pain tbh cause you have to change at the end of 12 shift when you are desperate to get home but very necessary!

I wear my uniform in the shop after work. I'm not a nurse but a 'key worker'. I queue to get in the shop like everyone else, I don't get priority nor would I think to get it? we only have one car, my husband picks me up after picking up the kids as it's the least disruptive way of me doing a food shop. I don't have time or place to change, shit like this makes my anxiety worse. I would hate to think somebody is looking and thinking like you are OP.

I’ve always found this a bit icky and unhygienic. Long go, I used to work as a chef, no way ever would i leave the building in my whites, always got changed at work, as did everyone else.

Well I went private and the staff did not wear their scrubs etc outwith the operating rooms.

It's a very fair point. My nana was a nurse in the 70s & 80s and nobody wore their uniform out of the hospital for precisely infection control reasons.
Their uniform was named and laundered by the hospital laundry and those who lived off-site changed at work before and after a shift. Younger, unmarried nurses that lived in the nurses' home in the hospital grounds did wear theirs for the short walk from the home to their ward and back, but with an outdoor cape over (and still had uniform washed by the laundry).
Makes sense to me. Even pre Covid, I used to find it a bit gross that nurses / care workers were sat on the bus in uniform.

[quote GinDaddyRedux]@cardibach

Yes I am well aware of this.

I'm well aware also that because of the criticism some professions get, my fairly reasonable comment is going to get dismissed or criticised by folk who believe all care and NHS staff should get a pass for every kind of behaviour, because they are so beleaguered in this crisis.

I hugely appreciate the work people are doing. I just bemoan a culture of attention - the stuff online I saw before posting this was simply a case of wanting to publicly identify as a carer at this time. And the best way of doing that is wearing a uniform in public.[/quote]
If you appreciate the work they're doing, you won't get your knickers in such a twist about them getting attention.