AP and volunteer work

[mumsareglam]

My AP who is a trained nurse wants to volunteer in a hospital to get some experience. On the one hand I am in favour of anything that will help her in the future, on the other hand I am concerned about her doing the school run on the way from the hospital and possibly bringing in hospital bugs with her. Am I just being paranoid? Any medical professionals out there with tips?

I think you are being a bit paranoid, but I understand the worry.

As a nurse, at our hospital we have nowhere to change.. at all. The volunteers all wear T-shirts with a logo and black trousers. You could ask her to change her top. If she is issued with a 'work' t-shirt, she may not want to wear it on the school run either!

The volunteers at our hospital do very little (if any) direct patient care, other than serving food and assisting with feeding. She would need to wear an apron for this anyway.

The risk of clothing harbouring dangerous pathogens is negligable in my opinion, and it's highly unlikely to make your children ill.

As long as she follows normal hand hygiene protocol, I think the risk is so, so minimal and it wouldn't bother me.

Thank you ccn for the very useful information. It has put my mind at rest.