Medical personnel wearing scrubs outside of work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are going in to work, fine. Leaving work, not so much.

This. I'm a nurse. Most of us wear street clothes in and change into scrubs at work. I do know some people who wear personal scrubs into work and then change into hospital provided scrubs there. So I suppose you could be seeing those people.

I'm a nurse too at a facility of about 7000 healthcare workers. Most do not wear street clothes in/out, they were their scrubs. Very few wear street clothes if any. They will wear gowns if caring for a contact precautions patient and people in designated areas such as OR or L&D do wear street clothes in as they get scrubs at the hospital that they are required to change into.

For what it's worth, unless the healthcare worker is rubbing themselves all over you or not washing their hands, this is really a non issue. Germs don't aerosolize off their scrubs.

The entire point of scrubs is to keep outside germs out of the facility, and facility germs from leaving the facility. That is the entire point of scrubs.

No, scrubs are not PPE and there is no regulation that requires people - other than in a few designated areas such as the OR - to change them at the beginning or end of a shift. And while scrubs do carry bacteria, hands are the most likely vector for spreading disease. Most hospitals do not provide staff with a place to change their scrubs. Are you licking someone else's scrubs? Is the person wearing scrubs rubbing themselves all over the place?

That's gross. You are contaminating the hospital by wearing the scrubs while coming in. Stop trying to defend something indefensible.

Unless CDC or OSHA requires it, healthcare workers aren't going to do it. Can argue it here all night, won't change that fact. They don't because there's no research showing scrubs as major vectors of contamination and people wear PPE anyways in COVid rooms or other types of isolation.

[Anonymous]

New OSHA guidelines are needed for hospitals to provide hospital staff a place to change. When I go to the gym, I change out of my street clothes and into gym clothes. When I leave the gym, I take a shower before putting my street clothes back on. According to PP, you go in to hospitals wearing scrubs, work for 8-10 hours straight walking into patient rooms and etc., then leave the hospital with the SAME scrubs you came in. How disgusting is that!?! I only go to the gym for at most 90 min and I need to shower and change. Why wouldn’t someone working in germ infested areas do the same?!? OSHA needs to look into this especially with airborne viruses around hospital rooms and ventilation.

[Anonymous]

From CDC:
"though OSHA regulations prohibit home laundering of items that are considered personal protective apparel or equipment (e.g., laboratory coats),967 experts disagree about whether this regulation extends to uniforms and scrub suits that are not contaminated with blood or other potentially infectious material. Health-care facility policies on this matter vary and may be inconsistent with recommendations of professional organizations.1253, 1254 Uniforms without blood or body substance contamination presumably do not differ appreciably from street clothes in the degree and microbial nature of soilage."

Also:

"Apart from this study, which documents the presence of pathogenic bacteria on health-care facility clothing, reports of infections attributed to either the contact with such apparel or with home laundering have been rare."

https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/environmental/background/laundry.html

[Anonymous]

The nurses I know wear one set of scrubs to and from, and a different set in the hospital.

[Anonymous]

Are you rubbing up on these people who are wearing scrubs and then licking yourself? Because that's pretty much the only way I can imagine you might get Covid from them....it's not going to magically jump off someone's clothing into your nose, you know that right???

[Anonymous]

The CDC has no credibility in this pandemic. Initially they said DO NOT wear face masks because it doesn’t help the lay people BUT save the masks for healthcare workers so they have enough PPEs. Well, last I checked us peons are the same human beings as healthcare workers...what makes them so special that masks will protect them and not peons living on the streets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From CDC:
"though OSHA regulations prohibit home laundering of items that are considered personal protective apparel or equipment (e.g., laboratory coats),967 experts disagree about whether this regulation extends to uniforms and scrub suits that are not contaminated with blood or other potentially infectious material. Health-care facility policies on this matter vary and may be inconsistent with recommendations of professional organizations.1253, 1254 Uniforms without blood or body substance contamination presumably do not differ appreciably from street clothes in the degree and microbial nature of soilage."

Also:

"Apart from this study, which documents the presence of pathogenic bacteria on health-care facility clothing, reports of infections attributed to either the contact with such apparel or with home laundering have been rare."

https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/environmental/background/laundry.html

You can quote all you want from the CDC but their guidances change like the wind. They are dunces in this pandemic...that is how we are where we are today. They dropped the ball and now are paying the piper!

[Anonymous]

ER physician spouse wears scrubs to and from ER. Upon return, comes in separate entrance to basement and puts scrubs straight in the washing machine. No stores on way home. Even for folks who do, scrubs are unlikely to contain enough virus particles to result in an infection. We know enough to know that this is not how it typically spreads--rather, prolonged, close contact indoors via exhalations/coughs/sneezes is how it spreads in most cases.

[Anonymous]

No one has a clue on how Covid19 is transmitted...aerosol...surfaces...etc. Labs shown active viral particles on all types of surfaces and air BUT not one study on transmissions. Why?!? Because the only vector are HUMANS! We can’t experiment on ourselves and animals cannot be used to test infectious potential. So NIH, CDC, OSHA, etc cannot make up their mind on how to best protect against Covid19. Everyone is making it up as they go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are going in to work, fine. Leaving work, not so much.

This. I'm a nurse. Most of us wear street clothes in and change into scrubs at work. I do know some people who wear personal scrubs into work and then change into hospital provided scrubs there. So I suppose you could be seeing those people.

Yes, DH who is an ER doc does this. He has scrubs from home and then changes into hospital scrubs. I’ve told him not to shop afterwards because of people like the OP who will make assumptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are going in to work, fine. Leaving work, not so much.

This. I'm a nurse. Most of us wear street clothes in and change into scrubs at work. I do know some people who wear personal scrubs into work and then change into hospital provided scrubs there. So I suppose you could be seeing those people.

Yes, DH who is an ER doc does this. He has scrubs from home and then changes into hospital scrubs. I’ve told him not to shop afterwards because of people like the OP who will make assumptions.

Who cares if they make assumptions? That’s their problem. I will continue to report to work in my scrubs, don my PPE when treating patients, and stop at the store on my way home in my scrubs.

[Anonymous]

This strikes me as an anxiety issue.

Meanwhile, people wear jeans 5+ times before washing, and you don't think that's gross? You don't know where anyone has been. I am not a medical professional, but I don't see scrubs as any more "gross" than what anyone else is wearing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This strikes me as an anxiety issue.

Meanwhile, people wear jeans 5+ times before washing, and you don't think that's gross? You don't know where anyone has been. I am not a medical professional, but I don't see scrubs as any more "gross" than what anyone else is wearing.

That is exactly what this is.

[Anonymous]

WTF. Some people are crippled with anxiety. This would not even register on my radar.

Get a hobby and some meds people. If this is what keeps you up at night you really need to stay in your bunker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTF. Some people are crippled with anxiety. This would not even register on my radar.

Get a hobby and some meds people. If this is what keeps you up at night you really need to stay in your bunker.

+2. So much generalized anxiety on this thread.