hospital scrubs - are they super germy?.

[vash]

i ate with a friend. her mom is a nurse in LA. we got to discussing hospitals.

she said her mom wont eat out in her scrubs. first thing when she gets home, she dumps them in the garage, leaves her shoes and showers...then carries on with normal life. it got me to notice all the hospital scrubs i see out in public. grocery stores, restaurants..etc. heck, i just saw a commercial where the actor is wearing scrubs cooking some pasta dish for her "romantic dinner" at home.

opinions? my wife is following the LA nurses lead.

[J P Stein]

CW around here is: if you want to set sick, go to a hospital. There are more and varied germs/virus floating around there than anywhere else. They do work hard at controlling them tho.

[KNS]

Another school of thought: My Mom worked in a hospital while I was growing up, always wore her uniform into the house after work. The three of us kids rarely got sick.

My current job has me going in and out of hospitals on a regular basis (I hate hospitals BTW). I just had my first cold - which my wife (who works in an ICU) was convinced was allergies - for the first time in almost two years.

[porsche4life]

Another thought, probably a good percentage of the people you are seeing out in scrubs, don't work in hospitals.....

[mossguy]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Another thought, probably a good percentage of the people you are seeing out in scrubs, don't work in hospitals.....

This. ^

[Noah930]

We separate work scrubs from stuff we wear around the house. When we get home, we get out of work scrubs and into regular street clothes. Why drag any extra germs through the house than necessary? At the same time, I don't really wear scrubs much out of the OR, anymore.

If you see people out and about in scrubs, they may (or may not) be hospital workers. Think of all the secretaries, medical assistants, dental hygeinists, nurses, and nursing assistants that work in doctors' offices, physical therapy clinics, etc. The universal work uniform are scrubs--and they may have minimal sick patient contact. Then again, I think most nurses that work in hospitals go to and from home in work scrubs. They don't usually change their clothing at work before and after their shifts.

[azasadny]

When I wore scrubs (9 years), the only ones I ever wore out of the hospital were clean and were put on AFTER I finished my work and showered. I worked in the OR, though... I wear scrubs to sleep in now, but after being out of the medical field for over 20 years, they're getting pretty ratty looking...

[pavulon]

hospital scrubs "germy" quotient varies by hospital, work area and patients contacted. Anyone walking around in scrubs only has some sort of need for attention and would probably make horrible company. Scrubs under a sweatshirt or whatever is probably just someone trying to get home or to work.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by pavulon

Anyone walking around in scrubs only has some sort of need for attention and would probably make horrible company.

That's painting with a rather broad brush, isn't it?

Like you noted, there are a lot of people just trying to get to and from work. Their work "uniform" may just be scrubs, whether they have direct patient contact or not.

[Joe Bob]

ask how many plumbers work in a hospital w/o getting sick....my brother got a staph infection and came close to lsing his arm....he feels safer working at the crap plant near Smell Segundo....

[pavulon]

yeah...maybe. I suppose my point is that there are a lot of odd folks out there and it seems the hospital heros tend to fly their flag by proudly by rock'n scrubs at a place and time that seems pretty wierd. Think Dr. Oz. From the little I've seen, I think that guy has issues or is playing the part of a guy with issues pretty well.

[RWebb]

hospital here has decreed that you may not come into work in scrubs