It seems that Anesthesiology and residents in general favor fleece over other fabrics for jackets that can be donned over scrubs. What is the reason for this?
It may be the "culture" and YMMV, but many residents/attendings don't wear the cloth jackets provided in the ORs because its seen as "nurses" wear. Same goes for flowered bouffant scrub caps.
I once heard a scrub nurse say that it was "less of a fomite" but I don't know what the evidence is for this.
There's no evidence. Its all bogus.
For some reason, a clean fleece jacket from my house is more of a "danger" than the shoes I wear for every case, the wheelie bag from home that the anesthesiologist and I bring in, the patients clothes in a bag under the gurney...etc. It may be an OSHA requirement but only 1 hospital makes me take off my fleece jacket before crossing the red line.
In your ORs, are jackets of any sort permitted (other than scrub jackets)? What do you all think is an appropriate jacket on the floor? 😉
Depends on the hospital. As noted above, only 1 seems to care and even that isn't rigorously enforced. The circulators wear the cloth jackets that match the scrubs and the anesthesiologist wears a blanket from the warmer or a paper gown.
On the floor, wear your white coat. I don't have a problem wearing fleece under the coat - although it can, as noted above, look sloppy when its a baggy hoodie. Post-call I was always freezing ( more than usual), so wore a jaket under my white coat.
If you are in a specialty which requires a lot of contact with bodily fluids, drains, wounds, etc. I don't recommend a long sleeved shirt under the scrub top - better to have a jacket that you can take off when doing messy things.
