ICU dress code

[bryanboling5]

At my hospital, the ICUs have a new policy that you have to take off the white coat and hang it on a hook near the door when you come in. Is this common? The excuse is "infection control" but I've never seen this except in the NICU (where you have to scrub before entering) and the OR. Just wondering if we are weird or if this is the new thing.

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[fang]

At my hospital, the ICUs have a new policy that you have to take off the white coat and hang it on a hook near the door when you come in. Is this common? The excuse is "infection control" but I've never seen this except in the NICU (where you have to scrub before entering) and the OR. Just wondering if we are weird or if this is the new thing.

Haven't seen it, but it makes sense.

Scrub attire practices are strange. Nurses wear all kinds of scrubs that they obviously take home and wash like regular clothes. Residents do wear hospital scrubs but often take them home, wash them, and wear them the next day like anything else. Some residents wear hoodies/sweatshirts with scrub pants. One of my residents would wear a personal scrub cap with bright colors, an aqua colored fleece, and athletic goggles when she did procedures-- it looked like she was ready to go skiing.

 

[salmonella]

At my school's MICU, pretty much all attendings wear shirt, tie and some even wear sports jacket. May be about half of the residents wear shirt/tie/white coat, the other half wear scrubs/white coat. I think that's because many attendings/residents have clinic after their ICU work rounds, so they have to get dressed up.

 

[strangeglove]

Ironically, white coats, which historically are symbols of doctorly cleanliness, are major carriers of nosocomial bugs. Ties, too. I think the best policy is to wrap yourself in clear cellophane before seeing your patients. It would probably be a good idea to shave your head, too.

 

[Transvaal]

In my hospital nurses and docs are obliged to wear another 'outfit' every day (if they haven't been exposed to bad environments) of course....though I know a couple of medicine recidents and attendings who admitted that they wear the same coat for 3 or 4 days in a row. (they just leave it hanging in the office, and put it on the next day.)
But I never knew it was allowed to take your clothes home.

 

[Mumpu]

That's *****ed. Your stethoscope, hands, clothing, scrubs, etc. carry as many germs as the white coat. I expect ortho space suits will be next?

 

[deleted87716]

That's *****ed. Your stethoscope, hands, clothing, scrubs, etc. carry as many germs as the white coat. I expect ortho space suits will be next?

Maybe airlocks and decontamination stations?

 

[strangeglove]

That's *****ed. Your stethoscope, hands, clothing, scrubs, etc. carry as many germs as the white coat. I expect ortho space suits will be next?

Not really, since you are supposed to sanitize hands, stethoscopes and scrubs at least daily.

 

[McDoctor]

At least half of all infection control nurses or IC department heads I've come across have this sort of full-blown Howie-Mandel style germophobia that would clearly be correctly identified as a form of mental illness if they had jobs outside of the healthcare system. Several years from now, someone will bump this thread and we will marvel at how prescient Kent's post was. Mark my words.

 

[deleted87716]

With the increase in MDR TB and other "superbugs," we may want those spacesuits to protect ourselves rather than the patients.

 

[Tired]

Ironically, white coats, which historically are symbols of doctorly cleanliness, are major carriers of nosocomial bugs. Ties, too. I think the best policy is to wrap yourself in clear cellophane before seeing your patients. It would probably be a good idea to shave your head, too.

Thank you for perpetuating a big myth.

 

[Mumpu]

IIRC the white coats came about because the professors were professing in front of chalk boards and chalk made their nice black suits dirty.

Insanitizing the stethoscope once a day does nothing for the MDR tastiness you picked up on your first patient and spread to the other 20 you saw that day.