Fight Bad Bugs Off Your Nursing Uniforms
Harmful pathogens lurking in the working clothes of doctors and nurses have long been problem in the health care industry. Down to this very day, they remain to be a big concern of the society, in general. When somebody wearing scrubs go out and run errands, people will surely react with much concern. But they have all the reasons to be concerned as according to a recent study by Israeli scientists, medical uniforms of hospital personnel often are contaminated with superbug MRSA or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus and a host of other harmful bacteria.
MRSA is an antibiotic resistant bug that can prove to be fatal. Since health care workers set their hands in different things inside the hospital as well as tend to different patients, they become ideal vectors of superbugs. And as they go with their tasks, harmful pathogens, including MRSA may accumulate in their scrubs. Without proper handling, they may pass the danger to the patients, to their colleagues, or to themselves.
In the study conducted, harmful pathogens were found in more than 60% of the examined nursing scrubs. Doctors’ garments were a little less contaminated than those of nurses, having 60% and 65% contamination, respectively. And for superbug contamination, nursing uniforms were found to have contamination rate of 14%, while doctors’ uniforms have 6%. Of 238 examined nursing uniforms, 8 were found to contain MRSA.
Just as the rate of contamination is very important in measuring the harm that can be brought by the uniforms of our health care workers, it is equally essential to know that there are effective ways on how to trim down the risk in the lowest rate possible.
- Daily changing of the uniforms. According to the Israeli researchers, the contamination rate of 29% on uniforms changed every two days can be cut in 8% if changing is done everyday. Hospital administrators would be wise to have a strict implementation of such a practical regulation to protect every individual under their care, along with their personnel and respected name.
- Wear plastic aprons or disposable aprons whenever you have contact with any body fluids. That should minimize unnecessary harboring of bad bugs and superbugs.
- Refrain from wearing watches, rings, and neckties as much as possible. Previous researches showed that these and the nursing uniforms harbor bacteria that may harm both the patients and the medical personnel.
- Use nursing scrubs and lab coats having antimicrobial technology. Landau uniforms that use Landau Bioshield, which is a bacteria-barrier technology can provide considerable protection against microbial contamination.
- Keep the hands clean. Good hygiene practices always proved to be the most practical as the hands of our health care workers remain to be vectors of harmful bugs in hospital setting. They share with caring for patients in most hospital beds, and actually bring them to their respected stations. But with religious hand washing or disinfecting, most of the harmful pathogens caught in them shall be killed.
Protection is always better than cure just as doctors usually advice. May the doctors themselves as well as the rest of the health care workers become advocates of good hygiene, actually practicing what they preach.
