White coats are going!

[M Clayton]

Metal strap or no, your wrist under the strap is a great environment for breeding bugs. Couple that with a desire not to coat your watch with soapy water and you end up with substandard handwashing. The alternative to a fob watch is wearing your wristwatch on your belt or taking it off every time you see a patient.

[AdamP]

Quoting from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/2007091...389ddcb_1.html on this topic:

'Hospitals will be allowed to reach local arrangements with for example Sikh staff to allow them to wear bangles while maintaining high cleanliness standards.'

Is this a case of one rule for some people and another for everyone else? Surely infection control can only be effective if nobody is exempt?

Discuss!

(Don't interpret this as a religion debate, we all know how out-of-hand they can get!)

[Eponine_hugo]

I think that allowing some people jewellry and not others is unfair. Also arent watches needed to be handy ie for pulse taking etc?
What is u wear SOS bracelets? Will they be allowed - surely they will be if Sikhs are allowed bangles.....

[Diya]

If they had clocks visible from every bedside, it would solve the problem of needing watches. I personally like white coats cos they mark me out to be a lowly med student - not many people will make the mistake of thinking u'r a doc

[Matt641]

"Is this a case of one rule for some people and another for everyone else? Surely infection control can only be effective if nobody is exempt?"

Yes it is a double standard and it's a joke. If you're going to bring down the hammer on infections, bring a big one and drop hard it on everyone.
Its not a question of religion but practicallity. For example, should muslim women get a sterile headscarf in surgery, yes I believe they shoud. Theres no actual practical problem with that. But when they claim that anything below the elbow is an infection hazard/obstacle to handwashing (a pretty thin claim to begin with I think), then 1 standard alone should exist.

Same with wedding rings. That's a breeding ground and a half if I ever saw one. Your ring is actually on your finger making contact with the patient, not your wrist and thus far more susceptible to getting grime stuck underneath it.

A watch can always be worn on the belt, no one really wants to get soapy water near it anyway.
As for the white coat, I thought it was good as it identified me as a medical student, not a doctor - if they come up with some alternative, well fine. Scrub style tops like the new ones at West Middlesex with different colours to denote who is who and standardised across the NHS would be a start eg nurse/doctor/consultant or whatever (just an example and obviously just 4 or so colours - they'd have to put a limit on this as I can see a rainbow of scrubs popping up should NHS management get any ideas)

[heed]

scrubs at my hospital have pockets - two huge ones and then one breast one for pens and clippin badges to etc - the only thing is that we only seem to have two colours of scrubs: royal blue and royal blue. everyone wearin the same colour makes things confusing "excuse me doctor...." "no no im an auxilliary nurse....."

[yeliab_cram]

if they are going to give us all scrubs then thats fine, but i assume they will not. at least at first anyway, we will just have to wear what we have always worn: but if you wear a tie on the wards, the nurses will bollock you, and if you dont wear one in clinic the consultant will. Only a few months ago did my housemate receive an absolute whipping for not wearing a tie on the wards. attitudes dont change overnight.

i agree completely that wearing shirts and ties is not the most practical attaire for ward work, but i dont see what is wrong with it for clinics. i cant imagine the consultants will be too keen on running clinics in scrubs, and i also cant imagine them wanting to abandon thier suits and ties. it will be interesting to see what happens.

[Diya]

I like the idea of different coloured scrubs...anything that identifies me correctly will do

[Diya]

Also saves u thinking about what to wear...unless you're going to be in a clinic in which case I dont think scrubs would work

[blueberrypie]

I like scrubs... no washing involved!!! Our ones used to be mainly greenish, but I liked it when you got the stray blue ones appear. Ours also used to have pockets inside and out, so no matter which way they were washed, they were always the right way to put on. i.e. reversible.

As for handwashing, you should have challenged people in A&E. We used to have to wear a badge where I used to work and there were posters everywhere, telling patients or their relatives, to ask us to wash our hands before coming to them.

No one ever took offence if asked, and to be quite honest, I am not a believer in alcogels. They are too often used to replace handwashing by some members of staff, despite what we are taught. I say, out with the alcogels and in with the handwashing.

As for watches, I say out with the wristwatch and in with the fob watch (cos I have many of them including disney ones )