[Closed] NHS Grampian: Wash your own nurse uniform at home.

* visions of some blood spattered A&E nurse on the No.65 Bus home *

Physios need to do that too in a lot of places.

Wash my work kit at home, I try not to me messy though.

I'm not a nurse, but have my job often involves attending rtc scenes/grimness and being contaminated with bodily fluids. Ive never had the offer of my employer cleaning my uniform - if it is bad it just gets incenerated and new stuff issued. maybe it works out cheaper in my case - but can't see that applying in yours.

Lots of NHS staff do that in lots of places. There's also no quality evidence (that I'm aware of) to suggest this may increase infection rates in hospitals.

As sponging machine says. Round here theoretically you can get your uniform laundered but its such a pain that few bother

However she can make a claim against tax for the cost of doing so.

What happens if you don't have a tumble drier? I don't

what sort of physio work leads to contamination? think ive seen it on the internet but wasn't sure the nhs would provide it. must ask next time i book an appt for my bad back.

what sort of physio work leads to contamination?

The [i]really[/i] good sort

rolymo - getting an elderly patient out of their chair and their catheter falls out and you get covered in piss, or they spew on you, or gravity takes over and shit falls out. bulk of physio patients are elderly.

or chest physio for the ones with pneumonia

oh crap.....

My physio wife once trod on a full catheter bag with hilarious consequences (for anyone not standing within 3m of her).

my mums a maternity nurse and has had to do it for years

it can be a messy job

My mam's been an OT for the last 13 years or so and has always washed her own uniform. She claims the tax back, as TJ says.

That is not that uncommon ...

My wife is a nurse and has worked in Glasgow, London, Dundee & Stirling.
I think there might have been laundry at Ninewells (I can't remember) but all the others she washed her own uniform at home.

Costs a bit of cash I guess ...

My wife does it and has done for the last couple of years. Think she said the tax break was about £70 per year. They can't travel to and from work in their uniform so no chance of looking like your several months late for a halloween party!!

Whilst it was available when i worked in a uniform in our 2500-staffed local hospital, I don't think I ever heard of anyone outside of A&E/theatres (numerous sets of scrubs 'on tap' there, understandably!) taking them up on laundering our uniforms. Withn the turnover/reliability of the laundry I simply wasn't supplied with enough sets to have been able to turn up for work five shifts a week and get into clean uniform: I washed my three sets twice a week at home as did all my colleagues.

[edit] it does boil my pee when i see someone in a sister's uniform in sainsbury's at 3.45pm though. [edit]

JW - Why would seeing someone in a sisters uniform in sainsbury's at 3:45pm boil your pee? There are a number of exemptions to the not wearing your uniform outside of hospital/clinic rule i.e. those that work in the community are allowed to wear their uniform in the community.

sterling

1- claim it as a legitimate employment expense on tax return (power, leccy, machine depreciation, single contaminated load etc etc etc)
2 - contact local MP and ask for expense claiming advice (www.faxyourmp.com - I'm only partly taking piss - get them onside)

TJ - 'wholly, exclusively and necessarily (for work)' - so I would contact tax office, forward a copy of instructions from your employer indicating tumble dry and claim, I'd also make sarcastic remarks re MPs and w/n/e - see above

They can't travel to and from work in their uniform

George,
1) early shift finishes at 3-3.30 round here.
2) locally our infection control peeps prohibit us from wearing uniform in shops (food in particular) both because of the risk of infection from those of us who do work in 'yuck' places' and because the public are 'semi-informed' and will jump to the conclusion that we are spreading germs etc and be disillusioned about this.

So someone in a sister's uniform really might know better re: their own risk to the public doing shopping in uniform after work than the meddling nan who spots her, but unfortunately risks generating bad PR and silly letters to local paper. Should know better basically. We get a bad anough press round here as it is. As above, this is local infection control team's opinion too not just mine.

HTH

I think there might have been laundry at Ninewells (I can't remember) but all the others she washed her own uniform at home.

There is and the machines are huge, but like TJ says, it's such a pain to use them that a good number don't bother.

See, this is civil servant mentality.

I wash and clean all my working clothes. Everyone else does, even the staff at McDonalds. Indeed, most of us would like the financial burden of "free work clothes" gifted to us.

Someone asks a govt employee something reasonable, and they get all up in arms, in their keyworker house, on their queens birthday holiday, counting a jolly good pension, working in a virtually "unsackable" environment, and get all arsy about it.

Jujuuk

Not quite the same - there is an infection control issue here that does not exist for other people in the same way.

I've been a nurse for 20 odd years and I've always washed my own uniform, and never travelled to work and back in it.
Have a word!

[i]See, this is civil servant mentality[/i]

Erm, nope - far more to do with infection control policies at some (not all) hospitals.

I wash my kit at home.

So you think its acceptable to take home clothing contaminated with blood and other body fluids from patients who have HIV, hepatitis etc. and wash in the family machine?

not really jujuuk. where i work not handing your uniforms over to the laundry is a disciplinary issue. that said you can always tell who washes their uniforms at home as they're the ones that actually look clean and (gasp) ironed. you'd think the management might notice this but, like so much else, it seems to evade them. plus getting folk to wash their uniforms at home would fly in the face of the infection control 'evidence' that hospital laundries wash uniforms better. i'll be interested to see how grampian handle that.

HIV and hepatitis won't survive being laundered

So you think its acceptable to take home clothing contaminated with blood and other body fluids from patients who have HIV, hepatitis etc. and wash in the family machine?

From an infection control point of view, I cannot see how washing a uniform at home at 60°C is in any way as good as washing at high temperature in an industrial washing machine.

However, try getting a trust to admit this, as the moment they do, the uniform becomes Personal Protective Equipment & becomes subject to COSHH etc...

Andy

[i]So you think its acceptable...[/i]

Everybody should wear scrubs. IMO.

Provided there are decent laundry/shower facilities, of course... one can dream.

My mother has been a Matron for and with NHS for over 40 years and has always washed her own gear. Not once have I seen her drive home in her work clothes, I don’t think you have much to worry about and If It saves money for the trust then even better.

They've been told that they are only allowed to wear "greens" if they are in theatre, not on the labour ward. Of course it doesn't get messy in the ward 🙄

I work for the ambulance service, and we all wash our uniform at home, with a little tax break for doing so. I change at work, and agree with the 'boils my piss' comments above about clinical staff in uniform going round Tesco's.

Again, Jesus!
Just take it home and wash it and stop with all the infection control hand wringing cobblers.

If all the scrubs 'borrowed' for the sake of fancy dress parties and doing DIY were to be returned, we could re-clothe the entire NHS workforce. 😈

My mrs when she was training to be a nurse was told not to wear her uniform in due to infection control.But she had to get changed in the toilet when she got there WTF

At the risk of upsetting racing ralph, +1 with crikey.

I have to dry clean my work suits, it costs me a tenner a go. I suspect this is a lot more expensive than taking clothes home and sticking them in a 60 degree wash.

HTH.

You dont HAVE to dry clean your worksuits. You could just be skankmeister.

Fair point but I like earning good money and at least pretending that women might find me attractive, both of which demand some degree of cleanliness.

if you have to have suits for work do you claim it as a work expense for tax? You should try it.

No,I have to dry clean my work suits, it costs me a tenner a go. I suspect this is a lot more expensive than taking clothes home and sticking them in a 60 degree wash.

HTH.

gawd! get over it!

We've been told to strictly never to wash our lab coats at home, I'm sure HPA would be interested in home washing of soiled and infected linen

[i]Do you dry clean each suit after each day at work? [/i]

Nope, once a week, it's still more expensive than washing some clothes 5 times a week though.

There are also some of us that work in hospitals but don't have a uniform.

You dry clean a suit once a week? Jesus. Either it's made of vinyl to start with or you're hideously abusing it.

I R Sweaty boy. So yes, I abuse them. So not only do I have to buy my own suits, I have to dry clean them every week and they wear out really quickly.

Hopefully that will put the OP's complaint in perspective.

because of the risk of infection from those of us who do work in 'yuck' places' and because the public are 'semi-informed' and will jump to the conclusion that we are spreading germs etc and be disillusioned about this

There either is or isn't a risk, surely? Which is it?

Personally I'd either get on with it or outright demand the laundering facilities are easy to use and reliable, nothing in between.

re tax expense/suits
I tried and I lost:
- suit only required as I worked in a consultancy and I was required by my employer to wear 'professional dress', a suit isn't required for anything else in my life
- various letters - rejected
- tribunal - rejected
offer to go to court, and I would pay costs if I lost - too risky, gave up

tempted to try again in light of some mp claims that ere wholly,necessarily and exclusively' on behalf of their jobs

fair enough gusmac - I wondered if anyone had fought that.

I even get a shoe and sock allowance from the taxman ( pennies tho)

coffeeking - I think the evidence base for the infection risk with home laundering is pretty unconvincing - so policy is made locally by the infection control committee who will take a view on whether it is a risk or not and because the research is not convincing different conclusions can be reached.

easy enough, all nurses should be naked (and vetted to ensure they are Hot)

Surely if your uniform gets covered in bodily fluids and stuff you need to change out of it there and then and it goes in to the same washing pile as scrubs etc?

I can completely see though that if its your uniform you wear all day then you should wash it at home.

Olly - Member

easy enough, all nurses should be naked (and vetted to ensure they are Hot)

Me and no teeth? Naked? Really?

Looks like its been reccomended for a while:

Journal of Hospital Infection, Jan 2006
Laundering of hospital staff uniforms at home

Few hospitals now launder staff uniforms. Staff are expected to use their own domestic machines, most of which run with 40 degrees C cycles. However, there is little information on the effectiveness of home laundering. This study demonstrates that domestic washing machines reduce viable counts of Staphylococcus aureus to below detectable levels from an inoculum of 10(8)-10(12) colony-forming units (>or=10(6)-fold reduction), even using low temperature (40 degrees C) programmes. Environmental organisms, predominantly Gram-negative flora, were introduced from the machine itself but were destroyed by tumble drying or ironing. Domestic laundering of uniforms is an acceptable alternative to hospital laundering if combined with tumble drying or ironing