Researchers promote dress code in bid to reduce infection
Doctors urged to take off ties, watches and jewellery to prevent contamination
New research is recommending that doctors avoid wearing long sleeves, wristwatches, neck ties and jewellery and wash their work overalls at least once a week in hot water and bleach in an effort to reduce infection.
An article by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, also encourages medics to wear sturdy, closed-toed shoes.
There's a theoretical basis that if you have clean clothes, you have less chance of transmitting a pathogen
Although there is no proven link between the germs on healthcare workers’ clothing and infection rates, Gonzalo Bearman, a hospital epidemiologist with the Virginia Commonwealth University System and a member of the SHEA guidelines committee, said: "There's a theoretical basis that if you have clean clothes, you have less chance of transmitting a pathogen.”
Studies on the subject suggest sleeves, pockets and other parts of healthcare workers' coats and scrubs can harbour germs like Pseudomonas. One study found that a third of doctors' neckties grew Staphylococcus aureus in the lab. And several found that the germs were often resistant to the drugs used to treat them.
In the UK the National Clinical Guideline Centre already promotes a ‘bare below the elbow’ policy among healthcare workers. This has been adopted by a number of trusts.
One of these is The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. Its Reducing the Risk of Healthcare Associated Infection guidance states: “It is trust policy that all staff caring for you are bare below the elbows. You may also ask them to roll up their sleeves and remove watches and jewellery to ensure hand hygiene is carried out effectively.