• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

How to ban artificial nails in your hospital

Accreditation Connection, December 28, 2004

As part of a new dress code policy, Greenville (SC) Hospital System banned the wearing of artificial nails among staff last year, but that didn't stop some stragglers from donning the decorative tips.

One surgical technician found out firsthand why hospital officials wanted to do away with artificial nails. Staff took a culture of the woman's hands to show her how false nails can harbor pathogens, which healthcare workers can transmit to patients.

The technician "was not real happy" about having a culture taken and scrubbed her hands well beforehand, says Connie Steed, RN, BSN, CIC, Greenville's director of infection control. "And they still grew an unbelievable amount of organisms on the plate." The employee went home and promptly removed her nails after the procedure.

Staff took a laminate of the results and posted it around the facility so employees could see that false nails can indeed harbor pathogens. After taking steps like these and instituting other, more widespread educational efforts, "it's now rare for us to find anyone with false nails," Steed says.

After you've won the battle of getting rid of false nails, don't forget the effort of ongoing compliance. "Sometimes artificial nails will disappear and then reappear," says Gail Bennett, RN, MSN, CIC, executive director of ICP Associates in Rome, GA.

Monitoring by infection control professionals alone is often inadequate because there isn't enough IC staff to go around, she says. Instead, involve department managers to monitor employees on their units, she says (for more information about artificial nails, go to Bennett's Web site, www.icpassociates.com).

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive