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• Scrub wear: There is no evidence that hospital-laundered scrub wear presents less risk to patients than home-laundered scrub wear. However, some facilities opt to provide location-specific scrub wear to assist in identifying healthcare worker groups, to control traffic, to satisfy employees, or to satisfy labor agreements. If scrub wear is considered personal protective equipment by the facility, the facility is obligated to provide and launder the scrub wear.
• Shoes: Closed-toe shoes should be worn to prevent exposure of blood and bodily fluids to the healthcare worker. Closed-toe shoes with other decorative perforations and sling-back shoes should be assessed by the organization for appropriateness in the PACU.
• Fingernails: Incontrovertible evidence of infection caused by long, natural fingernails and fingernails with enhancements (e.g., tips, extensions, overlays, artificial nails, embedded jewels) has been published for over 20 years. Facility policy should clearly require short, natural fingernails. “Short” means that the tip of the nail is not visible over the tip of the finger when viewed from the palmar surface of the hand, with tips of the finger at eye level.