Hospital Acquired Infection and Hygiene of Apparel in Hospitals Part 1 : An Investigation of the Contamination of Nurse Wear with Bacteria and the Others

Abstract

  It is one of the urgent problems to cope with the hospital acquired infection in compromised inpatients and aged patients by such bacteria as MRSA. The route of infection, however, remains indefinite. In the present study, we have addressed a questionnaire concerning uncleanness and functions of nurse wear to a number of nurses at internal, surgical and obstetrical departments in several hospitals, analyzed from the data of the questionnaire uncleanness at 30spots of each nurse wear through light reflectivity and examined the mode of bacterial contamination at the same spots, as mentioned above, of the nurse wear. As the results we had the following findings. At several spots measured uncleanness was different from the nurses subjective evaluations obtained from the questionnaire. Several kinds of bacteria were detected in the cuffs, pockets, belt, collar and shoulders of the wear. In order of the total number of bacteria, the wear at the internal department was the first followed by the wear at the surgical department. However, as for the number of Staphylococcus species, the nurse wear at the obstetrical department came the first. But the nurse wear at the obstetrical department was first in the total number of Staphylococcus species. The number of bacteria attached to the nurse wear in the hospital were much larger than that in the junior college. On the basis of these experimental results, we are planning to make some changes in material and design of the nurse wear to avoid bacteria attachment.