Staff Uniforms and Uniform Policy

Personnel in contact with patients or equipment and textiles should always use the hospital’s work attire. It includes anyone handling food, medicines, textile, waste or cleaning tools. By caring, treating, examining and transporting patients, there will be direct contact between own work clothes and the patient’s cloths/bedding or skin. The same is true when working with used patient equipment such as bedpans, toilet chairs, beds and other aids and working in patient rooms, toilets and bathrooms or when handling bedding and bandages, giving physiotherapy, etc. The work uniform is particularly exposed to organic matter and microbes, for example, in ambulances, in emergency services, in restless and anxious patients and children, during sampling and examination/treatment, etc. In acute wards, the staff is often exposed to splashes from patients, especially blood but also vomit, sputum, pus, faeces and urine. This chapter is focused on practical measures to prevent transmission of infections via contaminated staff uniforms.