Scrubs are not just a work uniform, but they also represent a symbol of a profession. Another purpose of the scrubs is to ensure the safety of the patients through proper hygiene. The difficult task is to keep them clean without bacteria. It takes much effort especially for nurses who run a hectic shift.

Nurses have much responsibility to prevent compromise of patients’ health by ensuring that they wash their scrubs properly and disinfect them. Disinfection of scrubs cannot be on dirty linen, and it is essential to clean the scrubs thoroughly before disinfecting.

How to Wash and Disinfect Scrubs

1.Separate scrubs from other clothes

Scrubs are dirty because they gather man contaminants at work. It is essential to separate and wash them separately from regular clothes. The right way is to separate the scrubs soon after arriving home by placing them is different laundry bag or hamper. Make a habit of carrying a freezer bag and store your scrubs in it n the way home if you change to regular clothes at the workplace. It is efficient in sealing the dirty scrubs until the time to laundry.

You can wait to accumulate several dirty scrubs before washing to conserve water and energy. Separating a large heap before cleaning is necessary because a washing machine will clean well if there is adequate room from clothes to move around. It will not clean thoroughly if the scrubs are squeezing too much.

2.Check the scrubs for stains

Scrubs are likely to have stains, and it is essential to remove them before washing. Different stains require a particular thing to remove them. A small amount of vinegar or bleach on blood stains will help to clear. A mixture of vinegar (one part) and two parts of water will remove the coffee stains.

3.Washing the scrubs

You should wash the scrubs should be in cold water and detergent. Ensure that the setting is at normal. The first wash should clean the scrubs inside out to prevent abrading. Check them for stains after the first wash is complete because they can set during the second round of washing that needs hot water. You can proceed with a second wash after determining that there is no residual. It might be necessary to soak the scrubs for proper disinfection if the stains are still visible. The soaking should not be for too long because the bleach mixture has properties that might damage the fabric.

4.Use bleach for stains in the washer

Bleach helps to clear stains, and you can use it in a laundry machine with a bleach dispenser. It helps to dilute the bleach before adding it to the laundry load. Some washers do not have a dispenser, but you can still use bleach by filling the tub with hot water before adding ¾ cup of bleach. Remember to add it to the washer before the scrubs. It is essential to avoid using full strength bleach on the scrubs because it might weaken the fibers and completely remove the color.

The regular wash with warm or hot water and spinning in the dryer will eradicate most germs, but it is efficient as disinfecting. Taking an extra step of disinfection is essential. White cotton scrubs need disinfection by adding sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach) to a wash cycle. Do not directly pour bleach on the clothing. Pour chlorine bleach into a washer bleach dispenser or dilute it with water before adding to a washer drum.

Oxygen-based bleaches do not provide any disinfectant qualities when you use them the for home laundry process.

Pine oil disinfectants are suitable for colored scrubs or those that are not cotton material. You should add them at the start of a wash cycle and are more effective in warm and hot water. The product should contain 80% pine oil for maximum efficiency. Phenolic disinfectant is another superb alternative for disinfecting colored scrubs

5.Tumble the scrubs dry in high heat

Wash the scrubs using the highest heat setting and tumble the dry for about 30 minutes to help in killing the bacteria. Cleaning scrubs in the regular laundry steps, adding disinfectant and machine drying kills any virus and bacteria on the fabric. By following regular laundry steps, adding a disinfectant, and machine drying, any virus in question, even the AIDS virus, will be killed.

Pain is an unpleasant physical sensation that occurs due to injury and illness. The unpleasant sensation is subjective because it depends on the intensity that a patient feels.

A nurse who is caring for a patient who is in pain should know how to access the type and intensity of pain for appropriate management of the discomfort. Pain is in two types that a nurse can distinguish according to the cause, duration, and onset.

Acute pain: The onset is slow or sudden with the intensity ranging between mid and severe. It might happen to occur after surgery, medical procedure, critical illness or trauma. The duration of acute pain is less than six months.

Chronic pain: This type of pain lasts for more than 6 months with an intensity range of mild to extremely incapacitating. Chronic pain can in some instances restrict a patient from performing daily activities and usually leads to despair.

Nursing Care Plan for Pain Management Diagnosis

As we noted, pain is highly subjective, but the description by patients about the pain they are experiencing is the best indicator. A nurse cannot prove or disprove what a patient is feeling but also cannot assume. It is also essential for a nurse to ask about the cause of pain and the period that it has been in place.

A nurse should also observe nonverbal indicators of pain such as moaning, facial grimace, crying and guarding. Nursing Care Plan for Pain Management Goals and Outcome The goals and expected the results for nursing care plan for pain management are:

Nurse burnout is a mental, physical and emotional state that occurs because of chronic overwork. It might also occur due to continued lack of support and fulfillment with a job. Nursing working environment exposes the professionals to many stressful issues that might lead to burnout. Everyone in nursing can get burnout although there are those who are more risk due to their personality and working environment. It is a condition that affects the mental and emotional wellness to the point of changing the quality of life. Such a person is not in the appropriate state to offer quality care to patients.

Patient infection rates increase due to nurse burnout because they will be getting care from someone who does not have complete capability to offer the kind of care that a professional should provide.

Whats the link between Nurse Burnout and Patient Infection Rates

Overwhelming Nurse Burnout symptoms

Burnout causes exhaustion, low sense of accomplishment and job-related cynicism. It might even develop to clinical depression if untreated because unaddressed problems accumulate over time.

These burnout symptoms make it curtail that ability of nurses to interact well with patients, notice the risk of infection or offer standard care that helps patients to heal as well as preventing infections.

1.Irritability

Irritability is a frequent human emotion and is a sign of burnout when excessive or chronic. Irritability occurs because a nurse is frustrated by the work and might reduce the input at work to the extent of negligence that exposes patients to a risk of infection.

2.Reluctance and intolerance

Burnout can make nurses to feel reluctant about doing some things and intolerant to changes that help to prevent patient infections. Reluctance to work also interferes with professional efficacy meaning that the nurse offers a raw deal to patient care.

3.Calling in sick frequently

Nurses with severe burnout and are unaware of self-care methods are likely to feel sick and take more off days to recover. Nurses who suffer burnout because of staffing shortage will hurt the nurse to patient ration when the call in sick. It will reduce the number of nurses attending to patients. The nurses at work might not be able to provide adequate attention to the patient and can miss things that might cause patient infection.

4.Exhaustion and fatigue

Nurses work for long busy hours, and it is not unusual for professionals to get some fatigue. Constant exhaustion even during the off days is dangerous and is a sign of burnout. Fatigue can be emotional and physical, but both make it difficult for nurses to do their challenging jobs. Exhaustion can cause an inability to focus, confusion and difficulty in making decisions leading to these mistakes that increase the risk of patient infection.

Nurses with burnout are likely to have impaired memory, attention and functionality that decrease attention to the detail. Nurses with burnout are at more risk of making errors due to diminished cognitive function, vigilance and an increase of safety lapses. Such mistakes place patient at more risk of infection as the nurse is not in the right state to enhance preventive measures.

Burned out nurses are detached from work and unknowingly develop negative attitudes towards the patients. All the factors that are causing fatigue impair the capacity to deal with technically complex and dynamic nature of efficient nursing care.

Nurse fatigue that leads to burnout is dangerous to nurses and even their patients because they will be the recipients of poor quality care even without their knowledge. For example, a nurse who is struggling with burnout can make mistakes when reading a patient’s record and fail to administer medicine that could prevent opportunistic infections that can occur in a patient under treatment for another condition. For instance, a patient with a wound or burns will need to a prescription to prevent infection by bacteria that enters into the body through the damaged skin. A nurse who fails to administer the medication because of distraction by burnout increases patient infection rates.

Pain occurs when the body develops feelings of hurt or intense discomfort. It is a way of sending a message about the occurrence of an injury to the brain. Managing pediatric pain or any other involves blocking of these messages or reduces the effect on the mind.

Pain management is essential because failure to take action makes the body to release some chemicals that might delay healing from the cause of the hurt such as surgery, injury or broken bones. Parents, pediatric nurses, and doctors should work together to determine and follow up with the best plans for controlling pain.

The best plan depends on the child, cause, and level of as one method does not fit everyone.

Pharmacological method of managing pediatric pain

1.Pain medications

Some of the pain medications are available over the counter while other others require a prescription by a doctor. Opioids are the category of pain-relieving medicine that requires a prescription by a physician and is not on sale over the counter. An opioid is a narcotic pain reliever containing natural synthetic or semi-synthetic opiates for some types. An opioid is often for treating acute pain such as that occurs for a short term after surgery. Children who are not 12 years old yet should not take Tramadol or codeine for pain or a cough. Teenagers who are under 18 should avoid Tramadol after a tonsil or adenoids removing surgery.

Acetaminophen (Tylenol) pain-relieving medicine is available over the counter although doctors also recommend some of OTC medications. Doctors might also recommend OTC or prescription strength NSAIDs like ibuprofen. Aspirin is not safe in children and teenagers who are below 19 years unless it is on instruction by a doctor. Aspirin at this age can cause Reye’s syndrome if a patient takes it during or after fever –causing or viral illness.

2.Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA)

Children at the age of 4-6 years can take PCA with the help of a nurse or parent. Children of six or more years can use a PCA pump to take medicine without help but might require supervision in the first days.

3.Antidepressants

These are drugs that treat pain and emotional conditions by adjusting levels of natural chemicals (neurotransmitters) in the brain. These medications might increase the availability of bodily signals to promote relaxation and well-being. Antidepressants help to manage pediatric pain in instances of chronic pain conditions that do not entirely respond to usual treatments.

4.Epidural Analgesia

Epidural analgesia is a pain medication that a doctor injects into the epidural space of spinal cord. Doctors usually perform it around significant surgeries such as spinal, abdominal or low extremity surgeries to control postoperative pain.

Some of these above medications are similar to those that adults take to manage pain, but the dose for pediatric administering is smaller to match the patient’s weight. Adhering to the dosing prescription by a pediatrician is essential.

Managing Pediatric Pain with Non-Pharmacological Therapies

Various therapies can help in addition to medical help to decrease pain in a child. The primary healthcare provider will participate in choosing the treatments that suit the infant. Each therapy might suit children of specific age groups.

The many therapies that can help to manage pain are:

Ice: Applying ice on a painful body part reduces pain, swelling and might prevent tissue damage. The method of application involves placing an ice pack or crushed ice set in a plastic bag before covering it with a towel and putting it on the painful section for 15 -20 minutes. A physician might recommend placement for a longer time.

Heat: Heat helps to decrease pain together with muscle spasms. It works when someone applies heat to the painful area for 20-30 minutes every two hours for the days that a healthcare provider directs.

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS): TENS is a pocket-sized portable device that uses battery power which relieves pain by emitting mild and safe electrical signals that help in controlling pain. It attaches on the child’s skin after placement over the area of pain.

Massage therapy: Massage helps to relax the muscles of a child and decrease pain.

Physical therapy: exercising decreases pain by improving movement and strength.

Relaxation exercises and distraction of attention to other things other than pain help in managing pediatric pain if it is not severe. Pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods complement each other in instances of chronic pain.