Personal Hygiene for Nursing Assistants
Appearance and Personal Hygiene for Nurses and CNAs
Well, in today’s modern world appearance does contribute a lot to individual’s professional success. More so if you are in a profession like nursing. You are not taught a great deal regarding appearance during your nursing course because you are expected to be neat and clean all the time since your profession demands it. How well a patient’s hygiene and well being can be maintained can easily be determined by looking at the personal hygiene and appearance of the nurses and nursing assistants.
In any profession, appearance plays a great role and in nursing profession, personal hygiene is obviously the most important requirement. In the nursing profession, it is mandatory for all the nurses and nursing assistants to wear scrubs. The style and color of the scrub may vary among different hospitals and employers, but as said earlier scrubs are an absolute must. It is a great idea to have many scrubs with you, since you will have to wear a clean set while going to the hospitals everyday. Wrinkles in the scrub have to be strictly avoided as they look unprofessional. Hence, it is good to press and wash your scrubs daily.
Nursing profession requires that you need to be on your feet that is you need to stand for long durations. Ideally, this happens when the nursing assistants are required to help and assist the doctors during surgeries. This can put a great strain and cause severe pain to the thigh and calf muscles. Therefore, it is recommended that the nursing assistants should go in for compression hosiery to obtain relief. Footwear is of paramount importance in the nursing profession. Usually, shoes that are open from the front which reveal your toes are not allowed in any office environment. They look unprofessional and certain wounds and cuts may look ugly. However, for nurses, shoes with a clog style are available and these should be worn with socks all the time.
The basic idea is you need to wear comfortable clothing that allows you to perform your duties as a nursing assistant with ease. It is very important for nursing assistants to maintain personal hygiene. As you will be working very closely with the patients and other nursing staff, it is a great idea to have a shower everyday since it removes all the bad odors emitting from the human body. Powerful colognes and perfumes tend to make the patients sick and nauseous. Hence, strictly avoid it.
You must try to maintain healthy hair by washing it regularly and maintain your hairstyle in such a way that you can work comfortably. Since, you are required to assist, clothe and feed the patients all during the day, it is important that your hair is made properly. Ensure that, your patient’s food is free form hair and dust, since presence of even a single strand of hair is deemed to be a huge offense. Your nails should be short and well trimmed since long nails tend to accumulate bacteria and germs.
If you plan to be in the CNA profession, it would be great if you could follow the above tips and set an example for others.