Scrubs: What are they?

by | Jun 9, 2016 | Shopping

Scrubs include a uniform which usually comprises of a simplistic, short-sleeved, cotton shirt as well as drawstring pants. They’re worn within a medical atmosphere. The term scrubs comes from the practice of doctors thoroughly scrubbing or washing their hands prior to performing surgery. Scrubs, traditionally are light green, yet modern-day nurses, doctors, and additional medical personnel are selecting scrubs in brighter patterns, colors, and different brands like Sapphire scrubs.

What did earlier century surgeons wear?

It is difficult to imagine, yet up until the end of the nineteenth century, surgeons performed surgery dressed in street clothes that they covered using an apron that was like the ones worn by a butcher. Operating rooms were no more than massive auditoriums, and operations were done without the benefit of sterile environments. Surgeons didn’t wash their hands prior to operating, and instruments weren’t sterilized. It isn’t any wonder, then, that within the midst of the nineteenth century, almost 50 percent of patients died of sepsis.

A British surgeon, Joseph Lister, was concerned with the amount of fatalities amongst his post-surgical patients. Lister started to study the work of Louis Pasteur, who’d been performing bacterial studies, and consequently, he started to use carbolic acid to clean individuals’ wounds. After 9 months, Lister’s patients no longer died of sepsis, and eventually he started to operate in antiseptic environments.

However, antiseptic procedures were slow to catch on, and in spite of the truth that nurses started wearing white uniforms within the 1900s, it was not until the 1940s that surgeons routinely began to wear special clothes within the operating room. Early surgical attire comprised of surgical drapes and gowns, and they customarily were designed of white cotton. But, white attire was discovered to reflect light, and within the 1950s, the change was made to green.

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