Bare Below the Elbows: Professionalism vs Infection Risk

Abstract

In September 2007 the Department of Health (DH) published a document entitled Uniforms and workwear: An evidence base for developing local policy. This report tackled the issues of wearing and appropriately laundering workwear in an effort to advise employers when creating their local policy. It was based on two literature reviews carried out by Thames Valley University known as TVU1 and TVU2. These studies looked at the evidence surrounding the role of uniforms in the transmission of infection (TVU1), the efficacy of laundry practices in removing contamination (TVU1) and how public perception of both the individual and the organisation is altered by uniforms (TVU2).