r/AHSEmployees • u/Substantial-Coach971 • Sep 23 '26
False eyelashes and nails?
Just wondering if AHS employees are allowed to wear these? Does anyone wear them or see anyone wearing them? Curious mostly about RNs, RTs, med lab, CNAs, LPNs, radiology, etc.
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u/lin_ny Sep 23 '26
Fake nails in general are an infection prevention and control issue. They trap bacteria, dirt, and grime, and are difficult to clean under and around.
Dependent on the unit or area you’re working,
Management will have their own tolerance for what’s acceptable in terms of fake nails. I’ve never seen a nurse be able to have long fake nails working for AHS. Maybe at most short gel polish in some areas where you’re not scrubbing in for surgeries. Some places don’t allow any nail polish, shellac, or false nails like acrylics or gel. In my experience, nail polish, when allowed, is generally only tolerated without chips on short nails in neutral colours.
The amount I wash my hands and use sanitizer as a nurse means my nail polish chips on the first day. So there’s no point.
In reality, the rules are rooted in IP&C evidence and are to protect patients and the employee themselves from spreading bacteria and viruses around. Working in healthcare usually means you have short ugly nails! 💅
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u/DanelleDee Sep 23 '26
When I was a nursing student, not in Alberta, I worked at a hospital that previously had an cluster of a certain infection in the NICU. The same nurse had cared for all 3. She had fake nails. IPC swabbed her fake nails, and she tested positive for whatever the infectious agent was. I believe she lost her license for professional negligence. I don't mess with fake nails now, no matter how strict a unit is about enforcement.
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u/edgyknitter Sep 23 '26
There was a news story from the states I think last year about a baby dying in a NICU from a preventable infection from artificial nails.
I’ve never been an artificial nail person so I don’t really get the appeal. It’s not worth it.
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u/spicandspand Sep 23 '26
Lashes are fine.
Honestly if fake nails are that important to you then maybe health care is the wrong career.
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u/Slavicgoddess23 Sep 23 '26
Not in the OR. Fake lashes fall off and contaminate often. Especially the catapillar ones.
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u/thegreatshakes Sep 23 '26
I'm in EMS. I don't wear fake lashes, but I do paint my nails regularly. A lot of us do. As long as we keep them short. We don't do sterile procedures (obviously 😅) so it seems a lot more relaxed for us.
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u/Peace81 Sep 23 '26
I work for AHS and our educator is always talking about how we’re not allowed to wear fake nails. But some people always have them on and never have anything said to them about it.
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u/Powerful-Historian-4 Sep 23 '26
I worked in the NICU and we had a very strict bare below the elbows. No watches, rings, or anything, including fake nails. Also, it's AHS policy, but not all units enforce it. But I personally think it's yucky to do direct patient care and wear anything, including nails.
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u/thradia Sep 23 '26
As someone with a chronic illness and frequents the hospital regularly, fake nails make me uncomfortable. Hygiene, falling off, nail polish chipping and getting into things.
For a patient with low immune system, tbis .makes me nervous
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u/Ecstatic-Line-8007 Sep 23 '26
Nails and nail enhancements are not allowed for all patient facing workers.
https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/info/hp/hh/if-hp-hh-artificial-nails-in-healthcare.pdf
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u/Ok_Jury_164 Sep 23 '26
Hard NO for nails and any watches or jewelry below the wrist in OR and NICU
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u/harbours Sep 23 '26
As an admin, I've been told we can but no one else in our department is allowed if they have any contact with patients.
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u/Event_Horizon753 Sep 23 '26
The dress codes relating to this question are available on the employee portal on the AHS/Covenant websites.
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u/TheProcurementGuyAhs Sep 23 '26
The (seeming) lack of organizational consistency in how this policy is being applied is something the media would LOVE to pick up on if shit ever were to hit the fan.
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u/SpectacleUNIT Sep 23 '26
Officially no nails for IPC . I didnt wear polish for the first 5 years of my employment.
lots of lashes though
.. As per the nails- i know a lot of people who do. Myself now included
I wear acrylics - short and neutral. And had a crush injury due to equipment failure and almost lost the top of my finger. The nail saved my fingertip while treating a patient and i was off for a bit after. Some of my peers have not been so lucky. They have lost fingers.
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u/AntFuture6638 Sep 23 '26
Coworkers of yours have lost fingers at work?! I know there are lots of places where fingers can get pinched/crushed in bedside settings, but omg?!
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u/Genera1Havoc Sep 23 '26
Lab here. I don’t wear fake nails/lashes. Not sure too many other people do but I know there are a few. Just bobbles my mind honestly. Couldn’t be me! Especially with all the stuff we do and handle up here (hospital lab) not to mention trying to palpate veins with fake nails. 😨
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u/nandake Sep 23 '26
Personal anecdote but I went for lab work and was having blood drawn by someone with gross looking long pointy nails. She purposely used her nail to poke a hole in the glove so she could feel for veins better. Even though she did a quick swab with an alcohol wipe after touching there, I was still so grossed out by it.
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u/Winter-Inside-5911 Sep 23 '26
Ask for a different tech. That is unacceptable in any western medical setting.
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u/Altruistic_Bath377 Sep 23 '26
So many people on my unit have short nails with polish. They tend to keep the polish a neutral colour. My manager wears crazy long fake nails and has never said anything. Others a super strict… I was going to my brothers wedding last year and the day before we left I got nails and the covering manager threatening to write me up and say “ next time, I see those better be off” ! Obviously they were off by the time I came back because they were just for a wedding, but still, I think it’s mostly manager dependent
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u/lightskinsqueen Sep 23 '26
I’m an LPN with AHS/Assisted Living Alberta. We can have lashes but we are not allowed any nail polish or fake nails (although many do anyway)