Medical Scrubs: A History

So many medical professionals buy scrubs either online or offline. For those who are unaware of what scrubs are, these are shirts, gowns, or trousers that are worn by surgeons, nurses, and other professionals in hospitals or operating rooms. Sometimes, these garments are referred to “Theatre Blues,” but over the past few years, these surgical scrubs have progressed farther from the operating rooms and have become a recognized attire for any person in a medical facility.

Compared to the uniforms that nurses have been wearing for a long time, surgeons actually did not wear any specialized uniform or garment until sometime during the 20th century. At this time, surgical procedures were being performed in an operating theatre, and the surgeon wore nothing else but his or her street clothes plus a regular apron to protect him or her from blood spatters and blood stains. To add to the gory picture, they often operated bare-handed and used non-sterile supplies and instruments. Sometimes the gut and silk sutures were even sold as reusable and the needles were hand-threaded as well. On top of that, the packing gauze that was used was created out of the sweepings taken from floors of cotton mills!

But today, surgery entails cleanliness of the utmost priority with everything sterilized – right up to the scrubs. Medical scrubs that are being used during surgical procedures must undergo the toughest laundry detergents to make sure that it is sterile, and on top of that, surgeons rarely own the scrubs because it needs to stay in the hospital so that there is little chance of bringing germs to and from the hospital.

Still, other scrub suits can be worn outside of the operating room. Just not the ones that are being used in the operating rooms. In most hospitals, the said operating room scrubs are kept in a certain area that goes into wash as soon as the doctors take them off. This is just a precaution that has been followed ever since the scrubs for surgery have been created.