I'm sure most people just thought he was an idiot for thinking scrubs were pajamas. Don't be embarrassed OP. It's him who should be.

quite possibly but said stranger was instead interested in the pajamas than bacteria.. I'd be surprised if he even knows what bacteria is.

I honestly thought it was policy in hospitals to remove them at the end of a shift due to contamination and they are then laundered by the hospital too ... I work in a lab and during study for work they always mention lab coat removal etc after a shift in medical labs.... I can't really confirm that happens though as my lab is not medical. I would have thought it was the same if not stricter in hospitals. Maybe op is a vet and that's less strict?

I thought the same as mentioned by #13. I think it may depend on where you work. I know a receptionist at a hospital who sits at a desk all day and doesn't come in contact with patients except via phone or computer, and yet her uniform wear requires scrubs. In this case it'd probably be safe to wear in public.

In general, clothes used in hospitals shouldn't be worn outside of it, this includes scrubs, coats, shirts, pants, shoes and other clothes one might wear. To be honest, you don't need to be that strict, specially if your sector doesn't deal with contagious diseases very often (like an OR). Common sense should prevail though, any contact with blood or other biohazardous materials warrants a trip to the hospital laundry asap.

Sometimes, but sometimes not. My mom is a dialysis nurse, and she wears her scrubs all the way home and wherever she stops in between. But to be honest, do you think anyone is going to catch kidney failure from her scrubs?

My sister is a nurse at one of our local hospitals, they don't have a clothing removal rule. She wears her scrubs home. She works in the ER. I have a cousin who works in another local hospital, whatever floor needed, same thing, no rule. She used to work in a nursing home and wasn't required to change, even when covered in human ANYTHING. Some scrubs have antimicrobial fibers woven in. And most are coated to keep them ick free.

I wear scrubs at my job. I'm only a DSP who works with the mentally handicapped so I don't usually have contaminated scrubs at the end of my shift, I just prefer wearing scrubs to my job rather than my own personal clothes.

It can also depend what he doctors were doing. If they were interacting with someone that had a viral or bacterial illness then they would most likely remove it at the hospital. If on the other hand they were dealing with people that had had something like a heart attack (something not caused by bacteria or viruses), then they may be less pressured to remove them immediately

I volunteer at my local hospital regularly, and while most people I know will change back into their regular clothes before they go home, there's no rule about it. There might be any number of reasons to keep your scrubs on when you leave, just yesterday one of the nurses spilt hot coffee down her front about 30 minutes before the end of her shift, so she changed into a clean pair which she obviously had no need to change out of after only being worn for such a short time. Also as other people have stated, just because you wear scrubs doesn't mean you're exposed to anything unhygienic. For example, I spend a few hours each week as a 'cuddler' in the NICU, for which I wear scrubs. Hugging babies doesn't encourage much bacteria growth, neither does sitting behind a desk or honestly, dealing with patients that don't have any kind of contagious illness (like mental health issues, or physical problems like broken bones or muscle damage).

Yes but hospitals aren't the only places that use scrubs. She could have been working in a dentist office or a nursing home and it is less likely to have anything on them. When you go through nursing school or cna training they teach you methods to keep germs off your scrubs so to not transfer them from room to room though.

she could also be a dentist

Some hospital provide scrubs that are laundered and some do not. My hospital does not, I do wear my clothes home and take them off as soon as I get home. I try very hard not to go from the hospital and then errands, it's happened 1 or 2 times when I've forgotten a change of clothes, I just try not to touch too many things or get too close to people where they would brush up against me. I myself am likely to have the same bacteria on my skin or so on that could infect people, but I still try to make it a point.

it depends on where you work in the hospital and whether or not your scrubs came into contact with any bodily fluid or other biohazard like for example, a blood, urine, or stool sample and or other human material. otherwise scrubs should be completely covered when dealing with infectious individuals.

Yup it is.

Depends on where they're working. Not all nurses take care of contagious diseases or anything.

OP wearing scrubs doesn't necessarily mean they came from a hospital. Some spas require their reception staff to wear scrubs. Not just spas either, chiropractic offices, dentist offices, even some vet offices, etc. So until the OP has clarified where they came from we can't just assume they came from a hospital.

I've worked in my local hospital for years. The only department with this rule is OR. They have to change into different scrubs every time they come back to the OR room so as not to contaminate the patient. But the rest of the hospital does not have a change rule. Most are personal scrubs and the company that runs the facility will not pay for personal scrubs to be laundered.

I'm employed at a veterinary clinic.

Depends. If you’re performing or assisting a surgery you’re required to wear proper PPE, which is sterile and is disposed after the procedure. If you’re a CNA or even a RN and a patient projectile vomited on you... well, there’s not much you can do other than wipe down unless you brought a spare set of scrubs.