Prospective Nail Polish Study

The study is recruiting Geisinger employees who are 18 years old that work as Anesthesiologists, Anesthesia resident physicians, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) in the anesthesia department involved in direct patient care. The study duration will be one month (30 days). On day zero, participants' baseline hand bacteria counts will be measured for each hand via the glove juice method. Subsequently, after participants' hands have been randomized into the painted and unpainted groups, they will receive a manicure on either their left or right hand. In other words, if a patient's left hand is randomized into the painted group, then that hand will be painted, and the right hand will be left unpainted, and vice versa. All participants will then be seen on days 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 to have both hand's bacterial counts measured.

On study day zero, all subjects will meet at a designated Geisinger Medical Center location and will be asked to fill out a work satisfaction survey. Then, before the subjects' hands are randomized into painted and unpainted groups, each of their hands' baseline bacteria counts will be measured using the glove juice method.

Measuring hand bacteria counts with the glove juice method:

Prior to performing the glove juice method to obtain hand bacteria counts, participants will be asked to wash their hands with soap and water. Participants will then place their hands into regular, non-sterile gloves. The premade broth for the glove juice method will then be placed into both gloves. The study group administrators will then place an elastic around both subject's wrists so that the juice does not spill out of the gloves. Hands will be gently massaged for one minute. Then, for each gloved hand, a pipet will remove some of the juice and this will be sent to the laboratory to determine the juice bacterial counts (log10CFU). The bacterial counts will be recorded on that particular subject's Bacterial count form and later entered into REDCap. After recording the specimens will be discarded.

All subjects will then return on days 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28. The study administrators will directly record whether or not there are any chips on the nails of the hands in the nail polish group and record their findings on the subject's bacterial count sheet. All subjects will have the glove juice method previously described performed again. Juice specimens obtained on each date will be sent to the laboratory and bacterial counts recorded on the bacterial count sheet and later entered into REDCap.