Prospective Nail Polish Study (Nail Polish)

Do Healthcare Personnel Wearing Non-chipped, Gel Nail Polish Harbor Increased Nail Bacterial Counts in Comparison to Healthcare Personnel Without Nail Polish

This is an randomized, prospective study utilizing volunteers from the anesthesia department at Geisinger Medical Center (GMC). Subjects' hands will be randomized 1:1 using statistical software to determine which hand will receive the gel polish using proportional stratified random sampling. The glove juice method will be used to measure hand bacterial counts to determine whether or not hands with nail polish harbor more bacteria than hands without polish. In addition, all subjects will fill out an employee satisfaction survey related to their satisfaction at work at the beginning of the study as well as at the end of the study.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Bacterial Growth
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Gel Polish

Detailed Description

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 12
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Danville, Pennsylvania, United States, 17821
      • Geisinger

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 100 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Geisinger employee
• ≥18 years of age
• Able and willing to provide consent
• Works as a Anesthesiologists, Anesthesia resident physicians or Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA))

Exclusion Criteria:

• Hospital employees in the anesthesia department that are not involved in direct patient contact (Anesthesia Technicians).
• Hospital employees that are under 18 years of age

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Left Hand with gel polish; The participants will receive gel nail polish on their left hand. The right hand will remain natural (no gel polish)	Other: Gel Polish; One hand of a subject with receive nail polish to compare bacterial growth between hands with gel nail polish to those without.
Experimental: Right Hand with gel polish; The participants will receive gel nail polish on their right hand. The left hand will remain natural (no gel polish).	Other: Gel Polish; One hand of a subject with receive nail polish to compare bacterial growth between hands with gel nail polish to those without.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Rate of hand bacterial growth in natural nails and polished nails	To compare the rate of growth of bacteria found on the hands with natural nails versus nails with gel polish.	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Geisinger Clinic
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Rebecca Hoffman, MD, Geisinger Physician

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 11, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 21, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): March 24, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 20, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 20, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): January 6, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 8, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 7, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2021-0810

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No