Prospective Nail Polish Study
Condition: Bacterial Growth
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      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.
    

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.
    

Intervention name(s): Gel Polish
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): One hand of a subject with receive nail polish to compare bacterial growth between hands with gel nail polish to those without.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research