I get my nails done every couple of weeks and right now they are pink, my mom told me that when she was in the hospital having me (many moons ago) that they made her take her nail polish off to monitor the color underneath her finger nails to make sure she was getting proper oxygen. I was just wondering if this is still widely practiced or if things have changed in the past 24 years? Thanks!
The nurses don't look at the color, but the pulse-ox-ometer (the thing that clips on your finger) doesn't work to monitor your oxygen if you have nail polish on, so they will typically make you take it off that finger. Some hospitals only do this if you have a c-section, and some make you do it no matter what way you deliver.
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I think it depends on where you go. I work in surgery so I deal with pulse ox's on a daily basis.. For the most part, we don't remove nail polish or make anyone take it off unless it seems to be causing problems with the pulse ox... which in most cases, it doesn't. And now that I think about it, we have two other hospitals around here as well that don't make ppl take it off.. As long as the pulse ox seems to be getting a good signal, our patients don't get made to remove polish.
I'm a mother-baby nurse. We never make people take off their nail polish. We do have nail polish remover pads in the stock room if we ever needed to, but personally in 7 years, I've never seen it be an issue.
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The pulse ox should be able to read your pulse and oxygen levels through nail Polish, unless its like black or dark blue or another really dark color. That's what I was told when being taught about it at school for medical assistant.
Re: Nail polish at the hospital