Effect of Wearing Shoes by Medical and Nursing Staff in PICU/NICU and Bacterial Contamination of Floors

Policy of wearing protective footwear or removing shoes while entering intensive care units (ICU) is enforced in most of the hospitals to curtail the spread of infections. (1) Some of the developed countries of the world have done away with this practice. Present study was a prospective one, carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital of north India over a period of one year and an eye opener results were obtained. No difference was found in the floor contamination with and without shoes in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).