Skin changes in geriatric nurses prior to training heralding a particular risk of hand dermatitis.

Irritant skin changes are a well known problem in nursing services. Especially geriatric nurses often complain of hand dermatitis, most likely induced by frequent washing and hand disinfections. In this cohort study, demographic data and skin changes from 521 nurse trainees were recorded. The data of geriatric nurse trainees (n = 149) were compared to that of other nurse trainees (n = 372), mostly of surgery, internal medicine, pediatric and obstetrics. Geriatric nurse trainees were significantly older and had noticeably severer irritant skin changes at the start of the training. Geriatric nurse trainees were more often undergoing retraining, because they had other jobs before. Interestingly, some nurses performed the retraining because they had problems with hand dermatitis in their previous job. More education concerning the risk of irritant dermatitis in health care occupations is desirable, not only for the starting nurse but also for the employment offices.