In the last couple years I have noticed something how english people (UK) treats uniforms and this bothers me very much. I will try to explain why.

When I was working in the McDonald's (not proud of it, but it was also me), every day I went to work in my normal clothes, and changed at the workplace to my uniform. At the end of the day, I changed back, went home, and ironed another shirt for the following day.

But let me take you back even more to our evil Socialistic era. It was around the late 80-ies. In the School we had to wear uniform, but not so fancy one than in England, it was mainly just a cape (we looked ridiculous, everybody hated that). It was not allowed to be dirty. You could even be sent home if it was dirty. We always tried to keep it clean, and when we went home we took it off.

I was not the only one with this family example, pls comment if you had the same, but at home, we had clothes for different reasons. We had: outside clothing, and inside clothing. We did not mix these. Coming home from school, we changed into our inside clothing, so we could freely play in the house, or do our business, knowing that our clothes are clean, and not bringing in any dirt from the street/garden/school/work, etc. When we left the house, we dressed to our outside clothing, (which was also kept in clean and tidy) and went out. That was the rule. We were not allowed to lay on the bed wearing our outside clothing, as it could be dirty. We were not allowed to even play in our room in our outside clothes, because of the same reason. It was easy and simple.

School Uniform

When I was in the UK first in 2003 as an aupair, I realized my english family did not follow the same rule, but let me tell you, I have not seen anybody who would did the same. In the house we were living in, people were allowed to go in wearing their SHOES. The parents came home from work, and dropped themselves on the sofa to watch tv, and did not change their clothes. (I guess they believed I am an idiot, when I changed after I got home) The Kids went to school in their uniform, came home dirty, then without changing they went to play in their dirty school uniform, which they wore until bath/sleep time.

The playground was full of school uniform wearing kids after school. The school ended at 15:00, and even 17:00-18:00 you saw every kids on the street in school uniform. Of course the uniform supply was not so much for them at home, therefore they wore the same clothes for more days of the weak. Me as an eastern-european I thought it was disgusting. The reason why these kids were wearing their uniform was only laziness to change their dresses, not lack of the clothes at home. They had many clothes. More than I ever had.

Karate

Taking the girl from the family to Karate lesson in the afternoon, she dressed up to her Karate Gi (white clothes) and walked across the city with me, dressed up as a karate "warrior". Without any shame. And the funny thing, that you could see many children in that time of the day wearing karate uniforms, and walking in the city.

I was doing Karate myself too, years ago, and we were thought that your uniform has to be respected. There was a proper way even to fold them, and wrap them up with the belt, what our master has checked after each training session. So there could not happen for anyone to come to the session wearing their uniform already on the streets. Dressing up into this uniform had also a proper way, like a ceremony.  He/she would have been punished for doing that. We tried to follow all the japanese rules and habbits during karate, and it included the treatment of your uniform too.

Hospital Uniform

In A Hospital in Hungary, all the doctors are wearing white cape, even our GPs. Here in the UK, GPs are wearing regular clothes (from home), which they come to work in, and they go home. Expecting some kind of steril enviroment in the office, I am really shocked of this behaviour. In Hungary the cape of the doctors are white and clean, so at least you have the believe you are in good hands.

There is a joke: "How do you recognize the fireman on the street who has a day off? - You don't :D"

And why? .... In the UK you can recognize nurses on the street. How? Because they come to work and go home in their nurse uniform, even wearing their name tag!!!

Every morning I see nurses outside of the hospital, sitting on the ground smoking (!!!) WTF? They are sitting on the ground, having conversations, drinking coffee, smoking, etc. Or if they don't sit on the ground, they lean against the wall. In THEIR UNIFORM.

Let me tell you something: nurses are helping out doctors, treat patents. Changing bandages. How clean can they be to do this with an ill, wounded patient, if they were sitting on the ground minutes ago? How many germs stucks on their uniform and how much of them gets into the open wound, doing bandage changing? This is just common sense people. Nurses are working in an enviroment should be steril and free from any germs and bacteria. But this behaviour does not help, even make the situation worse.

Travelling on the public transport. All the media, newspapers are telling how many germs, bacteria mixes up on the public transport, and they all tell to wash your hands, etc after travelling. These nurses are travelling in their uniform to work, using the bus seats, then I do not have to describe the whole procedure how these germs gets to the patens with weak health.

And how it works in Hungary?

Uniforms in the hospital are only worn there. The hospital even had their own laundry to clean these clothes properly to make them steril. You do not see anybody wearing hospital uniform on public transport. You can not tell on a bus who is nurse and who is not.

UK is struggling maybe the highest level of the MRSA infections in Europe. Superbugs are spreading in hospitals and elderly homes. One of my friend was asked to treat an old man who had MRSA, without wearing rubber gloves. She refused to treat him with this condition. Almost got herself fired. If an MRSA infections shows up in a Hospital in Hungary, the national Disease and Virological Organization is locking up the whole department and clean it until it is steril to stop spreading MRSA. In the UK, somehow people accept it existance. MRSA can exist in an elderly home without any problem, and it seems to be a natural way of life. There are campaigns here to teach doctors to wash their hands before any treatment. WTF? Did they not wash their hands previously? I was tought to do it when I was 5.

But what can you expect if the nurses/doctors can not keep so simple things like these? How will you be able to stop MRSA or any superbug in the future? Being clean and tidy are very important. Not just in the hospitals, but in our every days.

Eastern-Europe is being constantly critisized by english people. I have been called dirty Eastern-European a couple times. In my friends, we all experienced many degrading things against us, just because Eastern-Europe is shown to Western-Europe as a dark place somewhere in Mongolia. But you should just check the MRSA statistics to decide who has more sceletons in the closet.